“A real ray of sunshine – amongst the gloom of the recent news of national redundancies” – that was a quote from Cllr Gill Slocombe, Sedgemoor’s Portfolio Holder for Inward Investment and Growth – as she endorsed a Local Labour Agreement with Gravity.

This agreement paves the way to secure local benefit and social value by creating skills, training and employment opportunities for the Sedgemoor community.  The Local Labour Agreement sets out the following principles:-

• Local people benefit from new job opportunities created in major developments in the District.

• Provide local people with opportunities to gain skills needed for employment in growth industries.

• Local people have access to lifelong-learning and the promotion of “learning communities”.

• Environmental impact of unnecessary travel is minimised by maximising local employment.

Cllr Gill Slocombe said “We are delighted to be endorsing this agreement with Gravity which demonstrates a shared ambition that this important development for the District should open up as many opportunities for local people as possible.   The agreement means that we will work together to create chances of new jobs, training and qualifications for people who live in our communities both during the construction of the campus and when the buildings are occupied. 

The scale of the project means there will be significant numbers of local jobs on offer but also that there will be exceptional opportunities for people of all ages to learn more about the range of careers involved. At Sedgemoor, we have long blazed a trail for local labour agreements on substantial construction projects, not only adopting them early on but also really making them count – leading to thousands of new jobs across the District over the last ten years.”

Claire Pearce, Director of Planning and Economic Development from Gravity said “ The Gravity team are committed to making a difference locally.  We are delighted to have progressed the framework local labour agreement to enable us to liaise with our future occupiers about the importance of creating job and training opportunities as well as working closely with partners such as Bridgwater and Taunton college to create pathways to work.