Involve: Where does your money go?

Where does your money go?

What we're doing

Kirklees Council is currently working in partnership with the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) on a piece of research exploring the impact the Council’s spending power brings for the local economy. As part of the research, we are examining the contribution employees of the Council make to the local economy through their spending in shops and upon services.

When we're doing it?

Between 16-Jul-2018 and 29-Jul-2018

We will be

Asking for information

Themes

Customer experiences
Events, leisure and culture
Health, wellbeing and lifestyle
Housing

Where's it happening?

Across the whole of Kirklees:

More information on what we're doing

As part of the research we are asking Council employees to complete a short survey, providing estimates as to what they spend each month (individually) on a selection of activities, and the proportion of this which is spent in the local area.

CLES will be undertaking analysis of the data, which will be stored securely in line with GDPR. No individuals will be identified in the report.

Can anyone get involved?

Only selected groups

What happened?

We carried out a survey of Council employees which was completed by 285 people. The survey explored the extent to which the money spent by Kirklees Council on employee wages is re-spent by the employees back in the Kirklees economy, upon a range of activities, including shopping, transport, subscriptions, council tax (Kirklees resident employees only), and socialising.
In total, the 224 Kirklees Council employees who completed the survey and left information regarding their geography of residence re-spent £1,726,208 in the Kirklees economy, which is equivalent to 35p in every £1 they received in net salary from Kirklees Council. This is a broadly comparable figure to other cases where we have completed similar studies.

What difference did the work make?

As a result of the findings from the survey, the Council’s inclusive economy programme has subsequently embarked on a ‘keep it local’ campaign, part of which is to encourage both employees and residents to spend on a more local basis with retailers across the Kirklees district. The campaign started at the end of 2019 and unfortunately has been adversely impacted by Covid-19, which with the ensuing three lockdown phases has meant people have moved in far greater numbers to spending and purchasing goods online and local retailers have had to shut for long periods of time.

With the above actions and issues in mind, the outcome of boosting the local economy spend ‘keep it local’ campaign have not been realised to date. This work will need to be returned to once lockdown measures are eased and local retailers reopen.

Methods of involvement

Method	How	How many people	Start	End
Online	Online survey	tbc	16-07-2018	29-07-2018

Contact details

Name

David Bundy

Telephone

01484 221000

david.bundy@kirklees.gov.uk

Documents and links

- None available

Part of an organisation that's signed up to the Framework?

Project summary