Business and Enterprise
In order for London to be a sustainable city, each sub-region, and at borough level, also needs to be sustainable. In order to strengthen the south London sub-regional economy it needs to create more high paid jobs, capitalise on its four metropolitan centres and other town centres and fend off competition from central London, developments in east London/ Thames Gateway and the M23 and M25 corridors.
South London’s location presents opportunities. It has potential competitive advantage relative to central London in terms of quality of life and lower cost premises. Its location has permeable boundaries with central, east and west London and to parts of Kent, West Sussex and Surrey, and accessibility to Europe. For example, the southern part of the sub-region has opportunities to benefit from its closeness to Gatwick and the developments in the south-east region of the ‘London to Gatwick Corridor’. Gatwick can offer alternative or additional business and employment opportunities for south London.
Over the period to 2016, based upon its business sector structure, the south London area is expected to grow at a slower rate than the London average – but above the national average. Although industrial employment has declined within the sub-region prospects are positive with a more stable business base predicted for the future. South London has a relatively favourable employment structure, with strong representation from growing service industries, business and finance services, together with strong consumer services (retail, hospitality, leisure, sport, culture and tourism).
Business Premises
The range and quality of business premises must be adequate and accessible to meet the needs of a wide range of business size and sector. The recent South London Office Capacity Study identifies that office space supply is adequate for demand in statistical but not qualitative terms. The conventional office letting market does not cater for the needs of the SME sector and there is a lack of provision of modern units at the large end of the
market for potential new occupiers.
The south London office market is also experiencing competition from both central London and from locations around the M25, western corridor, Thames Gateway, east Surrey, west Kent and the Crawley/Brighton corridor. Provision of business space suitable for smaller occupiers, in non Grade A properties, combined with place marketing of the sub-region to agents and developers may ameliorate the situation. Croydon stands out in the sub-regional context in terms of its critical mass and large development capacity to attract large scale occupiers.
To sustain business competitiveness and growth in the sub-region, innovative schemes for mixed use employment and housing, which protect and enhance, town and district centres, will be needed to support business growth and employment opportunities. Action to address employment land protection policies and meet the needs of business will need to happen at a local level but there is also a need to have a clearer message, intelligence and communication for south London about its planning regime.
South London needs a range of business premises to meet the range of business type in order to maintain the range of employment opportunities at all skill levels. This includes affordable business premises (the equivalent of key worker housing for business) and a mix of private and charitable community provision. There is also a shortage of workspace and business incubator premises for new business starts, intermediate market and micro business.