12 focus on southampton Happy days
as Southampton powers ahead
From the development of £85 million worth of new leisure and dining facilities at WestQuay Watermark due to open later this year, to future plans for the Itchen Riverside, there's no doubt that Southampton is making waves in the vibrant city stakes
It is just four years since Southampton City Council launched its City Centre Master Plan, which will see £3 billion worth of investment in and around the city centre over this decade.
Leading the charge is council chief executive, Dawn Baxendale, who says proudly: “We are a city which is seriously going places. We have real momentum and it's not just us saying that, it is investors, the private sector and other local authorities who are coming to see what we have achieved.
“Thanks to a proactive approach and combination of private and public sector funding, we've already seen £1.6billion worth of projects either built already, being built, or at the planning stages, which is really exciting.
“As chief executive though, it's not just about new cranes on the skyline, it's also about the impact on the citizens who live here, so the fact we have been voted the ninth happiest city in the UK, shows our population is satisfied and we're meeting employer demands.”
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Baxendale is especially proud of the city's 0.7% youth unemployment statistics, a figure she describes as “phenomenal” and says it is due to the council's decision to ensure all major new developers include an employment and skills accelerator as part of the regulatory planning process.
In addition to the happiness survey, undertaken by business psychologists OPP, the city also ranked fourth in the 2015 PwC's Good Growth for Cities report and won Transport City of the Year in 2013.
Flying high
As well as being served by good road links, a six-minute train ride from the city is Southampton Airport, recently named number one in the UK for service and quality.
The airport contributes around £100m a year to the local economy and managing director, David Lees, says: “We're very proud of our focus on service and making the journey as easy as possible for our passengers. We're on target for our best
performance for 10 years, serving 1.9 million passengers, and my goal is to increase that to 2.5m over the next five years.
“My ambition is to attract an increasing number of low cost carriers to increase the range of international destinations and I see us playing an even stronger role in the local economy in the future.”
He believes delays in a long-awaited decision about a new runway for either London Heathrow or Gatwick will be positive for Southampton, which has the capacity to cope with increasing demand from across the southern region.
2016 has already seen both Aer Lingus Regional and BMI regional launch new routes, while KLM began twice-daily flights to Amsterdam in May and new airline Volotea now flies to Majorca twice a week.
Maritime history
Given the city's rich maritime history, it's no surprise that today the marine sector is still a major contributor to the local economy.
As the cruise capital of northern Europe, Southampton attracts more than 400 cruise ship visits a year, welcoming 1.75m cruise passengers to the city and contributing an estimated £800m to the local economy annually.
In May, the city hosted the maiden voyage of the Harmony of the Seas, the world's largest cruise ship, and Southampton is now increasingly seen as a destination port in its own right.
Its commercial port recently won the Freight Industry Times' Commercial Port Award and the city is also home to prestigious organisations such as the National Oceanography Centre, as well as taking a lead in marine research and development.
Top names
Across the city skyline, the increasing number of cranes reflect the huge amount of growth taking place.
This exciting city is attracting many top names – Lloyd's Register recently moved 400 employees into its new purpose-built Global
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH COAST – JULY/AUGUST 2016
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