This year and the last were always earmarked as big ones for Bristol. Chloe Rigby finds out whether progress has lived up to expectations.
The past year has long been planned as the period when it would all happen for Bristol. Proposals and investments put together over the course of more than a decade all had 2008/09 as their finishing point. It was the year that Bristol would finally be transformed into a regional capital capable of competing against the best that Europe has to offer, with the glittering Cabot Circus retail landmark, the Harbourside developent, the Bristol Science Park and the 10,000-seater Bristol Arena.
But then the recession hit, prompting a climb in unemployment – the claimant count has risen in the past year by 5,437 people to 11,507 in August, a rate of 4.1 per cent.
Downturn in fortunes
Young people have been particularly badly affected. Engineering and manufacturing were, says the South West Regional Development Agency (RDA), the first sectors to be hit by job losses, followed by the financial services, printing and publishing.
Royal SunAlliance started closing a flagship Bristol office and Lloyds Banking Group, Computershare and Bristol News Media all cut back. But if that sounds like a city having a hard time of it, it’s not the whole story.
In many other ways Bristol has been lucky. While some developments haven’t happened yet – the science park is a work in progress and the arena was shelved long ago – Cabot Circus and Harbourside have come through and delivered in spades.
And one event has also given Bristol an unexpected boost. The arrival of Banksy’s first UK summer show, Banksy vs Bristol Museum, which took over the Bristol City Museum for 13 weeks to the end of August, is reckoned to have brought an extra £10m into the city’s economy.
Recession, too, could have put paid to annual events such as the Balloon Fiesta and Harbourside Festival, both unable to find a main sponsor this year, but they still attracted thousands of visitors to the city, finding innovative ways of raising the money needed.
The Harbourside Festival raised its sponsorship money by raffling the top sponsorship billing at £2,000 a ticket.
But Cabot Circus has been the star turn, creating 4,000 jobs and leading, indirectly, to the other summer jobs boost – 500 jobs were created when Primark opened in the former House of Fraser store.
All in all, Bristol is holding its own. “The message we have, looking around the UK, is that Bristol is actually punching above its weight,” says Ned Cussen, partner at city property consultancy King Sturge, It’s to publicly backed investment, though, that Bristol is partly looking in the downturn – such as that under way at the University of the West of England.
And this public sector investment is continuing in the city, albeit at a slower pace. The South West RDA, for example, has revised its spending priorities, but, says Chris Foley, head of regeneration for the West of England and Gloucestershire, Bristol still tops the list: “Greater Bristol is a focus for us because the issues around projects and supporting business that are a priority for us are here in Bristol.” It’s clear that projects are moving more slowly, but Foley says that following a revision of the Science Park scheme, commercial negotiations are under way with development partner Quantum, and the hope is to begin construction on infrastructure, roads and the park’s innovation centre in the new year. But the principal focus is regeneration on the southern side of the city.
James Durie, deputy chief executive of GWE BusinessWest, believes there will be a lot of development in south Bristol over the next 20 years. That could include a new football stadium for Bristol City Football Club. The club is looking to get permission to build a £30m stadium at Ashton Vale – close to the proposed urban extension – which it’s envisaged would play a part in Bristol’s bid to be a host city for the 2018 World Cup. A few miles away, the Hengrove Park development is also a “key part of the regeneration of South Bristol,” according to Foley.
South Bristol
It will include the South Bristol Community Hospital, the South Bristol Skills Academy, a leisure centre, and corporate offices for share registry Computershare and drinks company Constellation Europe. Work on the infrastructure started in September 2008, but elements have been delayed because of the global downturn, throwing corporate commitments into doubt and delaying the hospital and leisure centre elements to at least 2011.
The south Bristol regeneration plan has historically been driven by the growth of Bristol International Airport, which is seeking planning permission from North Somerset Council for an expansion so it can serve ten million people a year – up from six million. The airport says the plans would bring as much as £2bn a year into the South West, creating 3,500 jobs.
The Port of Bristol, another major employer, is also looking to expand and boost local infrastructure by building a £600m deep water dock capable of taking three ultra-large container carriers at a time. The application |is waiting for the go-ahead from government and is expected to create more than 1,500 jobs in the area and boost the capacity of the port significantly.
Looking to the future, there could still be pain to come among Bristol’s largest – and public sector – employers as politicians look to rebalance the national debt.
Bristol City Council is the city’s largest employer, followed by the University of Bristol, and cuts could be made at these organisations.
But compared with other parts of the country, the city still looks strong.
A full version of this article appeared in the October 2009 edition of South West Business Insider. To subscribe, visit our online Shop .
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