Few new Swindon businesses despite top spot in economic report

Swindon is faring worse than nearby Bristol and Oxford with below-average business startups according to PwC’s Good Growth for Cities Index.

The Index ranks cities and towns according to their success in meeting twelve factors the public considers most important for their economic well-being.

These areas are jobs, health, income, skills, work-life balance, housing, transport, environment, business start-ups, and income distribution, high streets and safety – areas that “the public identify as most important to their work and finances, and are therefore essential for judging economic success”, says the report author.

The higher a place scores on the public’s top priorities, the higher a city ranks in the Index.

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Swindon came fourth across the country as it mainly scored positively on Swindonian’s priorities. The town scored best in the skills and transport measures but came below Plymouth, Bristol and Southampton in the ranking. 

Swindon ranked average for work-life balance, jobs, income distribution and environment and below average for new businesses and health, dragging it down the ranking.

Swindon is the closest settlement to London to have a below-average new businesses score, which has been dropping over the last two years.

Tom Ayerst, PwC’s market senior partner for the South West, said: “I’m very pleased to see the strength of the South West’s performance in this year’s Index; we have some of the UK’s safest and healthiest cities, with good availability of skills and robust transport infrastructure.

However, he added that cities in the South West performed less positively on the affordability of housing, support for new businesses and income competitiveness.

This is “a complex combination of issues that will require long-term thinking to solve”.

The number of shops closed in the town centre is a well-documented cause for concern among Swindonians, potentially explaining why new business start-ups are not meeting the population’s demand.

The report focussed on the ability of towns to be economically independent following the government’s push to greater regional independence through devolution – the process of government passing powers to small authorities, like councils.

The report was unoptimistic about Swindon’s economic growth: “High performing cities in the Index, such as Plymouth, Bristol and Swindon, have relatively average economic outlooks for 2024 consistent with that of cities that are lower in the Index, such as Walsall, Birmingham and Nottingham.”