The socio-economic impact of businesses in the railway arches
5.
Economic impact assessment
5.1
The businesses and organisations located in spaces managed by The Arch Company support a range of economic impacts. This section groups these impacts into:
● The ‘direct’ impacts within the commercial spaces themselves, such as the number of jobs supported, the corresponding economic activity, and the tax revenues this activity generates; and ● The ‘indirect and induced ’ impacts delivered elsewhere as a result of their operations in property managed by The Arch Company, such as the local spending by workers and supply chain impacts.
Direct economic impacts
Employment
5.2
The Arch Company portfolio provides space that in turn supports employment by businesses and organisations who use that space. The exact level of employment within the spaces operated by The Arch Company is not accurately known, and likely changes daily based on the working patterns of occupants. However, this section estimates employment by applying industry average employment densities split by the use type of space. Industry standard measures of the average density of workers supported per area of floorspace are applied to occupied space to calculate the number of FTEs within each space. 39 These figures are then converted into an estimated number of jobs (accounting for the fact that some workers work part-time) using industry averages for the level of part-time working. 40 This estimation process is repeated across each property in the portfolio to provide high level estimations of overall employment. The total quantity of employment supported by the portfolio is presented in Table 5.1 . As shown, the businesses and organisations currently operating in The Arch Company portfolio are estimated to support 25,600 FTEs, or 30,300 jobs once accounting for part-time working patterns. For reference, this is roughly equivalent to the total number of people employed across Europe by the company Shell, the largest company registered in the UK. 41 Table 5.1 also breaks down the 25,600 figure into broad groups, showing that the largest source of jobs is from industrial uses, a grouping that incorporates manufacturing, food and beverage production, and motor vehicle service and repair, amongst other industries. This category is closely followed by retail and leisure uses.
5.3
Table 5.1 – The largest share of FTEs supported is in industrial uses
Estimated FTEs supported in The Arch Company portfolio by use type
Use class
FTEs supported
Industrial
12,100
Retail
5,200
Leisure
4,300
39 For each space in The Arch Company portfolio, an estimated use class (retail and F&B, office, light industrial, general industrial, storage and distribution, and leisure) is applied based on the anticipated usage of the space, and then the employment density for the relevant use class is taken from the standards in Homes & Communities Agency, 2015. Employment Density Guide and CAG Consultants, 2022. London Employment Sites Database 2021.
40 Assuming 2 part-time employees = 1 FTE, then the density ratio is multiplied by ((1-(PT/2))/1), where PT is the share of part-time workers in an industry.
41 As of 2022, Shell PLC reports employing 30,000 workers in Europe. See Shell, 2023. Annual Report and Accounts 2022.
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