Backing business

There’s a lot to celebrate in Swindon when it comes to business. Being ideally situated halfway down the M4, only a stone’s throw from the airports, it’s always been an ideal location for several highprofile HQs including Nationwide, Zurich, WH Smith and Intel. A new report from Centre of Cities highlights how productive the town is for the workforce which is definitely something to celebrate. But times have been tough over the last few years for lots of businesses in the town and there’s still lots of work to be done to help the town’s economy for all types of firms from big tech to your local painter and decorator. At Swindon Link we are passionate about boosting business in the town and helping our economy perform. Editor Jamie Hill reports...

Swindon has one of the highest productivity rates in the country

People in Swindon are among the most productive in the country, according to the latest data from one of the country’s leading national research and policy institutes.

In its latest annual report published at the end of January, which ranks towns and cities in the UK against a set of economic indicators, Centre for Cities lists the town well above the national average in terms of productivity and above cities such as London, Edinburgh, Bristol and Oxford.

Swindon ranks fourth overall (£50.80) when it comes to GVA (Gross Value Added) per hour, which is the Office for National Statistics’ preferred measure of labour productivity. It measures how efficiently labour input is combined with other factors of production.

Swindon also has the fourth highest ratio of private sector jobs to those in the public sector. The statistics show that in 2021, there were four times the number of private sector jobs (92,000) compared to those in the public sector (23,000).

An indicator focusing on innovation showed Swindon performing solidly compared to other towns and cities, with the borough having 18 ‘new economy’ firms per 10,000 of the working age population. ‘New economy’ firms are those within the emerging knowledge-intensive and advanced manufacturing sectors.

It is anticipated that this sector will grow in Swindon over the next few years with the Swindon Economic Strategy identifying Central Swindon as a future major knowledge economy hub supporting a workforce of 10,000.

The report did show that Swindon was among the 10 towns and cities with the lowest number of subscriptions achieving ultrafast broadband speeds of more than 30Mbps, although the figures showed this is improving and is likely to increase further following the completion of CityFibre’s borough-wide full fibre network rollout.

Cllr David Renard, Leader of Swindon Borough Council, said: “The Centre for Cities annual Outlook report is always a good barometer for how we are performing as a town compared to our neighbours.

“For a town of its size, Swindon has punched above its weight for a number of years and I know our strong economy is the envy of not just other towns, but many cities.

“I’m incredibly proud that our productivity rates continue to be among the best in the country. It is a great reflection of our local workforce and it is why businesses still see Swindon as a place where they want to invest.”