The South East enjoys an enviable location in the UK one that bestows huge advantages when it comes to encouraging overseas companies to invest in the region.
Those promoting the area freely admit they cannot take any of the acclaim for its appeal.
Mike Gooch, inward investment director of the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA), says: “The region has a unique selling proposition called Heathrow, Gatwick and the Channel Tunnel. We cannot claim the credit for that it’s simply here.”
US firms, he says, will naturally gravitate to the area if they want to establish a UK business and particularly so if they want to do business more widely across Europe. Its pull can be attributed partly to the quality of the area’s communications, but also to the critical mass of overseas investment that has already become established.
Momentum kept up last year
More than 4,700 foreign-owned companies now operate out of the South East, 28% of them US-owned. In 2000-01, the South East accounted for almost 22% of all UK inward investment project successes. And, says SEEDA, the momentum was maintained during the period 2001-02. During that year, 500 jobs were announced as a result of foreign direct investment decisions.
The region forms an arc around London and comprises Kent, East and West Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. Overseas companies are present throughout, although the lion’s share of investment has gone to Berkshire, Hampshire and Surrey.
Gooch believes that access to the adjacent facilities of the City of London plays an important part in the minds of overseas investors. So, too, do foreign schools, such as the Japanese school in West Sussex and the American school headquartered at Cobham.
Beyond such economic and social facilities lies the strength of the regional economy reflected in an impressive series of figures that testify to its success.
The South East has, for example, the largest GDP outside of London 15.8% of the UK total. The area is heavily represented in many of the fastest growing industry sectors and is expected to grow 2.7% faster than the rest of the UK in a 10-year period to 2005.
The population of the South East stands at 8m and of that the workforce represents 4m. Employment is high and in many centres levels are 80% or above.
The key industries that characterise the region are information and communications technology. Of the world’s top 50 software companies, 40 are based in the South East; life sciences particularly bio- and pharmaceutical technologies; and hi-tech engineering which is centred on auto production, the motor sports industry and aeronautical and marine technology.
Major employers in the Thames Valley include Williams and McLaren. Production of the Mini dominates Oxford, all Ford Transit vans are manufactured in Southampton, and Goodwood near Chichester is home to Rolls-Royce.
Meanwhile, 55% of the UK’s bio-pharma workforce is based in the South East numbering some 28,000-plus people.
Pharma injection
Pfizer, a significant force in several South East locations, recently invested in new corporate offices at Betchworth near Reigate, where it employs around 900 people. And US giant Eli Lilly has a major presence at Windlesham in Surrey. Other big players in the region include US company Genzyme, Roche Group and German conglomerate Bayer, a major employer in Newbury.
More than 62,000 people are employed in the electronics sector in the region. Some of the biggest employers are Cisco, Lucent, NEC, Nortel, Toshiba, Cannon, Dell, Fujitsu, Seimens, BAE and Honeywell.
The region is also home to UK or European headquarters for many non-European companies, such as Sanyo in Brooklands near Weybridge and Honda in Slough.
One of the more recent examples of inward investment continues this trend. Ottawa-based Corel Corporation, a word-processing software specialist, plans a new European headquarters and development centre in Maidenhead.
Other recent inward investors include ASUSTeK Computer, a Taiwanese motherboard manufacturer, which has a marketing and service centre at Milton Keynes. Daisy Lu, the firm’s marketing manager, says ease of communications was a key factor in the decision to locate there. The town affords the company quick access to customers based in London, Birmingham and Manchester, she says.
Easy access to customers was also important to Tata Consultancy Services, a major Indian software company already present in the South East, which has boosted its investment still further with a new software development centre in Guildford.
Rajdeep Sahrawat, the company’s regional director, explains: “Our customers, who are in places like Bournemouth and Lewisham, were keen for us to establish a development centre in the UK. We looked at the Midlands and Manchester, but when we considered where our business came from we felt we should go ahead here. We wanted to be close to Heathrow, Gatwick and London and have a good rail network and staff accommodation. Guildford met all our criteria.”
Aftercare for investors
To give ongoing support to such companies, SEEDA has established a programme of investor development or “aftercare”. A team of managers is dedicated to liaising with companies to give them support that will help them to grow their businesses in the region.
In another initiative designed to grow business at the smaller end of the scale, SEEDA has established a network of 12 enterprise hubs. Providing workspace and specialists skilled in various niche industries, the hubs are intended to incubate new start-up companies. Already, 300 hi-tech firms have seen lift-off.
Although the South East enjoys many advantages, it is not without its challenges. The area contains 24% of the national motorway network and 12% of the trunk road network, and congestion is a growing problem.
The region also faces the urgent need to address the regeneration of areas such as Dover and the Thanet towns in Kent, where tourism and traditional industry have declined.
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South East Area, population and labour market statistics 2001 |
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Area (sq miles) |
Population density (people per sq mile) |
Population (000s) |
ILO unemployment rate 2000-01 (%) |
Average gross weekly full-time earnings, April 2001 (£) |
|
|
UK |
93,416 |
629 |
58,837 |
5.3 |
442.4 |
|
England |
50,305 |
979 |
49,181 |
5.1 |
451.5 |
|
South East |
9,204 |
3,128 |
10,842 |
3.5 |
459 |
|
Source: Office for National Statistics |
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South East Key contacts |
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Agency |
Website |
Telephone |
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South East England |
www.seeda.co.uk |
+44 (0)1483 500 708 |
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Development Agency Government Office for the South East |
www.go-se.gov.uk |
+44 (0)1483 882 255 |
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Invest.uk |
www.invest.uk.com |
+44 (0)20 7215 2501 |
