Time to start the recovery

The announcement of the closure of the JTI factory at Lisnafillan has come as a great shock to employees, the local community and wider Northern Ireland society. Despite the threats of EU Regulations which would severely impact on the particular production at the plant and the ongoing growth of cigarette smuggling no-one really believed that such a large multinational could be forced out, not only of Northern Ireland but bringing to an end cigarette production in the United Kingdom. Clearly the impact of these threats has been much greater than expected. For the employees there is the knowledge that the first redundancies will not take effect until May 2016. In that lies a significant challenge for Government at all levels, how do we provide the support for employees to take advantage of any new employment opportunity that may arise including retraining? How do we create the circumstances to attract new major employers to the region? How do we reduce the burdens on existing businesses to ensure the sustainability of those businesses? At the heart of this closure lies nearly 1000 people directly impacted by the loss of employment, £60 million in wages lost to the local economy which will have knock on effects on the sustainability of other businesses, 230 SME’s which had contracts worth £30 million which will be hard to replace and a realisation that recovery will take a long time. Realistically the challenge will be keeping the issue top of the agenda, Invest NI has particular targets in job creation, the NI Executive has competing demands for investment across Northern Ireland and once the shock has receded Ballymena will slip down the priority list. Unless of course there is an integrated vision of the opportunity that Ballymena and the wider Mid and East Antrim can portray, we must make sure this area is the destination of choice for major investors. With some of the best transport links in Northern Ireland to air, sea and road networks Ballymena has much to offer. The skills readily available in the local workforce are transferable and the early commitment to assist in retraining by Government must be followed up on. There is certainly more that can be done to promote investment, economic development zones designed to encourage start up business could be established, the new council when creating local development plans could ensure a rapid planning process for investors, greater investment in research and development for those locating in Ballymena as an incentive and marketing the opportunities available at home and abroad. The time to grieve for what is lost must, by necessity, be short, the emphasis must now be on mitigating those losses within the next few years.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The threat to the Union

Unionism is facing its own existential crisis and must learn how to come to terms with it. Put simply the Democratic Unionist Party represent a clear threat to the very union they purport to uphold. In May 1974 then Prime Minister Harold Wilson used the term “spongers” to describe unionists involved in the UWC strike. Today it is a term that many in the rest of the UK would apply to what the DUP consider robust negotiations.   Losing the goodwill of our fellow UK citizens at a time when Northern Ireland’s position in the UK is the principle barrier to many achieving the Brexit they aspire to cannot be considered a strategic position to take. The DUP constantly refer to the principle of consent underpinned in the Belfast Agreement, an agreement they had no hand in, yet they miss the point that while people are free to make their own determination others are free to try and persuade them of one view or the other. Ignoring this point is central to the risks attached to their threa
Read more

Community Planning Theory and Practice

With the Review of Public Administration and the transformation of local government in Northern Ireland came a new power, that of Community Planning. The term taking power, rather than framing the process as taking responsibility, could allow some to argue that they are there to hold others to account. Such a view would limit a council's direct involvement in addressing issues at the same time as being flexible enough to both place blame where failures occur and take credit where positive actions happen. Community planning is intended to be transforming, not just in getting agencies and communities around the table but clearly identifying where resources can be applied to greater effect. A reduction in duplication, an increase in early detection of problems and strategic intervention to deliver a better outcome for all. Each agency has its own agenda, its own budget and targets, a thread which runs through peoples lives. If each thread runs parallel to every other thread without
Read more