Rewilding 5% of England could create nearly 20,000 jobs in rural communities and increase employment by 50% compared with intensive farming, figures show.

Hybrid roles in animal husbandry and ecology, positions in nature tourism and specialist roles in species reintroductions could be among the new positions, according to analysis from Rewilding Britain, alongside benefits for biodiversity and the climate.

The drive to restore nature on a large scale in the UK’s landscapes has sparked fears of job losses in the agriculture community owing to perceived links to abandoning farmland and halting food production.

But Prof Alastair Driver, the director of Rewilding Britain who put together the figures, said the analysis showed rewilding on marginal land could increase employment without stopping traditional agricultural activities.

“You’re looking at approximately a 50% increase in jobs compared with traditional intensive farming,” Driver said, cautioning that while the figures were positive, there would not be a rewilding industrial revolution.

New research suggests some parts of the UK have seen an increase in employment despite the severe impact the coronavirus outbreak has had on the economy.

Rural communities in areas such as South Norfolk, Omagh and Moray have had a surge in job adverts, according to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC).

Demand in professions such as roofers, security guards, artists and NHS staff have increased, with the number of job vacancies in Breckland and South Norfolk growing by 8.7 per cent week-on-week between the start and middle of May.

The report also noted many areas of Scotland and the north east of England saw growth. Argyll and Bute noted a 4.5 per cent increase in postings, while both Durham and Northumberland saw a 2.4 per cent increase.

In contrast, the largest weekly falls in vacancies were reported to be in the south west and north west of England.

Lloyds Banking Group is closing 56 more branches this year, blaming “changing customer behaviour” for the decision.

The group will shut 31 Lloyds, 10 Halifax and 15 Bank of Scotland branches between April and October this year.

Many of the big banks have been slashing their networks on the grounds that customers are spurning traditional branch counter service in favour of doing their banking online and via mobile phones.

However, the consumer organisation Which? said: “The loss of yet more branches to an already devastated network will hit communities across the UK hard, as there is still a clear demand for access to traditional banking services and cash.”

It is understood the Lloyds group has closed a net 655 branches since 2010.

A bank spokesperson said: “We are committed to having the largest branch network in the UK and, in addition to our branches, all our customers can also use the Post Office to access their banking locally, alongside our mobile branches which visit many rural communities.” The bank said the latest cuts were in response to “changing customer behaviours and the reduced number of transactions being made in branches”.

The bank said it would aim to avoid compulsory redundancies by seeking redeployment in the first instance and then offering voluntary redundancy.

In recent years, Lloyds Banking Group has been reorganising its branch network. It has shrunk some of its existing high street outlets and turned them into “micro-branches” that do not have traditional counters. At the same it has unveiled large flagship branches with facilities such as an in-house coffee shop and dedicated business hub.

This article tells us:

Six in ten university graduates in the UK are too qualified for the jobs they are doing because of a shortage in high-skilled vacancies, according to new research.

The report warns that graduate qualification has reached “saturation point” and it is leading to employers asking for degrees to recruit in los skilled jobs, including work at call centres, bars and coffee shops.

The research, by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), which represents human resource managers, revealed one in twelve graduates now occupy jobs where their talents are not needed.

The warning came a day before thousands of youngsters are set to find out their results in the GCSEs.

The CIPD found just under 60 per cent of graduates are over-qualified in Britain, one of the highest proportions in Europe – only crisis-hit Greece and Estonia have more.

Countries with a history of strong vocational training such as Germany have only 10 per cent or less of graduates in non-graduate positions.

“The Government announced in March that Remploy was planning to close 36 of its 54 factories, putting more than 1,700 jobs at risk.

The factories were established 66 years ago as part of the creation of the welfare state.

Workers are employed in enterprises that vary from furniture and packaging manufacturing to recycling electrical appliances and operating CCTV systems and control rooms.

The Government said money from the disability employment budget should be reinvested into other schemes to help disabled people find work.”

An interesting idea however there is little evidence that people with transferable skills and potential labour market flexibility can find work at the moment. I am intrigued therefore to see how this group of chllenged individuals will be supported going forward. Whilst reflecting on marginalised groups in the labour market you could also do worse than read the excellent new CRC report on the challenges rural young people.

Vince says:

“Mr Beecroft came and spoke to officials in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills last year whilst compiling his report. Consequently, the vast majority of proposals in Mr Beecroft’s final report reflect ongoing work by the Department.

“In response to widespread concerns from small businesses we are simplifying employment tribunals with further measures in the planned Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill. And across Government we have announced a number of measures for CRB checks, work permits and pensions auto-enrolment to help ease the burdens on business.

“This has all happened independently from Mr Beecroft’s recommendations and were part of the Government’s existing programme of reform and agenda for growth.

“One of Mr Beecroft’s recommendations was a suggestion to bring in no-fault dismissal. In my daily conversations with businesses, this has very rarely been raised with me as a barrier to growth.

Mr Beecroft suggested that is all his reforms were implemented a significant surge in economic growth could be achieved. He is angry that Government has not accepted them all and diminished the prospects in his view of economic growth.

This is all very interesting. I was at a meeting on Tuesday where a number of Councillors were intrigued to learn in more detail, from Defra, what the logic underpinning the targets set by the first five regional growth networks had been.They went on to ask how they would be monitored and how the learning would be disseminated.

We learned that a complex and economist moderated approach was being put in place to answer all the questions about displacement, deadweight, strategic added value, the credibility of logic models, the counterfacutal etc, etc. All of which after nearly 30 years in economic development led me to wonder whether economic development should be more of an art than a science. Can we really measure these things meaningfully? and if you cant measure something should you do it?