Swindon and Wiltshire LEP has found that its economy contributes £20.6bn to the 海角视频 economy each year and makes up 14.6% of the South West economy.
In its latest economic assessment for 2023, the LEP found that the area makes up 1.2% of England's total economic output.
The report noted that in 2022 the LEP could not fully determine the scale of the economic and social impact of Covid-19 "due to a lack" of published data. This year, however, it uncovered that there was a total economic contraction of £967m between 2019 and 2020, due to the pandemic, totalling a loss of 4.5% output.
The largest contributors to the local economy were manufacturing, real estate, and retail and wholesale, collectively accounting for just over a third of the total economic output in Swindon and Wiltshire.
In addition, the Swindon M4 Growth zone was noted as a "significant powerhouse", accounting for 59% of total output in the LEP area.
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There are currently 29,200 businesses in the area. The sector composition of the Swindon and Wiltshire business base was comparable to England, with the exception of the agricultural sector which is overrepresented at 7% compared to 4% nationally. The report found a large concentration of businesses in broad sectors of professional, scientific, and technical (16% of total business base), construction (14%) and ICT (8%).
There was success in securing Foreign Direct Investment in the area over the past three years, from eight FDI project wins in 2018/19, creating 17 jobs, to 15 FDI project wins in 2021/22 creating 203 jobs.
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Looking forward, by 2043 it is estimated that there will be over 800,000 people living in Swindon and Wiltshire, a forecast increase of 67,000 people. The majority of the forecast growth is anticipated in the 65+ age group which is estimated to grow by 49% between 2020 and 2043.
By 2027 it is estimated that there will be 383,000 people employed in Swindon and Wiltshire. Sectors anticipated to expand as a result of future jobs growth in Swindon and Wiltshire include health and social work; professional services; support services; and accommodation and food. Sectors anticipated to contract include agriculture; food, drink and tobacco; manufacturing; and public administration and defence.
A statement read: "While many jobs may be undertaken by advancing automation, there will undoubtedly remain a need to ensure labour demand is met by labour supply. In the medium to long term older workers leaving the labour market must be replaced by younger workers, for this to be possible there is a need to counter the ageing demography of Swindon and Wiltshire.
"However, it is necessary to caveat future policy insights and recommendations. In the medium term, to reduce some of the main risks to the Swindon and Wiltshire economy housing needs to be provided and infrastructure needs to be created to meet the needs of residents and businesses, while being mindful that economic shocks may arise, building a degree of resilience across the economy will serve the LEP area."
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