SOUTH WEST - Economy
Important services sector, but less than for some other regions
Bristol 's growth during the last century was due largely to the aeronautical industry, with major employers such as British Aerospace, Rolls Royce and Westland. Other manufacturing companies include Airbus and Smiths Industries. The tobacco industry was important in the Bristol area but cigarettes are now no longer produced here. Shipping is also now of little significance. Major producers in electronics and telecommunications are also based around the prosperous Bristol-Swindon M4 corridor, including Orange and Hewlett Packard.
Although the importance of agriculture has declined, it has remained important to the economy in certain parts of the region. This sector represented 2.0% of the Gross Value Added (GVA) of the region in 2001 and the region had the second largest stock of cattle in the United Kingdom in 2002 (1.76 million). The South West devoted 5.6% of agricultural holdings to the production of cereals in 2002. However, 911,000 hectares are grass, which is the most of any of the English regions. The area devoted to woodland on agricultural holdings is also comparatively high at 94,000 hectares. There are over 47,000 agricultural holdings in the South West, which is considerably more than any other region apart from Scotland. Fisheries are a major resource, with the South West benefiting from 42% of England ’s commercial fishing operations and half of all shellfish waters.
The production industry sector represented 28.1% of the GVA of the region in 2000, a share slightly above the UK ’s. The services sector however is thus slightly under-represented compared to the national average, with a share of 69.9%.
In comparison with most other regions, the GVA of the hotel and catering industries (at over £2,200 million in 2000) has been particularly significant; reflecting the importance of the tourism industry in a large part of the region.
Financial and business services have also been important, particularly in the north east where Bristol and the surrounding area has benefited from the relocation of these industries from the South East. Defence and public administration is also a key area of GVA for the South West, especially in the north of the region and Plymouth.
The economic structure of the region is affected by the remoteness and poor road and rail links of the most westerly county of Cornwall &Isles of Scilly and the western side of Devon, whereas the proximity of the South East for more easterly counties makes them more accessible.
Business performance
The South West is marked by its economic diversity. In 2001, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and North Somerset contributed to over half of the region’s GVA with the City of Bristol alone accounting for almost one-quarter; Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly contributed the least at 6.5%. In terms of economic performance the sub-regions of Swindon, City of Bristol, North and North-East Somerset & South Gloucestershire, and Gloucestershire have had the highest rates of GVA per head. Growth has been slower in the western coastal counties of Cornwall, Devon, and Dorset. GVA per head dropped or remained stable for all NUTS 3 areas over the 1998-2001 period; only the Unitary Authorities of Bournemouth and Poole increased.
There were over 235,000 businesses in the South West in 2002, with almost 85% of these employing less than 10 people. However over three quarters of jobs were in medium or large enterprises and half of the jobs were in organisations employing more than 100 people.
Business formation rates in the South West have been comparable with the national average but the region has had above-average business survival rates (2002).
The South West has over 600km of Defined Heritage Coasts which, together with attractive scenery inland, makes the region an important destination for tourists particularly in the summer. In 2001 the South West had almost 13,800 hotels and other tourist establishments, with approximately 250,000 bedspaces. Tourist expenditure in the South West from the UK and overseas visitors exceeded £3,200 million in 2001, the largest amount for a UK region except for London.
Transport
There were almost 50 thousand kilometres of roads in the region in 2001, 329 kilometres of which were motorways; an increase in the length of the motorway network since 1990 of 8.2%. There were nearly 2.7 million cars licensed in South West in 2002, of which 91% were private cars. The South West has had the lowest expenditure spent on local roads per 1,000 km and one of the lowest for expenditure on motorways and trunk roads. Despite this, the region has seen one of the largest increases in expenditure on roads since 1998.
Parts of the region have excellent rail links including a London Paddington-Plymouth service with a fastest journey time of less than three hours. However, rail links are considerably better in the north of the region. The availability and use of rural public and community transport is a key issue, yet bus and rail services serving these communities, where population density is low, are limited. Consequently, communities living in the more remote rural areas of the region rely heavily on cars.
There were 3.7 million passengers travelling to or from the region in 2001 by air. This represented only 2% of the total for Great Britain. There was only a very small volume of freight transport, amounting to 5,600 tonnes, most of which was leaving the region. Bristol is the region’s largest airport. It has had a strong growth in passenger numbers in recent years, in part due to a new terminal opened in March 2000. Smaller regional airports are also important to the South West, including those at Exeter, Plymouth and Newquay.
The transport of freight by sea is much greater than by air: there were over 14 million tonnes shipped into the region and almost 5 million shipped out (foreign and domestic) in 2001. The volume of passengers is also significantly higher, with almost 1.5 million passengers in 2001 figure. Portbury and Avonmouth are Bristol ’s two main ports, concentrating on the import and export of cars, forest products and bulk cargo, such as animal feeds. The ports of Plymouth and Poole primarily deal with roll-on roll-off traffic and provide important linkages to France, Spain and The Channel Islands. Fowey, Par, Teignmouth and Falmouth are also important regional ports for freight transport.
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