Cornwall Council has developed a Town Economic Vitality Index to help assess the needs of communities in Cornwall. This offers a unique insight into economic challenges at town level.
The Index, with other local knowledge, will inform future funding opportunities.
Background
The Town Centre Revitalisation Fund (TCRF) was launched in response to the Vitality of High Street Inquiry.
The aim is to support Cornish towns to reposition themselves for future investment opportunities.
The need for a town economic index arose from the Grimsey Review and Cornwall Council’s aims to support town centres.
The need was also endorsed through our engagement with partners in the private and public sectors.
The index fits with the two Government papers below;
These outline Government plans to tackle regional and local inequalities across the UK.
The Index will help to inform discussion and strategy around development of towns and places in Cornwall.
Cornish Index Development
25 towns were selected for inclusion in the Index eligible for Town Vitality Funding (which forms the first strand of the TCRF).
Of these 25 towns, 22 are in the index due to availability of like-for-like data at a town level.
Data is more readily available for towns above a population size of 3,500.
There is further explanation of the thresholds used to gather data for this index in the FAQ section of the Index document, linked below.
Based on the available data and relevance to town vitality, 12 indicators were selected for inclusion in the index.
For each of these indicators, the 22 towns are scored from highest to lowest performing against each indicator. These rankings are then used to calculate a total score for each town. Page 4 of the index outlines how to read and interpret the data for each town.
This data will be used as part of the intelligence used to match intervention to need and not in isolation.
Cornwall Council recognises the unique qualities of each of our local communities.
This Index is a tool to help identify specific town interventions based on a range of indicators. The index will evolve in the future as new and relevant data becomes available.
