Jobs claims by London City Airport shown to be highly inaccurate

17.11.2010   (From Stop City Airport Master Plan)

The great London City Airport jobs lie.

Newham Council says it has always supported London City Airport and its expansion.
They insist that it will bring jobs to Newham hence the green-light on expansion.

In reality nothing could be further from the truth.

According to the LCACC (London City Airport Consultative Committee)  http://www.lcacc.org/  website:

"The Airport seeks to ensure that at least 70% of the jobs at the Airport (including
its own employees) are filled by residents in the local labour catchment area
as defined in its 2009 Section 106 Planning Agreement (Newham, Tower Hamlets,
Hackney, Waltham Forest, Redbridge, Lewisham, Southwark, Barking and Dagenham,
Greenwich, Bexley, Havering and Epping Forest) including at least 35% filled by
residents of Newham."


So lets take a look at Newham where London City Airport is based and received
the go ahead for expansion.The big driver that the Mayor of Newham pushed to support
the expansion was jobs.

Before this current expansion proposal the Airport, under its Section 106, had to make sure 35% of all its jobs were
based in Newham.

In submission for the expansion the airport stated that it had 1,866 jobs meaning
that 35% or 654 of those should have been residents in Newham.

Well that wasn’t the case.  Year on year London City Airport failed to meet the
targets set out by the S106 guaranteeing jobs for Newham residents.

So if the airport want more expansion,you would think that Newham Council will
strengthen their hand and guarantee jobs.

Wrong.

Even after the continuous jobs failings Newham Council have actually WEAKENED
their jobs argument.

Instead of the  " at least 35% filled by residents of Newham"    Newham have agreed to the 2009 Section 106 Agreement stating that the airport
should "use reasonable endeavours to ensure that" the employment targets are met.

There is no guarantee that the airports expansion will create even  one Newham job.     In fact in their 2009 job statistics 477 reside in Newham.  (Not the 654 jobs
that there would be if  35% were from Newham – see above).  That’s 177 LESS than
was required BEFORE the expansion. (654 – 477 = 177)

London City Airport was questioned on the misleading , manipulated and downright
lies in their jobs figures.

Through London City Airport’s own press release (23.3.2010    http://vialondoncityairport.com/AboutUs/ViewRelease.aspx?id=1197     the airport claimed:  

"1 in 3 people working on-site at London City Airport live in the London Borough
of Newham and more than 2/3 live in boroughs within 5 miles"

At the time 2,007 people worked at the Airport.   That means that of the 1 in
3, 669 (35%) would be Newham residents.

Instead of the 669 Newham jobs it stated that there were 458 (which is 68% and
only 23% of 2,007).


So where was the missing 211 (12%) jobs?     (i.e. 669 minus 458 = 211     – the jobs needed to get up to the 669 figure, which
would be 35% of the total)


When questioned the airport  stated:

"The one in three figure used in this release accounts for a proportion of those
(Control Authorities) that do not provide their address information and rounding."

“Control Authorities” are police and customs officials based at London City Airport
and fully paid for by the taxpayer to the tune of £5.5 million a year.

London City Airport had 284 Control Authorities (police and immigration/customs
officers).   So what the Airport was now saying was that 211 of the 284 control
authority workers (74%)    were from Newham.

This figure is so unbelievable and unrealistic the airport was asked:

"Can you confirm for me that you are saying that 211 of the 284 control authority
workers (74%) are from Newham?"


What was more unbelievable was the answer.

"I cannot confirm the figure that you state.   As I have made clear we do not
have address details for every person working for the Control Authorities at London
City Airport"


So while the Airport claims in job figures that 211 (74%) Control Authority workers
live in Newham they have absolutely no proof.   They do not have their address
details.   The airport cannot therefore make realistic claims about how many live
within Newham.

We put in an FOI to the MET to find out the percentage but even they had no record
of the percentage in Newham.


So why the lies?

The airport concluded that the 211 were based in Newham so they can support their
false claim that 1 in 3 job are taken by Newham Residents.

And bear in mind these are not our figures – these are the airports own published
figures.

http://stopcityairportmasterplan.tumblr.com/post/1600910473/the-great-london-city-airport-jobs-lie
Comment by an AirportWatch member:
 
It makes no sense, and is bad planning policy, to impose a S106 condition that
cannot be monitored or enforced.   Stating that 35% of staff shall live in an area
is not enforceable.   What happens if a member of staff moves home?   Such a condition
should not have been added in the first place.