Harrogate council ends recruitment freeze but hiring staff now a ‘real challenge’

Harrogate Borough Council has ended a recruitment freeze more than a year after it was introduced to keep costs down during the covid pandemic.

After halting hiring in May 2020, the council has now begun recruiting again for vacant roles including lifeguards and receptionists as the freeze is “no longer sustainable”.

However, some non-critical posts will still be kept on hold as services continue to make a gradual return from lockdown.

Cllr Graham Swift, deputy leader and cabinet member for resources, enterprise and economic development, said it is “encouraging” that recruitment is now underway but he admitted it will be challenging due to local government reforms which will mean the council is abolished by April 2023.

Speaking at a meeting on Wednesday, he said: 

“Throughout coronavirus the council has made enormous sacrifices in taking salary and recruitment freezes, leaving significant shortfalls in key roles.

“I’m very encouraged now that as we come out of coronavirus we will start to see more services restoring to normal levels.

“We have a number of vacancies, some of them senior positions and critical, and as we go out to advertise we need to be sensitive to the fact that local government reform will put pressure on filling those.”

Under the reforms, North Yorkshire’s district councils and the county council will be scrapped to make way for a new unitary authority which will take over control of all council services.

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There are questions over what the major changes will mean for the 10,000 local government staff across North Yorkshire but until then recruitment will remain a challenge as councils try to fill posts which could soon cease to exist.

As well as the recruitment freeze, the borough council also shrunk its workforce by around 60 jobs and redeployed staff into under-pressure services as part of its Covid response.

Leisure centres were particularly affected by this with staff numbers at one stage being a third down earlier during the pandemic and services yet to make a full return due to ongoing staffing shortages.

Cllr Stanley Lumley, cabinet member for culture, tourism and sport, said recruitment was now a “real challenge” with leisure centres currently having around 27 vacancies as a result of the recruitment problems which span across the country.

He said:

“We have struggled at times to open all our venues at the same time but as we increase the number of staff we will get back to normal services as soon as we can.

“It is something which we are working extremely hard to address and we are looking at recruiting from all avenues.”

At Wednesday’s meeting, council leader Richard Cooper also repeated warnings that services including leisure centres and bin collections could face disruptions due to staff self-isolating as covid cases remain high across the district.

He said: 

“A few weeks ago we notified the public that like lots of other local and national companies we are having recruitment issues with the so-called pingdemic.

“That warning we gave still stands because we are not out of the woods yet.”

Harrogate companies face recruitment ‘nightmare’

A Harrogate recruitment agency has said it is struggling to fill positions with new workers following the recent ease in covid restrictions.

Travail Employment Group in Harrogate said it has plenty of jobs available but is unable to find the people to fill them.

It has seen a change in employment trends post-pandemic, going from some of the busiest months ever for recruitment to having more vacancies than they can fill.

Lisa Headford, branch manager at Harrogate Travail Employment Group, said:

“We’ve found that now we could grow further if we had more candidates. We have a lot of vacancies we are struggling to fill.

“I think the pandemic has definitely shaken things up for recruitment. We have plenty of jobs available so no one should be out of work.

“There are lots of reasons why, but everyone is struggling to recruit.”

Two Harrogate companies have also said they have experienced similar difficulties in finding new staff.

The companies have both advertised for a number of jobs but only received a small number of applicants.

Cleaning company It’s Clean received a huge increase in applicants during lockdown, with many people on furlough eager to pick up hours elsewhere.

Recruitment manager Louise Brear said now she was struggling to fill positions:

“Over the last couple of weeks I’ve advertised lots of jobs and had nothing. I’m not sure if it’s because people came to us from hospitality over lockdown and are now heading back.

“We had so many applicants during furlough and now it’s completely stopped. We have more customers now too so we need more cleaners.”

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It was a similar story for The Wild Plum in Harrogate, which has been looking for a new supervisor and chef for around a month.

The chef role has now been filled and interviews organised for the supervisor position, but the cafe’s general manager Rachel Atkinson said it had been a “struggle”.

She said:

“We did struggle, it was a bit of a nightmare actually. I know of other people who also struggled to fill jobs. We have someone coming in to be interviewed so hopefully it is successful.”

Ms Atkinson thought the reason for their difficulties may have been due to people changing careers during lockdown.

Both businesses were hopeful they would find recruits, but said they had not experienced issues like this before.

Harrogate district continues to buck UK unemployment trend

The Harrogate district continues to buck the trend as the number of people claiming out-of-work benefits falls slightly, according to latest figures.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics for January show 3,460 people were claiming out-of-work benefits — 3.7% of the population.

The number is down from 3,540 in December.

This is in contrast to the UK figure of 6.2% of the population claiming support.

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Financial support for those out of work include Universal Credit and Job Seekers’ Allowance.

Figures in the district have remained stable throughout the pandemic, which suggests the government furlough scheme has protected many staff from redundancy.

Professor Jamie Morgan, of Leeds Business School at Leeds Beckett University, said the impact on the figures of furlough ending will depend on people having jobs to return to.

He added it would also depend on whether employers were in a position to maintain staff and also have customers returning.

Professor Morgan said:

“The effect though, is also likely to depend on who are the main sources of local business demand – especially in hospitality –  what fraction are tourists and from where?

“There is some expectation that from the summer there will be a spike in activity in the hospitality sector – as people start to use some of the savings they have been forced to make and a sense of relief sets in.”

However, he added that the effect on the numbers will also depend on what, if any, public health restrictions are placed on businesses later this year.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak is set to outline his budget tomorrow, which is expected to include a £5 billion fund to help retailers and the hospitality sector reopen.

Harrogate district bucks UK unemployment trend

The number of people claiming out-of-work benefits in the Harrogate district has fallen slightly — bucking the national trend.

Office for National Statistics data published today reveals 3,540 people in the Harrogate district were claiming out-of-work benefits on December 10.

This is down by 85 on the November figure of 3,625.

At 3.7%, Harrogate is considerably below the UK figure of 6.3% for people claiming the benefits, which include Job Seekers’ Allowance and Universal Credit.

Universal Credit is available for some people in work as well as the unemployed.

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Figures in the district have remained stable throughout the pandemic, which suggests the government furlough scheme has protected many staff from redundancy.

Today’s ONS figures reveal 5% of the UK population is unemployed, which is the highest rate for more than four years.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said:

“This crisis has gone on far longer than any of us hoped – and every job lost as a result is a tragedy,”

“Whilst the NHS is working hard to protect people with the vaccine, we’re throwing everything we’ve got at supporting businesses, individuals and families.”

Harrogate out-of-work benefits claims rise slightly

There has been a slight rise in the number of people claiming out-of-work benefits in the Harrogate district.

In July, there were 3,885 people claiming out-of-work benefits, up slightly from 3,740 in June. Of those, 2,235 were men and 1,650 were women.

The figures were published today by the Office for National Statistics and are accurate up to July 9. They reveal that 4.1% of the district’s population were claiming out-of-work benefits, a decrease from 3.9% in June.

Harrogate is below the UK figure of 6.4% for people claiming the benefits, which includes Job Seekers’ Allowance and Universal Credit.

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The figures have remained stable over the past couple of months but with the government’s furlough scheme winding down ahead of it closing completely in October, the long-term outlook for jobs in the Harrogate district remains uncertain.

According to Harrogate & Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones, 15,200 people have had their jobs protected in the district through the furlough scheme since it began.

Last week, a study undertaken by the County Councils Network suggested that more than 50% of all jobs in Harrogate are “at risk” due to the economic impact of coronavirus.

Bishop’s blessing for new Ripon M&S store

The Bishop of Ripon, The Rt Revd Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, has given her blessing to the new M&S Food store opening in Ripon tomorrow morning.

Dr Hartley, who joined the Mayor of Ripon Councillor Eamon Parkin for a preview visit, said a prayer of blessing as members of M&S staff gathered at a safe distance with their heads bowed.

The preview was arranged because tomorrow’s planned opening ceremony, due to be carried out by Cllr Parkin, had to be called off because of the coronavirus crisis – which itself saw the original April 29 opening rescheduled.

Cllr Parkin told The Stray Ferret:

“This is a fabulous development for Ripon and a vote of confidence in our city at this difficult time for the retail sector. It gives us hope and brings us very welcome new jobs.”

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The Mayor of Ripon and the Bishop of Ripon with M&S Food manager Paul Nicholl

Paul Nicoll, centre, showed Mayor Eamon Parkin and Bishop Helen-Ann Hartley around the new Ripon store

Before he showed them around the store, which is part of the £10 million St Michael’s Retail Park development, manager Paul Nicoll said almost 60 jobs had been created and 90% of the workforce has been recruited from the Ripon area.

As the Bishop and Mayor looked around, they saw a hive of activity among staff putting the finishing touches to the filling of shelves where thousands of items are already in place.

Mr Nicoll added:

“We’ve gauged from what we’ve seen on social media that local people have been looking forward to us opening.”

M&S is returning to the city years after it closed a small shop unit in The Arcade. It joins a line-up of supermarkets in the city including Aldi, Booths, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s, while Lidl has recently announced that it is also looking for a suitable site in Ripon.

Leeds Bradford Airport prepares to cut more than 100 jobs

More than 100 temporary and zero-hour jobs are under consultation at Leeds Bradford Airport.

Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA) had managed to keep many of its staff on full pay during lockdown through the furlough scheme.

The majority of the 102 jobs under threat are seasonal roles. The airport brings in that workforce for the busy summer period.

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The airport believes that the aviation industry will recover in the long term but the “short term impact” has meant difficult decisions.

A spokesperson for LBA said:

“We are deeply saddened to be consulting with colleagues as a result of the impact of the global pandemic. We, like many other sectors, are operating in challenging circumstances and this has led to some difficult decisions.”

LBA will still push ahead with its terminal replacement proposals. It says the plans are “well placed” to boost its recovery and the wider economy.

Unemployment rises in Harrogate district by 186%

There were 3,990 people in the Harrogate district claiming out-of-work benefits in May, up 186% on the previous month.

The figures were published today by the Office for National Statistics and are accurate as of May 14. They reveal that 4.5% of the district’s population is now claiming out-of-work benefits, which rose from 1.5% before the lockdown.

The figures show how the coronavirus lockdown has hit the workforce in the district, in spite of the furlough scheme, which was brought in by the government to protect employees from redundancy.

2,290 of the claimants were men and 1700 were women.

Harrogate is below the UK figure of 6.4% for people claiming the benefits, which includes Job Seekers Allowance and Universal Credit.

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The ONS said that changes to Universal Credit as part of the UK government’s response to coronavirus meant more people became eligible for unemployment-related benefit support, even if they were still employed.

Sandra Doherty, Chief Executive of Harrogate Chamber of Trade and Commerce, told the Stray Ferret that she fears there will be further job losses when the furlough scheme winds down.

She said:

“Given the devasting effect of COVID-19 on the economy, the rise in unemployment, whilst always regrettable, was only expected.

“For the time being the Government’s furlough scheme, taken up by a significant number of businesses, has enabled many people to retain their jobs, However, when this cash-lifeline is withdrawn, I fear the figure will rise again.

“There is also the chance that many young people, working part-time on zero-hour contracts within the town’s yet to open hospitality sector, could well be missing from the statistics.”

Ms Doherty also said the Harrogate Convention Centre should return to running events as soon as possible to protect further job losses.

She added:

“Although the conversion into a Nightingale Hospital was something we were incredibly proud of, it’s vital this facility is handed back to the town, sooner rather than later. Any delay will only add to an already high level of uncertainty, and could lead to businesses closing and more job losses, something we want to avoid at all costs.”

The Harrogate Jobcentre was closed on March 19 when the government suspended all in-person Jobcentre appointments for three months.

The ONS told the Stray Ferret that out-of-work claims have been centralised, meaning that a small number of claims processed at Harrogate’s Jobcentre were from people living outside of the district.

Who will run Ripon’s £10m Leisure Centre?

Who will be running the Ripon’s refurbished and extended Leisure Centre when it eventually opens?

The question arises, with construction workers back in force at the Dallamires Lane site, where a swimming pool will be part of the £10m leisure complex commissioned by Harrogate Borough Council.

The council is currently consulting on the possibility of creating a Local Authority Controlled Company or LACC, to run leisure facilities that it owns.

As reported by The Stray Ferret, Ripon Leisure Centre is among the council-owned facilities that would be run by the LACC, if the money-saving proposals go ahead, meaning that staff currently employed directly by the local authority would transfer to the new arm’s-length company – a move which Unison’s Harrogate Local Government Branch says raises concerns about jobs and the terms and conditions that would apply to employees.

The council declined to comment when approached about Unison’s concerns.

Ripon’s new six-lane 25 metre swimming pool will replace the city’s Edwardian Spa Baths, that opened in 1905. It will be part of an extended leisure centre (see artist’s impression above) with new changing rooms, community areas, two dance studios and a ‘spin’ studio. Outside, there will be new play areas, a reconfigured car park and sheltered cycle rack.

Following a shut-down caused by the coronavirus crisis, approximately 30 workers, including management, have been back on site since 30th April and Nick Corrigan, operations director for principal contractor Willmott Dixon, said:

“Work started safely in accordance with public health guidelines and adhering to the Construction Leadership Council’s Site Operating Procedures, to ensure the safety and welfare of everyone on site.”

Last week, construction was among the sectors for which the government encouraged workers to resume work, as it revised its lockdown guidance.

Construction sites have to be operated following strict procedures including travel to work, site access and egress, social distancing of employees, hygiene, use of canteens and toilet facilities.