Paul Sissons

A Gendered Theory of Employment, Unemployment and Sickness

The high level of receipt of disability benefits in the UK was until the 1990s a problem predominantly affecting men. However, the number of women claiming—1.1 million—is now on a similar scale. The decline of heavy industry produced large numbers of men with ill health and limited alternative employment prospects who claimed disability benefits. However, this explanation is problematic for women, who have seen an expansion in employment. We set out a framework that reconciles the central importance of the level of labour demand in explaining worklessness with the paradoxical simultaneous rise of womens employment and receipt of disability benefits. Women claiming disability benefits are overwhelmingly located alongside male claimants in areas where heavy industry has declined, pointing towards linkages between the ‘male’ and ‘female’ sides of the labour market. Additionally, there may be raised knowledge and local acceptance of disability benefits in these locations.

The Changing Geography of Privately Rented Housing in England and Wales

Since the beginning of the 1990s, growth in privately rented housing in England and Wales began to reverse a prolonged period of decline. In high-cost housing areas the sector is increasingly acting as a stop-gap for those seeking to enter owner-occupation, while in less economically buoyant areas it is accommodating households who would previously have been more likely to live in social housing. This paper reveals that some of the strongest proportional growth in the sector has been in less prosperous areas where it has traditionally been under-represented and that the sector is housing an increasing proportion of economically inactive tenants. However, in key cities, particularly London, the sector’s growth has been influenced by increasing numbers of mobile workers and students. More recently, growth has been influenced by ‘buy-to-let’ mortgages, borrowing constraints and homeowners unable to sell.

Inclusive growth? The relationship between economic growth and poverty in British cities

There is growing concern in many developed economies that the benefits of economic growth are not shared equitably. This is particularly the case in the UK, where economic growth has been geographically uneven and often biased towards already affluent cities. Yet there is relatively little evidence on the relationship between growth and poverty in the UK. This article addresses this gap with an analysis of the links between economic growth and poverty in British cities between 2000 and 2008. We find little evidence that output growth reduced poverty. While growth was associated with wage increases at the top of the distribution, it was not associated with wage growth below the median. And there was no relationship between economic growth and the low skilled employment rate. These results suggest that growth in this period was far from inclusive.

The Geography of Wage Inequality in British Cities

Lee N., Sissons P. and Jones K. The geography of wage inequality in British cities, Regional Studies. There is widespread concern about the scale and implications of urban inequality in Great Britain, but little evidence about which cities are the most unequal and why. This paper investigates patterns of wage inequality in 60 British cities. It has two principal goals: (1) to describe which cities are most unequal; and (2) to assess the important determinants of inequality. The results show a distinct geography of wage inequality: the most unequal cities tend to be affluent and located in parts of the Greater South East of England. A central determinant of these patterns is the geography of highly skilled workers. Because of this, the geography of urban wage inequality reflects the geography of affluence more generally.

Local industrial strategy and skills policy in England: Assessing the linkages and limitations – a case study of the Sheffield City Deal

This paper examines changes in local economic development policy which occurred between 2010 and 2015, with a focus on the relationship between industrial strategy and skills policy. Under the Coalition Government, Local Enterprise Partnerships were established and tasked with facilitating local growth, and to do so many identified a set of (potential) growth sectors for industrial strategy to support. These sectors tended to be drawn from a relatively narrow range of industries which therefore often excluded a large proportion of the local economy. An important focus of the support for growth sectors for many has been through an ambition to influence the local skills system. Skills policy more broadly has been an important dimension of devolution, and a number of City Deals have included elements of skills policy. Echoing previous national policy however, the focus of local concerns with skills under devolution has been framed largely with reference to skills gaps and shortages. While specific skills gaps and shortages can be identified, this paper questions whether this default position is reflected widely, and as such, if a narrow focus on skills supply is a sufficient approach. It is argued that to support local growth across a broad base, greater attention needs to be paid to stimulating employer demand for skills through better integrating industrial and innovation policy with skills policymaking across a wider section of the local economy. To support these arguments we present a case study of the Sheffield City Deal.

Redefining ‘Fit For Work’: Welfare Reform and the Introduction of Employment Support Allowance

This chapter focuses on the introduction of Employment Support Allowance (ESA) as the primary sickness benefit in Britain. ESA represents a major shift in the sickness benefits system, and was introduced with the aim of lowering the number of claimants. This chapter draws on the findings from a major study of the introduction of the new system undertaken for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) by the authors while at the Institute for Employment Studies, Brighton, UK.

More than a match? Assessing the HRM challenge of engaging employers to support retention and progression

This paper considers employer engagement within a changing landscape of Active Labour Market Policy (ALMP). Employer engagement in ALMP has focused on supporting job entry for disadvantaged groups, through working with employers to attain changes on the demand-side, or using dialogue with employers to implement changes on the supply-side. Employer engagement in this model is orientated to a point in time: the job match. However ALMP policy in the United Kingdom is beginning to give greater emphasis to the sustainability of job entries and progression opportunities. This potentially creates a quite different set of expectations around employer engagement, and asks more of employers. Yet securing strong engagement from employers in ALMP has tended to be difficult. This paper examines the challenges that such a change in focus will have for existing models of employer engagement and on associated implications for HRM theory, policy and practices.

Do low-paid workers benefit from the urban escalator? Evidence from British cities:

Cities are characterised as places of increased human capital accumulation, dynamic labour markets and faster wage growth: in short, places where workers can get ahead. Studies suggest that urban workers can benefit from faster learning and from better job matching. This article assesses the extent to which cities act as escalators for workers in low-wage jobs using panel data from Great Britain covering the period 2009–2014. When defining low pay using a standard national wage threshold, workers in London, the largest city, are significantly more likely to make a transition from low- to higher-paid employment than workers in non-urban areas. However, the use of a national wage threshold to measure progression from low pay is sensitive to geographic variations in wage levels. When using an alternative, occupation-based definition of low pay there is little to no evidence of faster wage growth in London or other large British cities, suggesting that low-paid workers do not benefit significantly from faster learning or more efficient job matching in cities. The findings, once adjusted for differences in the wage distribution, fail to identify an urban escalator effect for those in low-paid employment, suggesting that there is a fairly consistent set of underlying factors shaping progression from low pay across geographies.

Inclusive growth in English cities: mainstreamed or sidelined?

ABSTRACT The concept of inclusive growth is increasingly presented as offering prospects for more equitable social outcomes. However, inclusive growth is subject to a variety of interpretations and lacks definitional clarity. In England, via devolution, cities are taking on new powers for policy domains that can influence inclusive growth outcomes. This opens up opportunities for innovation to address central issues of low pay and poverty. This paper examines the extent to which inclusive growth concerns form a central or peripheral aspect in this new devolution through the content analysis of devolution agreements. It concludes that inclusive growth concerns appear to be largely sidelined.

Changes in transitions from private renting to homeownership in the context of rapidly rising house prices

Abstract A period associated with the emergence of the current housing crisis in Britain provides a testbed in which to investigate household tenure choice in the context of rapidly rising house prices. We compile a bespoke data-set combining data from the British Household Panel Survey and sources of local and national housing and mortgage market information covering the period 1994–2008. During this period, we observe three key changes in behaviour associated with the emergence of the housing crisis: (i) increasing acceptance of long-term renting; (ii) the emergence of local house prices as a factor inhibiting entry to homeownership at district level; and (iii) the cessation of moving to a lower cost district as a strategy to enter homeownership. We interpret these findings as some private tenants reducing their aspiration for homeownership, and those seeking entry to homeownership shifting strategy from moving to cheaper districts in favour of staying put and saving.