Southampton, the South East and marine industries
2006
If the proverbial 100 cat owners were asked to name industries on the South Coast they would probably stop fairly quickly after flagging up Southampton's docks, Portsmouth's naval yards and ferries, and Dover's cargo port. They might remember Vosper's shipbuilders, Fawley Refinery and Shoreham harbour, but that would be about it.
It is true, of course, that Southampton has still a huge port, not employing the numbers of former years, but in terms of throughput of goods - and more latterly of cruise ships, busier than ever. The importance of the radiation of jobs and services from the port in and around the city cannot be underestimated - and that goes for Portsmouth and Dover as well. But there is along the south coast, and particularly in the Solent a less acknowledged, but equally important series of industries that perhaps slip below the radar because the components are mostly small to medium sized companies working alongside each other to produce collectively a very significant industry for the south.
The marine sector in the South East, if we include ports, shipping, marine supplies and service, large ship and small boat building employs over 100,000 people and represents alone over 40% of the UK's marine industry activity.
But much of this is not 'big port' related important though that is. It consists of perhaps 4000 mostly small companies supplying marine markets both in the UK and abroad. Half of these companies have perhaps only five employees - yet taken together the synergy of those companies and where they are sited is enormous. Hundreds of these trade in the Solent - acknowledged to be the UK's centre for marine industries - but there are also smaller clusters in Chichester, Brighton and Kent. Boatbuilding skills, for example, complement each other - both in terms of the availability of a skilled workforce and the interdependence of suppliers and specialist services, as does the presence of major marinas - Southampton, Hamble, Chichester Harbour Brighton, and others along the south coast. Looked at in this light, it is no accident, as they say, that the Southampton Boat show continues to be such a successful trade event - turning over £80 million in orders each year.
There are challenges to the industry, and it is important that the south East Economic Development Agency has recognised the overall significance of marine industries to the region and now places a high priority on supporting the infrastructure that allows its mostly small components to exceed the sum of their parts in output and success. This is underlined by the recent purchase by the Agency of a site for a marine park at Marchwood, in Southampton Water and its sponsorship of a major marine orientated development in Cowes, on the Isle of Wight.
The view from Southampton still takes in the importance and predominance of the port and its related industries. But alongside that runs the development of a rich vein of marine industries in and around the city taking their cue, perhaps from the concatenation of seafaring and marine construction skills along the Solent. That is something which Southampton and Portsmouth, famously disagreeing about much, can unite upon.