Economic Conditions and Prospects South East England

1
Economic Conditions and ProspectsSouth East
England
SEEDA Annual Open Public Meeting 30 October 2008

• Paul Lovejoy
• Executive Director
• Strategy Communications

2
The Credit Crunch
3
Government Rescue Package
International rescue packages
UK package
4
Sectoral Impact Financial Services
Financial Services employment as of total
employment in the area, (workplace)
Residents of working age employed in Financial
Services, (residence)
5
April Outlook Mixed
6
July Gathering Clouds
7
October- Stormy Weather
8
Sharp Decline in Business Confidence
Confidence in the economic prospects over the
next 12 months
9
Business Activity
10
Sectoral Impact

• Financial services retrenchment, restructuring
• Tougher trading conditions
• Housing property related
• Parts of manufacturing i.e. automotive
• Transport
• Retail sector
• Slowing demand will impact on growth across all
  sectors

11
Pressures on Small Businesses

• Businesses employing lt 250 employees
• 99.9 of all business stock
• 60 of total employment (over 2 million people)
• 45 of turnover
• Impacts
• Access to credit
• Cost of credit
• Cashflow position
• Payments terms being extended

12
Labour Market Indicators
13
Claimant Count Unemployment
of population claiming JSA September 2008
Change in of residents claiming JSA September
2007 September 2008
14
RES Headline TargetsAnnual Monitoring Report 2008

• GVA per head Achieve an average annual increase
  in GVA per capita of at least 3.
• Productivity Increase productivity per worker
  by an average 2.4.
• Ecological Footprint Reduce the rate of
  increase in the regions ecological footprint,
  stabilise it and seek to reduce it by 2016.

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Preparing for the Upturn

• Highest manufacturing output in the country
• Highest manufacturing productivity
• Largest exporting region in England (value of
  goods)
• High business start-up and survival rates
• More employees in High Medium Technology sector
  than any other UK region
• gt2,000 companies actively involved in
  environmental technologies sector