Where we are now

Luton benefits from its excellent strategic location at the centre of London, Oxford and Cambridge, with outstanding links to the capital and Europe by road, rail and air.

Luton is situated beside the M1 motorway and is just ten miles from the M25. The town has three railway stations, all providing access to Central London within 30 minutes, as well as direct journeys to the Midlands and the South Coast of England.

Luton is also home to the UK’s fifth largest airport, providing flights to more than 150 destinations across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa for up to 18 million passengers per year.

Luton has a population of 225,300 people and a total of 78,900 households. The town is more densely populated than some London boroughs, with an average of 52 people per hectare of land. The population of the town grew by 11 per cent between 2011 and 2021, a faster increase than that of the population nationally.

Luton has the third youngest population in the country, with 22 per cent of residents below the age of 15. Despite this, the number of people aged 90 and above increased by more than 30 per cent between 2011 and 2021 and the town’s population is projected to age significantly over the next two decades.

Luton is a super diverse town, with no single ethnic group making up the majority of the population. 45 per cent of Luton residents are from White British backgrounds, with 30 per cent Asian, 10 per cent Black and 10 per cent from other White backgrounds.

Luton has many long established diverse communities, including Irish, South Asian, African and Caribbean communities, as well as a growing Eastern European population. The town is home to a range of diverse cultures and heritage, with more than 150 different languages and dialects being spoken.

Luton has a strong local economy, which has demonstrated resilience over recent years. Prior to the pandemic, the local economy was worth around £6.3 billion per year and had a higher productivity rate than the UK as a whole (just over £36 gross value added per worker, per hour).

The town is home to more than 8,800 businesses, supporting around 93,000 jobs. The vast majority of businesses in Luton are small and micro sized businesses and the town has a higher rate of business start ups per population size than the country as a whole. In 2021, 48 per cent of all business start ups in Bedfordshire were based in Luton, with the local economy providing an excellent environment for the sustainability of new enterprises.

Luton’s economy has a number of traditionally important sectors that employ many people in the local area, including manufacturing, construction, transport and aviation. Manufacturing is the largest sector, contributing around 17 per cent of the town’s total output. London Luton Airport also contributes significantly to the wider economy, supporting 27,000 jobs and adding £1.8 billion per year to the UK economy. The town is also experiencing growth in a number of emerging sectors, including creative and digital industries, new types of advanced manufacturing and the green economy.

Median weekly earnings have increased in recent years, alongside an increase in private sector jobs. Despite this, residents’ earnings remain lower than workplace earnings in the town and around one in four workers in Luton are estimated to be earning below the Real Living Wage. This is partly related to many residents being unable to access higher skilled jobs. One in ten working age adults in Luton have no formal qualifications and just 67 per cent are qualified to level two or above, compared to 78 per cent of the population nationally.

Luton’s economy faced significant challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic, with around one in three jobs in the town identified as at risk due to lockdowns. This was the second highest rate of at risk jobs in the country, due to the high proportion of jobs in industries such as aviation, transport, retail, hospitality and the creative sectors.

Unemployment in Luton rose faster than anywhere in the country during the pandemic, peaking at 9.3 per cent in March 2021, with an almost threefold increase in the claimant count for 16 to 24 year olds in the town. Despite these challenges, the economy has bounced back well during 2022, following the delivery of support to businesses, workers and employment support to those who were out of work. Most industries have since reopened and unemployment had fallen to 5.8 per cent by August 2022.

90 per cent of schools in Luton are rated as good or outstanding by Ofsted and provide excellent education that raises aspirations and helps our children to reach their full potential. The percentage of pupils in Luton achieving the expected standard for reading, writing and maths by the end of Key Stage 2 is currently above the national average (62 per cent compared to 59 per cent), however at GCSE the average attainment 8 score in Luton schools (43.4) and the percentage achieving levels 9 to 5 in english and maths (38 per cent) are below the national average (46.7 and 43 per cent). Luton also has a significant gap in early years development and Key Stage 1. Despite this, children who are in receipt of free school meals in Luton schools consistently achieve higher attainment scored than disadvantaged children nationally.

Luton also has excellent higher and further education provision. The University of Bedfordshire provides higher education to around 20,000 students from over 100 countries. The University was recognised by the Sutton Trust as one of the top 25 english universities for supporting social mobility in 2021, as well as being ranked 8th out of 125 UK institutions for its green credentials by the People and Planet University Guide. The University’s main campus in Luton is also home to excellent facilities, including the £40 million STEM building, which opened in 2019.

Luton Sixth Form College is one of the oldest and largest further education colleges in the country, and provides A level and vocational courses to more than 3,100 students each year. Barnfield College specialises in vocational courses across two campuses in the town, including in New Bedford Road, which completed a £25 million redevelopment in 2022.

Life expectancy in Luton is below the national and regional averages for both men and women, but is better in comparison to areas with similar populations. Women in Luton are expected to live to an average of 82.5 years, compared to 83.2 years across England; men in Luton are expected to live to 78.1 years, compared to 79.6 years nationally.

There is also a clear gap in life expectancy rates between Luton’s most and least deprived areas, with males in our top 10 per cent most deprived areas expected to live almost seven years less than those in the least deprived areas; for females, this gap is around five years. Healthy life expectancy for men in Luton has fallen in the last three years and is now around six years below the national average.

Luton has particular health challenges around childhood obesity, with 27 per cent of year 6 children classified as obese compared to 21 per cent nationally, and dental decay, with 36.8 per cent of five year olds experiencing this compared to 23.4 per cent nationally.

Physical activity in adults is also low in Luton, with just 57.7 per cent physically active compared to 66.4 per cent nationally. Luton also has higher rates of smoking prevalence and hospital admissions due to alcohol related conditions, than nationally and regionally, however these rates are more in line with similar places.

Luton does have lower rates of sexually transmitted infections than the rate for England as a whole, with a significant fall in the rate of new STI diagnoses over the past three years. Luton also has better rates of detection of dementia and breast cancer screening than nationally, but poorer rates of screening for bowel cancer and cervical cancer.

Demand for social care remains a challenge across the country, however, in Luton there has been a fall in the number of new requests for social care for over 65s in the past three years, with Luton’s demand now lower than the national and regional rates and the second lowest out of sixteen similar comparison areas.

House prices have climbed significantly in Luton over recent years, with median house prices now more than eight times the median annual income. Luton also has a high rate of households living in the private rented sector, (29 per cent of households compared to 17 per cent across England), with slightly lower rates of home ownership and social renting. 16.4 per cent of households in the town are in fuel poverty, compared to 13.2 per cent of households across England.

To address these challenges, developers have delivered around 2,000 new homes between 2020 and 2023. This includes new council housing and homes built by the council’s own development company Foxhall Homes. Luton’s Housing Strategy sets out an ambition to build a further 425 homes per year over the next five years, with a minimum target of 20 per cent affordable homes and an aspiration to be building 350 affordable homes per year by 2027.

Luton has many examples of outstanding natural environment across the town. This includes six parks with Green Flag Status:

• Brantwood Park
• Leagrave Park
• Memorial Park
• Peoples Park
• Stockwood Park
• Wardown Park

The town also has many other high-quality greenspaces, including Hat Gardens, the first in a series of new pocket parks which opened in the town centre in early 2023. The river Lea runs through Luton and is our oldest natural heritage asset. The council is currently carrying out extensive work to uncover the river in the town centre and has an ambition to make a linear park along the route of the river. The town is also surrounded by many other greenspaces and areas of outstanding natural beauty, including the nearby Chilterns.

Luton Council declared a climate emergency in January 2020 and has set a commitment with partners for the town to become net zero by 2040, ten years ahead of the government’s target for the whole of the UK.

Luton’s current emissions profile is estimated to be around 790 ktCO₂e, (the equivalent of 790 kilotons of carbon emissions) per year. Approximately 39 per cent of Luton’s emissions come from households, followed by 29 per cent from industry and 23 per cent emitted on the road.

In 2023, Luton launched its roadmap to net zero, with a clear action plan to reduce and offset carbon emissions across the town. The council and its partners are delivering on this plan by reducing emissions across buildings and services, while also investing in improvements to buildings, housing stock, vehicles and technology to reduce non-renewable energy consumption.

Luton Council was established in 1997 and is one of the smaller unitary authorities in the country, covering an area of 25 square miles and serving 225,300 residents.

Luton Council is made up of 48 elected Councillors, that will represent a total of 20 electoral wards in the town, following the 2023 local elections.

The council directly employs more than 2,500 members of staff and more than 250 agency staff that are also employed through the council. The council delivers around 730 different services for the residents of Luton. These services are split across four corporate divisions within the council:

• Chief Executive’s
• Inclusive Economy
• Population Wellbeing and Children
• Families
• Education

Each of these divisions is led by a corporate director, a separate division is responsible for the airport, with its corporate director also serving as the chief executive officer for the airport company, Luton Rising.

Many of the council’s services are crucial to the everyday life of residents, including waste collections, housing, public health, adult social care, children’s services and education. The council also delivers a number of other services that help to improve the town and quality of life for residents, such as neighbourhood enforcement, planning, licensing of business premises, parks maintenance and strategic community services.

Since the start of our last corporate plan in 2021, the council has made significant progress across its services and work with partners. This includes leadership of the systemwide approach to delivering the first steps towards the Luton 2040 vision and crosspartnership working to protect residents and secure a strong recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. The council has also played a leading role in building partnerships between local stakeholders and national government around our shared ambitions for Luton.

Over the last two years, the council has also restructured many services to become more modern and efficient, responding to the needs of residents and the ongoing financial challenges.

There have been a number of major successes for the council over the past two years, including generating tens of millions of pounds’ worth much-needed funding for the town and several awards recognising outstanding achievements.

• Secured over £49 million of funding including £20 million levelling up funding, £19.1 million to deliver our bus improvement plan, £7.7 million salix grant to decarbonise public buildings, £4.8 million for tackling rough sleeping initiative, £3.4 million to improved energy efficiency in social housing and privately owned and rented homes
• Delivered £56.6 million of government support grants to businesses during the pandemic
• Kickstart employment scheme delivered to support young people into work
• Administered government furlough payments to 39,500 employees throughout the pandemic
• Launch of new adult social care strategy and Luton’s firstsocial work academy
• Launch of Luton Rising a new brand for our airport focussed on sustainable growth that supports our community and our planet
• Delivered on our improvement plans for children’s services and progressing towards a good Ofsted rating
• Creation of our integrated family partnership service
• People plan achievements including, workforce development, increasing apprenticeships and delivering a mentoring scheme
• Increased the number of care leavers attending university
• Edge of care service launched
• Doubled the number of adoptions on 2021-2022
• Six Luton Parks retained Green Flag status
• Improvements to social housing, including insulation and removal of cladding on high rise buildings
• Upgrades delivered to highways and the Vale Crematorium
• Over 280 people taken out of temporary accommodation in 2021 to 2022
• Support for Afghan and Ukrainian refugees
• Council pest control team won the Local Authority of the Year Award at the National Pest Awards 2021 and Sustainability Initiative of the Year award in 2022
• Council Planning department were runners-up at the Royal Town Planning Institute’s East of England awards in 2021
• Ranked in the top five local authorities for youth justice performance

The Luton 2040 vision was officially launched in October 2020. This town-wide vision was developed by residents and partner organisations, building on the recommendations of the Luton inclusive growth commission in 2019.

The Luton 2040 vision sets out a long-term ambition for our town, built around a shared mission that Luton should be a place where everyone can thrive and no-one has to live in poverty. To achieve this mission, we have set five priorities; to build an inclusive economy, improve population wellbeing; become a child-friendly town; tackle the climate crisis and become a net zero town; and strengthen our community with fairness for everyone at its heart.

This vision is being delivered by everyone in the town and over the last two years the council has led this collective effort, shaping our detailed plans and strategies to get to 2040 and delivering the first steps to transform the town. So far, we have seen the delivery of a number of major achievements across these partnerships, including:

• Delivery of Covid-19 recovery plans, including supporting wellbeing, the community and reopening the economy
• London Luton Airport back to 80 per cent of pre-pandemic passenger numbers by summer 2022
• Opening of the new Windmill Hill SEND school and Putteridge High School’s new £23 million building
• Over 375,000 vaccines delivered to residents
• The launch of a new town centre masterplan and the first steps towards realising this with funding secured for the stage, progression of plans for Power Court and thecompletion of Hat Gardens, a new pocket park and the Covid-19 memorial in the town centre
• Completion of Barnfield College’s £25 million redevelopment
• Luton school pupils achieve better key stage 2 results than the national average in 2022
• Launch of BLMK integrated care system and University of Bedfordshire’s research hub
• Luton officially becomes a marmot town, following the release of report by the Institute for health equity on reducing inequalities in Luton
• Refurbishment of Lewsey swimming pool and sports facilities
• Opening of Hat Works in the Hat District by The Culture Trust, Luton
• Delivery of 600 new homes by developers, with a further 1,500 due to be completed by March 2023
• Access for all upgrades delivered at Luton Airport Parkway Station
• Launch of the University of Bedfordshire’s premium progression partnership
• Mary Seacole Housing Association and Bedfordshire and Luton Community Foundation launch Will Power project, to inspire and raise aspirations among young people from ethnic minority backgrounds
• ABCD community clean ups organised as part of #KeepLutonTidy campaign
• Launch of Luton’s fairness taskforce
• London Luton Airport awarded Level 3 of the airport carbon accreditation scheme
• 73 per cent of residents happy with Luton as a place to live in 2022 the highest level on record

Since launching the Luton 2040 vision, the council has worked closely with central government through the department for levelling up, housing and communities to secure funding to deliver on our shared priorities.

The vision aligns with the aims of the government’s levelling up agenda, with matching priorities around tackling inequality, improving skills, economic regeneration and restoring local pride. The commitment within the vision of becoming a net zero town also meets the government’s aims following COP26.

The council and its partners locally have demonstrated how our vision can help government to achieve its levelling up aims, clearly setting out the needs of our town and the opportunities that exist here. As a result, Luton was listed as a priority one area for Levelling Up in June 2021.

Since then, the council has successfully led the bid for £20 million of Levelling Up funding to kick start regeneration of the town centre with the building of the stage. This will be a brand new mixed-use development on an existing brownfield site in Bute Street, which will provide 372 new homes, 7,000m² of high quality workspace, 2,000m² of community space, a cycle hub and improvements to the public realm. This project will be a major catalyst for growth and unlocking further investment in our town centre.

In addition, the council and partners also successfully secured £238,000 of funding as part of the government’s partnerships for people and place programme and over £4 million from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which will deliver a range of projects around skills, community safety and town centre regeneration.

The Covid-19 pandemic had a major impact on Luton, our residents and the council. In terms of health, Luton had one of the highest rates of infection and mortality from Covid-19 anywhere in the country. The local economy was significantly impacted as well, with around one in three jobs in the t own put at risk and unemployment in Luton rising to 9.3 per cent within the first 12 months of the pandemic.

In response, the council had to realign many services and redeploy hundreds of members of staff to protect vulnerable residents with the delivery of food and essential supplies, as well as to support the rollout of vaccines and the implementation of restrictions. The council also worked with central government and partners locally to deliver more than £56.6 million of support grants to businesses and furlough payments to 39,500 employees throughout the pandemic.

After the initial crisis phase of the pandemic, many council services were able to resume as normal, while others continued to provide support to residents in the community and businesses. Together with partners, the council delivered plans for recovery from the health and economic impacts, including actions to address widening inequalities that were exacerbated by the pandemic, as well as steps to reopen the economy safely get people back into work, with unemployment falling to 5.8 per cent by September 2022.

Although the council and partners have been able to work in an agile way to respond to the pandemic, this has come at a significant cost. The Covid-19 pandemic has had a major impact on the council’s budget, with reductions in revenue from council tax, business rates and, most crucially, the airport dividend.

The council continues to face significant challenges, like the whole of the local government sector, following a decade of austerity and the more recent impacts of the pandemic and inflation.

Between 2010 and 2019, the council achieved savings of more than £160 million from its annual budget, as a result of the reduction in the Revenue Support Grant from Central Government (reduced from £120 million in 2010 to £11 million in 2022). Luton has traditionally been more dependent on this grant due to above average levels of need among the population for some services and below average income from council tax receipts. The council currently ranks 52nd out of 57 local authorities for average council tax per head of the population.

The council has therefore taken early and often difficult decisions to make savings while protecting the most critical services and continuing to offer value for money to council tax and business rate payers. The council took innovative approaches throughout this period, including raising additional income through alternative sources, such as by trading services with other authorities and investing in assets like London Luton Airport (by 2019/20, this investment had resulted in an annual dividend from the airport company Luton Rising paid to the council, which funded one pound of every twenty spent on local services). These innovative approaches helped to ensure Luton Council was in a better and more sustainable financial position than many other authorities across the country.

Since 2020, the council has faced further challenges as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic added many additional costs to the organisation, including investment in technology to facilitate the shift from office to hybrid working, as well as a loss of £50 million of revenue in 2020. The biggest impact, though was the loss of the dividend paid to the council from Luton Rising between 2019 and 2023 as a result of the aviation industry temporarily closing down (in the year 2019/20, although unpaid due to Covid-19, this dividend was worth £19.25 million per annum). The council has responded to these additional challenges with further savings, many of which have been achieved by reducing the number of buildings owned by the council.

As a result of these further financial pressures and the continued reduction in funding for local government, the council estimated in 2022 that a further £12 million of savings would need to be made over the next four years. This figure, however, is likely to increase due to the ongoing inflationary and wage pressures the council is expecting over the same period.

The future funding for local government continues to be a live issue, with financial settlements agreed every three years by central government. The council’s financial strategy and Medium Term Financial Plan are therefore designed to achieve further savings in line with the government’s proposed move away from the Revenue Support Grant, to be replaced by 75 per cent retention of business rates.

The public sector continues to face financial uncertainty, which presents continued risks to the council. These risks include additional cost increases caused by inflationary or pandemic related pressures and any further negative impacts on the aviation sector and the funding this provides for council services. These risks have been accounted for and are being mitigated within all of the council’s financial plans.

The Council’s People Strategy and Implementation Plan is our key framework for supporting, developing and growing our workforce to enable and empower them to be the best they can be to deliver quality services to our residents.

Our most recent People Strategy ran from 2019-2022 and was aligned to the last Corporate Plan. The strategy and implementation plan aimed to develop our workforce to be equipped to deliver on our priorities for Luton 2040. This was an agile plan that also sought to respond to the challenges of the pandemic, the council’s savings targets and recruitment and retention challenges across the sector.

Since 2019 we have seen significant progress on delivering against this framework, including:

• our career pathways programme
• participation in the national graduate development programme
• apprenticeships first for all vacancies and qualification requests
• increased project and secondment opportunities
• providing valuable opportunities to engage young people in our organisation and supporting educators with identifying skills of the future
• becoming a cornerstone employer, developing an active work experience programme for students from year 10 through to college/university
• progression pathways
• we have been successful in growing more of our own staff; since the launch of the apprenticeship levy in 2017, as of 2022 there have been over 200 level 2 to 4 starts, future ambitions include an annual target to increase the proportion of our workforce from ethnic minority backgrounds to better reflect the community we serve.
• employees throughout the organisation are supported with a range of development opportunities, delivered in-house, increasingly through ‘blended’ solutions to fit with increased hybrid and flexible working
• our workforce continues to benefit from a range of wellbeing initiatives:
• NHS health checks
• counselling services as part of our employee assistance programme
• flexible retirement
• shared cost additional voluntary contributions (AVCs)
• purchase additional annual leave to support a healthy work life balance
• range of active lifestyle activities and local gym discounts