Tom Pike said the council wants to see the expanded site progress in ways that create more opportunities for local people, as opposed to benefitting a section of the community with everyone else missing out.
“We’ve asked companies taking part in the delivery of [all] our Stevenage [regeneration] projects to work with North Herts College to try to get young people into construction jobs and a similar approach is required here. We are exploring options with the University of Hertfordshire, the College, and developers like Reef Group so that as life science jobs are created, we're able to connect [opportunities] with people in the local economy.
As a country, there’s no doubt it's been a challenging few years and will continue to be so. And it's the obligation of each local authority, in my view, to do what it can do to improve opportunities for local people and local businesses, to access these new jobs.
So having this cluster thriving and growing is crucial. That's why we've worked hard, not only to support this site, but looked at how to bring jobs and vibrancy into the town centre. I hope and expect the next few years to be challenging. The pace of development means we'll be working hard to try and keep up.”
It's the obligation of each local authority, in my view, to do what it can to improve its economic prospects. So having this cluster thriving and growing is crucial.
Adrian Hawkins OBE gained eight years of experience influencing the regional skills and employment agenda from owning that brief on the board of Hertfordshire LEP.
“I saw that residents were earning about 20% less than the people that work on the life science campus or other big sites such as Airbus, which has an HQ just down the road.
When we started talking to GSK, Airbus and others, we asked, what could be done? The employers said they need Level 3 qualifications and, unfortunately, a lot of our local people are stopping at Level 2.
So, it’s important to focus on the skill levels that are required because quite honestly, you can't be bringing these impressive companies into the UK and Stevenage in particular without helping bridge that gap.
In Stevenage we also need to get local people to aspire to work in these places and see the possibilities. There is a lot of effort going into that objective.”
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Reef regards skills as near the top of the agenda as occupiers require peace of mind around a sustainable supply of labour.
It’s absolutely critical, and there’s probably more we can do on in terms of joined up approach.
AstraZeneca, which moved within the UK to establish a next generation R&D centre in Cambridge, having vacated the Alderley Park site in Cheshire, has observed developments in Stevenage with interest.
Dan Mason, who has also worked at GSK in Stevenage earlier in his career, commented: “Stevenage feels very different to Oxford, Cambridge and London. Oxford and Cambridge have all that history of educational institutions but also strong links to hospitals with critical care facilities."
He felt upskilling local economies was very challenging and required a broad, long-term commitment.
“The University of Hertfordshire is important, and Stevenage is a great location, but I take on board the points about the need for investment in the town to pull it all together.”
Whilst Stevenage doesn't have academic blue sky research on its doorstep, it does have extensive commercial researchers and greater access to technicians and manufacturing expertise, which reflects the focus on translation and commercialisation. It consistently attracts employees from across the globe.
Emily Slupek countered that investment in skills may be less clear cut in more established science locations where there may be an element of resting on laurels.
“The Golden Triangle has been blessed with these incredible universities and there's an expectation that everything necessary just exists already.”
Annabel Lait of Saunders Architects reflected on the importance of physical connectivity with the local community.
We've looked at sites where planning applications have failed and in many cases it’s because developers are looking at the scheme in isolation. The focus is on maximising rentals, and how they can make it as lucrative as possible, but they actually need to think about unlocking the site. How do you draw people in?
Progressive life science developers, she said, understood that while security concerns are important on any site where scientific research and development is conducted, schemes could not be seen as separate from the community and off limits behind a fence. “Make sure there are community facilities available to everyone,” she suggested.
“If you include a café or a nursery, make sure it is available to everybody. Science parks are fascinating places that people want to go and visit, so there needs to be ways to access them. For us, that’s part of a whole conversation around developing communities, and when considered correctly it can make for a smoother ride through planning.”
Having science on show and providing those community spaces is interesting. At the University we encourage transparency in education, incorporating glass walls to showcase what goes on inside the classroom and lab spaces”
Annabel Lait further stressed the importance of being visibly sustainable and demonstrating that local materials and suppliers are being used.
Her practice also looked into the detail of transport plans and how access could be improved beyond the use of cars. “Is there a really an attractive and uplifting walk between the train and the workplace for employees?
That’s something we all might need at the end or beginning of the day.”
Tom Pike took the point and talked about plans to invest £1 million from the Towns Fund into cycle and walking connection between Stevenage train station and the GSK site.
He wanted to see a route to what is a major employment zone that felt comfortable for anyone worried about travelling at night alone. “Vibrant, light, safe” is the objective.
Giving any large scale employment site that is home to a disparate collection of people and organisations a sense of its own community has always come with challenges, and the bar was probably raised by the change in more working from home in the wake of the pandemic.
For the University, Ian Grimes said the changing culture had underlined the importance of informal spaces where the community can mingle.
“We call it our sticky campus. I certainly think you must create places to mingle and areas for discussion and debate.”
The Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst has a full-time member of staff working on community cohesion – a molecular biologist by background:
“He’s a scientist and entrepreneur, so he understands the community and they get him.” said Dr Sally Ann Forsyth OBE.
We always make sure that we ask the community what they want. It's not always what we think, and it changes through time as the companies get bigger. As you can imagine, people in early-stage businesses want to meet others, and we have things like an Entrepreneurs Club, with Chatham House rules. Others are more interested in a range of activities that might span social, professional development and training or finance events.”
David Rowsell of Morgan Sindall Construction had witnessed some of the events on the Stevenage site and was impressed by the level of support and engagement. He related the return on investment in social spaces and community activities back to the battle for talent, a challenge life science shares with many other sectors.
We got a sense of energy, a buzz in the air. In our own business we have prioritised making sure our working environments are a place where people want to be – a key issue.”