A key priority of the Camden Plan is to ensure that Camden’s residents and businesses are able to access the wealth of opportunity provided by inclusive growth in the borough. We use the planning process and Section 106 agreements (s106) to help deliver this by ensuring opportunities for affordable workspace, training, apprenticeships, work experience, local recruitment and procurement.
These benefits are secured through on-site provision by developers as well as through s106 financial contributions.
On-site provision - affordable workspace
Our planning policies protect employment premises and sites where they are suitable for business, and require a range of types and sizes of space to be provided. We ensure that affordable workspace is secured through s106 agreements. To date, over 7,000sqm of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) workspace has been secured at affordable rents (typically 50% of market rents) through s106 agreements.
Business Incubator at 103 Camley Street – Base KX
Base KX is a business incubator operated by a partnership between the Council, UCL and Camden Collective. Base KX is located at the ground floor of a student housing development in Camley Street, a stone’s throw from Kings Cross. The s106 agreement for the development set out the terms for providing a collaborative co-working space to support business start-ups at affordable rents. Subsequent agreements at 101 and 102 Camley Street secured space designed to provide move-on space for the businesses started up at Base KX.
Investing in employment and training
We seek s106 financial contributions from developments where appropriate to help fund training, apprenticeships and job brokerage opportunities, as well as other key economic development projects.
Through this, we have:
- received over £2.26m to support employment and skills in Camden in the last 3 years
- spent around £1.9m on such initiatives in the same time period
- £2.5m of planned expenditure on employment and training activities, including around £1m of projects committed for 2017/18
A significant proportion of our planned expenditure is allocated to the delivery of construction skills apprenticeships, training and brokerage via the King’s Cross Construction Skills Centre (KXCSC), and to placing local people in jobs on the King’s Cross Central development site via the King’s Cross Recruit service.
Funding is also used to deliver the Camden Apprenticeships Service and a range of small scale, targeted employment and skills projects that are designed to support those outside the labour market.