Paycheck Solution Showcase

“Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council has used the Market SMS data mainly to test housing affordability and to inform discussions on a new Housing Strategy and housing related policies in the Local Plan. So often, data is given as lower quartiles or averages but the value of the Market SMS output lies in the fact that it gives the whole range of incomes from highest to lowest and in doing so allows affordability analyses for the whole housing market (owner-occupation and affordable) and for the whole population. Ward and postcode level data also supports analysis on local deprivation, neighbourhood renewal, broader recession impact, and income inequality. At postcode level the data is being actively used in setting the affordability context for housing planning applications.

The council has used other sources in the past such as ASHE and ONS model based estimates. Market SMS income data and ASHE both set income context for the borough but Market SMS provides that important lower level of geography and household income (rather than individual earnings) which the council has used to inform a wider range of service areas, strategies and projects. Annual updates of Pay Check also allow for year on year monitoring to identify social trends and changes. As the Census does not report household incomes, Market SMS Pay Check provides an extra dimension to socio-demographic profiling at the Census year.” 
 

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council

“The 2011 Christie Commission tasked both the Scottish Government, local authorities and partners to work together to develop specific approaches targeted on the needs of deprived communities. These approaches were to be based on highly localised and disaggregated data. The availability of Paycheck to datazone level for example has helped us measure the strength of the relationship between household income and a range of indicators including life expectancy, educational attainment and community safety. Mapping these relationships at small area level using GIS allows us to understand complex spatial patterns as well as identify previously masked pockets of persistent or increasing income deprivation. Paycheck delivers 5K income banding distributions at postcode level and above providing excellent flexibility to aggregate to customised geographies.

This analysis will ultimately feed into more robustly targeted policies towards multiple deprived neighbourhoods, as well as inform the correct configuration of jointly delivered public services and resources focused in the right communities at the right time.” 

North Ayrshire Council