Colleagues in our Authority have developed an ‘economic impact assessment’ tool, which by entering information about a development proposal, comes up with estimates of the likely construction jobs the development will create, and also an estimate of jobs/economic impact of the development once operational. This will not be used in relation to the viability of projects, but merely to give an indication of the economic impacts of a development, in line with paras 18-20 of the NPPF. Has any other Authority used such a tool? If so, or if not, what benefits/drawbacks have been noted? We would intend to state the ‘results’ in delegated and Committee reports on proposals, in order to inform the decision process. Has anyone any experiences of such that they’d be prepared to share? I’m comfortable that the results can be a material consideration, but again if anyone has any thoughts they would be gratefully received.
