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Southampton - This time it's personal by Stuart greenfield
28th February 2009
A short essay by Stuart Greenfield in response to a workshop discussing Inward Investment for Southampton held in Southampton on February 27th 2009.
Southampton
Manhattan
As the home for my business since 1999 and living and working in the region since 1995 you couldn’t really call me a Hampshire man, in fact I am actually from Kent although I spent most of my childhood in East Anglia (school) then in Devon and finally for over 10 years in London. So you could say I have been about a bit! But what’s my point? The point is that for all my married life and all my children’s life we have lived in Hampshire and Southampton has been of key importance for my business life and as a gateway, on a very small scale, my wife comes from the Isle of Wight and I love being close the sea as my sport and recreational love is yachting.
So Southampton fulfils a number of key needs for me. I have always been a supporter of Southampton and this is for many reasons many of them practical. I decided to set up business in the city area in 1999 before actually moving into the city district itself in 2003. This was for practical reasons of ensuring we were seen as a leading business in the heart of the leading city in the South. It gave the businesses a geographical focus which at that time and maybe for many service industries who need to do face to face business is still crucial. Yes I could have chosen a business park on the M27 or Winchester or Portsmouth, but I didn’t because Southampton had that extra something. Many other locations ticked all the boxes but Southampton had that feeling of opportunity, activity, and perhaps because it seemed like a city with ‘work in progress’ it was like us ready to grow.
Having ‘made my bed’ in Southampton and with fresh eyes I wanted to do my bit to ensure Southampton could deliver for me. Mainly but not completely for business reasons I wanted the city to attract the biggest businesses have the most start ups and grow faster than any other. I wanted the creative industries to grow. One of the reasons I was in Southampton was because I realised that the city was not strong in this area.
We joined many of the city’s business groups and pitched for Council work which we always did our best to provide exceptional service at the very tightest margins. I engaged with other business owners and we created Business Southampton. A single aim: to keep Southampton on the journey of remaining a successful, booming and exciting city both nationally and internationally. Through the boom years of 2000-2006 we all prospered city rents and house prices increased, the port prospered, the cruise industry grew, the service sector did well, and the university created and gained funding for many successful innovative start ups. All was rosy especially with West Quay booming and unemployment low.
But it seems that during these years we may have missed a trick or two and it has taken the current downturn for me to see this. The city hasn’t changed as much as perhaps it should have. The retail and leisure areas are wholly disjointed, we have not opened up the water front, we have not built a good mix of housing and office space, we have not marketed the city and promoted the obvious advantages of a University City full of talented people. We have new business property mixed in with old, many are empty. We do not have a creative ‘quarter’ where people would wish to live and work. Transportation could be so much better we have train, airport and motorway like many cities but they do not appear to have an overall strategy. This is, of course, the same for any city in the world but could it be different?
In any argument about a City’s prosperity the effect of the region it is in is, of course, important, The City itself cannot function alone but a City’s role is to ‘carry the torch for the region’. People (and businesses are just people) come to Hampshire to live and work because of a number of key factors. (International connections, labour force, history, customers, Government incentive, quality of life). Identification of Hampshire being the choice will strongly depend on the quality of the dominant City at its centre, I really believe this. Southampton is the ‘jewel in the crown’ of the South’s prosperity and for a simple reason: It is central to the south a port has focused geography and although far from perfect the best transportation infrastructure. With the River Itchen and Test creating the East and West boundaries it is, in a very small way, like the British Manhattan!
So what is to be done? Will this recession just put any plans on hold. The truth is that right now we have a lot of people who are working as hard as they can to survive. But a new dawn will come and we need to be prepared with a strategy and a plan which puts aside small thinking and looks to a new prosperity in a world where energy usage, new technology, and population growth means most of us will have to work and live in closer proximity in our cities without two cars, maybe no cars. Life will be different for our children - that is clear. A UK where we have a new type of manufacturing, and greater local food production just as a start. With this in mind we must create a Southampton that delivers this leadership ensuring the success of the region and leading from the front.
I realise that all of this has been said in one way or another before but when economic growth stops, as it has, we have a moment to reassess and start again. Bristol, Manchester, East London, Plymouth, Liverpool, Oxford, Newcastle to name a few. All have responsibility of being the focus for their region and the magnet for regional talent all have identities which are different all have had ‘moments of reinvention caused by good fortune or catastrophe. Is this Southampton’s time, are we able to make this our moment?
Innovation, green industry, marine technology, leisure, education, international trade, are watch words for the region and Southampton should build a new vision around being a Green City of the future with innovative work and living solutions built into the city environment. We must also become the ‘start up’ city offering work and living clusters for entrepreneurs and knowledge workers with incentives for these businesses to stay in the region. There will be new business built on technology which will grow as fast, perhaps faster than success stories like Google, we need to identify and nurture these micro organisations by providing the support to keep them in the South. It may be unrealistic to think that large organisations will be relocating in this climate, so we must build our own and help those on the cusp of success succeed and not move away.
So the DNA of the Central south region is embedded in Southampton and today Southampton is the head of this ‘monster’ when it comes to world wide recognition. Yes some may say the brains are in Winchester which was, of course, the ancient capital of Wessex but that is history and we must look forward.
Every city has similar challenges; they all have a multilayered series of contradictions and issues. Southampton’s unique issues of still being an ‘industrial style’ port (and very successful because of it) means we should leverage this success into a new City for the future.
The success of our region depends on the success of Southampton, she is our Captain and as such leader. We must know her character and support her.
Please join this conversation by emailing Southampton@greenfield.co.uk and your views will be published.
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