Community impact

Progress 2007 cont...

Regeneration and employment

Through our Regeneration Partnerships in the UK we open new stores that help to revitalise disadvantaged communities where lack of economic opportunity has led to a range of social problems and low investment. These areas may not appear to be attractive propositions but they offer business opportunities for us as well as significantly improving the overall economic wealth of the area and attracting other businesses to invest.

We aim to recruit local people who have been unemployed for six months or more, in these stores. We assess aptitude rather than experience or existing qualifications. As part of our Job Guarantee Scheme, as long as applicants complete the six-week training course preparing them for working in-store, we guarantee to give them a job, unlike many such training opportunities elsewhere, which do not result in employment.

Over the past eight years, we have completed a total of 20 regeneration partnerships, creating more than 4,000 jobs for people who have been unemployed for years. In 2007 we provided job guarantees to almost 500 people when we opened Regeneration Partnership stores in Failsworth near Oldham, Rutherglen outside Glasgow, Maesteg in South Wales and Haydock, just east of Liverpool.

Failsworth is a regeneration partnership store in an area designated as an underserved market by the UK government. Our job scheme in partnership with the local council created 73 jobs for local long-term unemployed people when the store opened in summer 2007.

In addition to the job scheme, we have also formed the Failsworth Business Forum, bringing together local businesses to talk about ways in which Tesco and the new store can help them do business better - whether through business advice or advertising in-store. We are also participating in an allotment scheme, which will provide the local community with a facility where they can grow, use or sell their own produce.

Local Employment Partnerships

Tesco was one of the original six signatories to the UK government's Local Employment Partnerships (LEP) scheme. We are working with Jobcentre Plus to provide job opportunities for the long-term unemployed and will be extending the scheme to existing stores throughout 2008.