Solent Waterfront Strategy

Solent Waterfront Strategy Volume One : Report Adams Hendry Consulting Ltd, WS Atkins & Marina Projects Ltd December 2007 Adams Hendry Consulting Ltd Solent Waterfront Strategy Volume One : Report Adams Hendry Consulting Ltd, WS Atkins & Marina Projects Ltd December 2007 Adams Hendry Consulting Ltd TITLE: Solent Waterfront Strategy CLIENT: SEEDA PROJECT NO: SEEDA/718 REPORT NO: SEEDA/718/071211/JP/01 ADAMS HENDRY CONSULTING LTD RTPI Planning Consultancy of the Year 2006 7 St Peter Street, Winchester, SO23 8BW 01962 877414 T 01962 877415 F info@ adamshendry.co.uk E www.adamshendry.co.uk W Name Signature Date Author Philip Rowell December 2007 Checked by Martin Hendry December 2007 Certified to ISO9001 Standard ISO 9001 Registration Number Q10324 CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 1. INTRODUCTION 8 The Consultant Team and the Steering Group 8 Our approach 8 2. SETTING THE SCENE 10 Defence and shipbuilding 11 The Port of Southampton 11 Other Ports 14 Marine Leisure Industries 15 3. THE EXISTING POLICY AND STRATEGY CONTEXT 17 4. EXISTING MARINE ACTIVITY 22 Commercial Port Activities 22 Defence Activities 23 Marine Leisure and Recreation Activities 24 Ship and Boat Building 24 Safety 25 Research and Education 25 Skills Development 26 MEMPS 26 Marine Industries Centre of Vocational Excellence 26 Regional Resource Centre (RRC) 26 Marine infrastructure 27 Land infrastructure 28 Rail 28 Road 29 Definition of marine industry 30 Standard Industrial Codes 32 Empirically Based Definition of Marine Activity 33 5. ECONOMIC IMPACT OF MARINE ACTIVITIES 35 Introduction 35 Approach 35 Exclusions and Limitations 35 The economic assessment study area 36 Baseline economic conditions 37 Population 37 Deprivation 38 Economic Activity 38 Qualifications 39 Occupation 40 Sector Analysis 40 GDP / GVA 42 Commuting 42 Economic impact assessment 43 Background 43 Business Survey Sample 44 Business Survey Sample Frame 45 Economic Impact of Marine Activities on the Solent 46 Economy GDP 47 Gross Value Added (GVA) 48 Employment 49 Contribution to National Exchequer 50 Supply Chain 50 Interviews 51 Identification of Interviewees 52 Structure of the Interviews 53 Key requirements of the marine sector 53 Locational Requirements 54 Land Use Requirements 54 Skill / Labour Requirements 54 Case Studies 55 Wallenius Wilhelmson Logistics, Southampton 55 Hamble Yacht Services, Port Hamble 57 Formula Yacht Spars Limited, Lymington 58 6. SIGNIFICANT MARINE SECTOR SITES 60 Summary of findings on strategic sites 63 Location and size of strategic sites 63 Key marine activities 63 Accessibility 64 Key development plan designations and policies and 64 environmental designations Existing or potential national economic significance 65 Existing or potential regional significance 66 Existing or potential local significance 67 Strengths, Constraints, Threats and Opportunities 67 7. FUTURE TRENDS 70 Ports and shipping 71 Port Activity Trends 71 Passenger Activity 75 Ports and Shipping Summary 77 Ship/Boat Building/Repair and Equipment Manufacture 79 Manufacturing Trends 81 UK Trends 81 Sub Sector Trends 82 High Value Manufacturing in the South East 82 Implications for Solent Study Area 83 Leisure Sector Trends 84 Marine Leisure Sector Trends 86 Marina Demand 86 Superyachts 87 Emerging Industries 90 Marine Renewable Energy 90 Marine Environmental Monitoring and Risk Assessment 91 Marine Research Centres 91 Environmental Trends 92 Clusters 93 Megatrends 93 8. ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSIONS 95 Analysis 95 Conclusions 100 9. RECOMMENDATIONS AND IMPLEMENTATION 104 Achieve National and Regional Support for Solent marine 105 Industries Promote Innovation and Growth and Support for the Core 105 Marine Clusters Safeguarding Marine Sites 106 Skills and Training 110 Addressing the Economic/Environmental balance 111 Providing Affordable Land and Premises 112 Response to Climate Change and Sea Level Rise 112 Simplified, strengthened and more proactive administrative 114 arrangements Long Term Strategic Planning Requirements for the Solent 114 10. FIGURES Figure 4.1 Plan showing navigation features Figure 4.2 Overview of railway network Figure 4.3 Strategic Marine Sites and overview of Transportation network Figure 5.1 Study areas referred to Economic Analysis Figure 6.1 Strategic Marine Sites Location Plan Figure 6.2 Strategic Marine Sites and National Environmental Designations Figure 6.3 Strategic Marine Sites and Local Environmental Designations Figure 6.4 Strategic marine Sites and Environment Agency Flood Zone Figure 6.5 Major Marine Businesses Executive Summary SEEDA Solent Waterfront Strategy December 2007 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. Marine industries have long been central to popular imagery of the Solent. It appears that Portsmouth has forever been the ‘Home of the Royal Navy’, Southampton the ‘Gateway to the World’ and Cowes the ‘Mecca of World Yachting’. 2. However, it would be delusional to believe that the Solent has retained the dominance in marine industries it once enjoyed. Over the past two or three decades, significant parts of the Solent’s earlier maritime industrial base have disappeared. This upheaval is not over. Change is endemic and the Solent faces significant challenges if the traditional descriptive slogans are to remain relevant for much longer. 3. At the most strategic level, the importance of the study area for marine industries is founded on three activities: the commercial port of Southampton, the defence port of Portsmouth and the marine leisure and recreational business based on three strategic centres of Lymington, the River Hamble and Cowes and other important centres are at Chichester and Portsmouth Harbour. These three activities in Solent are all nationally important and world leaders in their fields. Stripped to its essentials, this is the essence of the marine asset in the Solent. If any of these activities fail or falter, then we think the consequences would be significant. The corollary is that it is necessary to plan for each of these three sectors to prosper. 4. The consequences of inaction would inevitably be decline from the current position and a change in the structure of the remaining maritime industry. This would unlikely be a gentle process if it were allowed to happen. It is possible to envisage a scenario in which the manufacturing component of marine industries largely disappears if it simply becomes too costly to manufacture in the Solent and the skill base declines. High value manufacturing should certainly be retained. It is also possible to see that without the ability to expand, the Port of Southampton will lose its status as a major direct call port of international standing 5. There is a real choice to be made for marine industries in the Solent. We can continue to bask in nostalgia, long after the labels ceased to have meaning, but this would be unwise. Significant action is required now. SEEDA, PUSH and other relevant authorities have a central role in developing future spatial economic and land use planning policies to secure the future prosperity of the marine sector in the Solent sub-region. Marine industry and related organisations need to champion programmes on skills and competitiveness. Marine Industry in the Solent 6. The principal characteristic of Solent marine industries is their diversity, in terms not just of the range of activities but also the substantial pool of skilled labour involved, the economic and political drivers, and the specificity of their physical requirements. The land use needs not just of the individual marine sectors but also of the components of each of those sectors can vary widely. Direct waterfront access is critical for some elements whilst others have less specific requirements and can operate from non-waterfront locations. Adams Hendry Consulting Limited 1 Atkins and Marina Projects Limited SEEDA Solent Waterfront Strategy December 2007 7. We conclude that marine industries can not be represented as a single economic cluster in the conventional sense or have a ‘one size’ policy that will support them all. Linkages between the principal marine activities, are primarily concerned with the shared (and therefore potentially competitive) use of scarce coastal resources and of professional and regulatory services. An informal Solent ‘maritime community’ appears to exist, operating on the basis of a tacit understanding that the waters of the Solent and the prosperity of the area are of interest to all, rather than on strictly economic self-interest. 8. Each of three major activities is a definable industry in its own right, with particular needs and prospects. Each has within it a number of smaller clusters, some of them highly specialised and frequently overlapping the other major clusters, in addition to often complex and substantial supply chains across the sub-region and beyond. We have identified those sites of existing or potential national economic significance, along with sites of existing or potential regional significance. The future economic viability of these sites for marine industry are considered critical to the continuing prosperity of the sub-region: Ports and Shipping Activity: The most significant activities take place within the commercial Port of Southampton, at Fawley refinery and Terminal and Hamble oil terminal, at various commercial wharves along the Rivers Itchen and Test, at Portsmouth Commercial Port in Portsmouth Harbour and at wharves in Langstone Harbour and on the Medina. Navel and Defence Activities: The army run military port, the Marchwood Seamounting Centre is located on the

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