South Coast: Southampton retains top-10 position in economic growth league table

Southampton’s economy performed strongly in the second quarter of 2016 helping it to retain its top-10 position in a league table of economic growth in the UK, says a new report.

Law firm Irwin Mitchell’s latest UK Powerhouse report, which has been produced with the Centre for Economic and Business Research (Cebr), provides an estimate of GVA¹ and job creation within 38 of the UK’s largest cities 12 months ahead of the Government’s official figures.

In the most recent version of the report published earlier this month, Southampton recorded an impressive 2.3% respective year-on-year rise in output in Q2 2016. Annual growth in Southampton measured in the first quarter of 2016 stood at 1.9%.

The report valued Southampton’s economy at £5.7 billion and, comparing it to other cities on the South Coast, the report found that Portsmouth grew by 1.8% in Q2 2016, Brighton’s GVA grew by 2.1% and Bournemouth’s economy expanded by 2.2%.  

The report predicts the economy of Southampton will grow by 19.1% over the next 10 years – making it the sixth fastest in the study – and that the number of people employed will go up by 3.7% over the same period. 

Niall Baker, chief executive of Irwin Mitchell’s business legal services team, said: “Like many other cities across the UK, the economy in Southampton performed strongly in the second quarter of 2016. The political landscape however remains very uncertain and all eyes will no doubt be on how our city economies performed in the three months after the referendum result.”

Irwin Mitchell produced its first UK Powerhouse report in October 2015. The report predicted a growing economic gap between the South East and the north of England and made nine policy recommendations along with a call for government to radically rethink how it looks to rebalance the UK’s economy.

To download the latest version of the report, visit www.irwinmitchell.com/ukpowerhouse 

¹ GVA (Gross Value Added)