1. With the overall job growth forecast to 2040 established, the next task was to understand what the floorspace requirement for each of the economic sectors is. This was done by taking the latest information from Nomis (2019) on the industrial sectors and percentage of workers in each. Floorspace requirements were worked out using the Employment Density Guide (3rd Edition) produced by the Homes and Communities Agency in November 2015. This is set out in the Table below. All assumptions were made using the Employment Density Guide as a starting point - specifically the Employment Density Matrix on page 29 - this details how much space is required per employee. Any additional assumptions are set out in the Assumptions column.
   
   
2. The adopted Thanet Local Plan 2020 identified an employment floorspace need of 15 hectares to 2031 and subsequently land was allocated for 53.5 hectares to accommodate this. Reasons for the apparent oversupply are set out in the Council’s document Economic Development in Thanet (Employment Land Update and Economic Needs Assessment) July 2018 (page 53)
   
   
3. The purpose of this paper is to establish how much employment land should be planned for in Local Plan Review to 2040.
   
   
4. As part of the review further economic forecasting has been carried out by Kent County Council’s Analytics team. These forecasts project forward to the end of the new Plan period to 2040 and show that we need to plan for 11,600 jobs. These forecasts are housing led forecasts and years 2020 to 2040 are forecasts of what the population might look like if a given amount of dwellings are built. The forecasts take into account housing completions and housing requirements. They also take into account economic activity rates, commuting rates and unemployment scenarios (including the effects of the Covid 19 pandemic).
   
   
5. The sectors that potentially require floorspace on industrial/business parks are highlighted in the table below. This totals a maximum requirement of 18.14 hectares (ha). 

Employment Floorspace Need by Sector

6. Another conclusion that can be drawn from this exercise is that there is a large amount of floorspace that will potentially need accommodating within the district's town centres. This would suggest a need for generous town centre boundaries rather than a contraction.
   
   
7. This method assumes that the percentage of employees in the industrial sectors will remain the same to the end of the Plan period. It doesn’t take into account any growth sectors such as the creative industries and potentially any contraction of sectors. It also doesn’t take into account working at home which according to the ONS was as high as 26% recently for Thanet. This may change going forward.
   
   
8. The Council will seek to establish what impact these factors will have on the overall employment floorspace requirement and will compare this with past take up of employment land. However, notwithstanding this it would appear that the Council’s current employment land supply of 53.5 hectares from the adopted Thanet Local Plan 2020 is sufficient to accommodate the 18 hectares plus any adjustments.This is dependent on the remainder of the Manston Business Park allocation being deliverable within the Plan period as this accounts for approximately 42 hectares of the supply.
   
   
9. The Council are seeking any additional evidence on employment floorspace needed in order to robustly plan for all sectors to the end of the Local Plan period at 2040 and would welcome feedback on this.