Southend-on-Sea Borough Council
Key Competitive Attractions
Southend-on-Sea offers a great variety of development and business opportunities. With fast road and rail links with London and the motorway network, together with corporate and charter flight access to Europe from London Southend Airport, the town has the scope and the opportunity to attract investment to its industrial, commercial, leisure and tourism sectors.
The town provides an attractive environment for families relocating to the area, providing a wide range of residential property from starter homes to executive marine residences.
Southend has seven miles of award winning beaches, 650 acres of public parks, offering activities from horse riding to basketball, an 18-hole pay-and-play public golf course as well as two local museums, a woodland and nature reserve.
There are 12 state maintained secondary schools, including mixed comprehensive and bilateral schools. There are also four single sex grammar schools, among the top 10 performing schools in the county.
There have been significant levels of public and private sector investment in the further and higher education sectors, with The University of Essex state of the art Southend campus, close to South Essex College in the town centre.
Located in the Thames Gateway South Essex regeneration area, Southend is a key economic driver of the borough and the region. Significant levels of public and private investment in regeneration and growth has enabled the redevelopment of the town centre area, including the High Street, and improved links to the seafront, with the award winning Pier Hill scheme.
Assistance and Support For New Business Investors
We at Southend Borough Council are committed to the economic prosperity of Southend and its' future growth.
As your first point of contact, the Enterprise and Innovation Team provides a service encompassing a wide range of assistance to new investors, including:
- A signposting service to various local and regional organisations support agencies
- Land and property searches
- Provide information on funding schemes, awards and programmes
- Details of local skills and training providers
- Referral to local enterprise hub facilities
- Free membership to the local business partnership, which meets quarterly and sends out regular updates and notifications applicable to the business community
Existing Business Base
Southend is traditionally known for its strength in the leisure and tourism sector. With increasing visitor numbers, the need to increase the amount of hotel rooms available and diversify the seafront offer is important to maintain the sector’s strength. There is growing private sector confidence in the town and a number of major hotel developments have been granted planning permission, or are currently in the planning process.
The town has approximately 6000 businesses. There is a strong focus on the business and financial services sector and public administration. Future opportunities and key growth sectors include the expansion of London Southend Airport, with anticipated growth to one million passenger movements by 2015, and the aviation related cluster which surrounds the airport.
The Call Centre sector is a large employer, with Lloyds TSB, Royal Bank of Scotland, Converso, Insure & Go and Thus, formerly Demon Internet, the leading companies.
Manufacturing still remains important with Linpac Automotive, Ipeco, ATC Lasham, EGL Homecare and Olympus Keymed amongst the larger employers.
There is an established creative and cultural sector in Southend. Arts and antiques, digital media, design, architecture, music and performing arts are among the businesses heavily represented in the area.
