CONTEXT & PLACE

With a growing population approaching 268,000, a real economic output of £6.97 billion and a workforce of 118,702 jobs, Plymouth is the most significant urban area on the South West peninsula. A further 100,000 people live within the city’s travel-to-work area.

Plymouth is an ambitious city with huge growth potential. Home to the largest naval base in Western Europe, with investments of over £1 billion having secured submarine and nuclear work for the next 70 years, the marine and defence sector accounts for 20% of the city’s GVA, 18.1% of total employment and over 19,000 jobs.

However, with a renewed national focus on defence the dockyard is now primed for further growth and investment in the coming years that will require a significant increase in workforce and skills provision.

The city also has the highest concentration of manufacturing employment on the south coast of Britain with over 14.6% of Plymouth’s jobs being in the manufacturing industry, far exceeding the 8.3% national average.

As a centre of excellence for marine autonomy, science and manufacturing, Plymouth has a unique set of competitive advantages on which to build upon in its transition to a more competitive and thriving knowledge based economy with a focus on autonomy, robotics and AI.

The construction sector is also a priority for the city with an already strong pipeline of 10,000 construction jobs demonstrating the city’s growth potential and commitment. However, with significant work already underway at the multi-billion pound dockyard redevelopment, a major hospital renovation underway, and a city commitment to a significant housebuilding programme to support growth the sector is one needing an increase in skilled workforce.

Plymouth also has a growing cluster of innovative life science companies utilising the area’s technology infrastructure, resulting in a healthy mix of established and emerging companies across medical device and diagnostics, biologics and biotech, contract research organisations and pharmaceuticals.

Derriford hospital is a large teaching hospital with 48,000 patients per week and the University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust is the largest hospital trust in the South West Peninsula.

We have a significant volume of job vacancies, high volumes of economic inactivity and a skills deficit set against a picture of strong growth sectors and strong demand for high level skills, particularly in marine, defence, manufacturing and engineering, health and care, construction and the built environment.

The significant skills gaps and shortages are particularly in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) sectors, which accounts for nearly 60% of all jobs in the city, with a skills need for 5,500 people over the next ten years (1,800 entry level jobs and 3,700 experienced workers) for the Dockyard alone, and an additional 4,250 construction workers needed by 2027.

Plymouth ranked as the 64th most deprived local authority district in England (of 317 LAs). The summary measure places Plymouth within the 20% most deprived local authority districts in England. 13.2% of Plymouth residents (34,432) live in the 10% most income deprived areas nationally. Of these, two of the LSOAs are in the most deprived 1% for income nationally which relates to 4,119 residents.

Health and disability is a particular issue with 62,575 residents in the most deprived 10% for this measure covering 23.9% of the Plymouth population. There are varied health outcomes for residents with life expectancy over four years lower in some of the most deprived areas of the city compared to the least deprived group of neighbourhoods.

Average full-time weekly earnings in Plymouth are £718-£148 £718 – £148 less than the national average of £866.

Despite recent increases, Plymouth’s average annual gross pay remains more than £4,600 below the national average of £36,200. There is also a significant gender imbalance in the city with male full-time weekly earnings in 2022 at £722 per week compared to female full-time weekly earnings of £641 per week.

Recent figures from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation showed that 31% of children in Plymouth in 2024 were living in poverty – up from 29% in 2014/15 and above the figure for England of 30%.

This was the highest figure in at least eight years, and some wards continued to experience children in poverty levels in excess of 35%.

Plymouth has high levels of economic inactivity. Around 41,300 people or 25.1% of the population aged 16 to 64 years in Plymouth were “economically inactive” in the year ending December 2023.

Comparatively, the percentage of people aged 16 to 64 years economically inactive across the South West was at 19.1% and in Great Britain this was 21.2%. In terms of Plymouth, there is a higher proportion of economically inactive residents due to long term sickness.

Residents suffering from long term sickness accounts for 35% of economically inactive residents in Plymouth. In comparison, the national average is 25.8%.

In 2022 there were 500 young people (aged 0 to 17 inclusive) in care, with 187 aged 14 to 17 and a further 180 young people aged 18 to 20, and 82 aged 21 to 24. At 91 per 10,000 children, Plymouth had more looked after children than the South West (56) and England (67) average. This had risen from 78 per 10,000 in 2019, showing how the pandemic has impacted this age group.