Strength in depth
Environmental technology and sustainable credentials boost regional position
As 2009 draws to a close, the South West has plenty to be positive about. Its diverse, balanced economy has held up comparatively well over the past 12 months – and the prospects for many of the sectors where the region is strong remain good, from semiconductors to environmental technology. The regional capital, Bristol, has weathered the recession with some aplomb. Job losses have been kept in check and good regeneration stories abound across the city, from Cabot Circus to Harbourside. It also enjoyed an unexpected boost with the surprise arrival of Banksy’s first UK summer show, Banksy vs Bristol Museum, which took over the Bristol City Museum for 13 weeks and is reckoned to have brought an extra £10m into the city’s economy.
But high-profile art shows aren’t keeping the economy afloat. The challenge now for businesses is to keep investing in growth areas. Nigel Jump, chief economist at the South West RDA says it’s about identifying “key individuals with key technologies and skills in key business areas, and encourage them to become the value and job generators of the next upturn”.
Because, in part, the success of the region lies in continuing to create more high-value, highly specialised jobs, and the RDA’s focus illustrates that: it’s targeting growth in advanced engineering, ICT, marine, food and drink, creative, environmental technologies and biomedical industries. They are all sectors in which the region is strong, but the investment needs to keep coming if the South West is to stay ahead of the competition in some increasingly global markets.
The South West has also undergone a sea-change in local government, with two unitary councils coming into being in April 2009 – in Wiltshire to the east of the region and Cornwall to the west. Replacing a complex two-tier system of government in these counties with single bodies is helping them to speak with a stronger voice on regional and national stages and should usher in efficiencies in the way local government and local services are delivered. For businesses with planning issues requiring clearance, it should also simplify that process by giving them a single, county-wide point of reference.
Cornwall is also in the spotlight as the site of some significant energy projects for the region. The Wave Hub is a major marine technology scheme, which will create a grid-connected electrical ‘socket’ on the seabed off the coast of Cornwall to enable testing of wave energy devices. And two geothermal power plants are also planned: the first is being developed by the Eden Project to generate electricity for its own needs and for surrounding communities, while the second is a commercial power plant planned near Redruth that would supply 10MW of base load electricity to the National Grid and up to 55MW of renewable heat for local use. Both aim to take advantage of Cornish granite to heat water naturally to generate power.
These projects and the Wave Hub are all reminders of the South West’s strong green credentials – something that was underlined in July 2009 when the region was designated the UK’s first Low Carbon Economic Area.
Christian Annesley
Editor of South West Business Insider