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February 2025
The Solent’s reputation as a centre for innovation and economic activity spans centuries, from its role as the UK’s foremost trading port, to the prototyping of fighter planes and hovercrafts, to the inventions behind the early building blocks of the internet, to the research and data centre might of IBM in Hursley, and the national mapping agency Ordnance Survey. The world-class universities of Southampton and Portsmouth, and the tech clusters that have built up around them in the past twenty to thirty years, show there is no sign of that innovation slowing down, from advances in marine technology to cybersecurity, defence tech and artificial intelligence.
However, the region must work to keep the momentum that has spurred the growth of its tech sector in recent decades. Early economic indicators would suggest that Solent has yet to fully recover from the lull in business activity brought about by the coronavirus pandemic compared to other regions of the UK.
According to figures compiled by the Southampton Data Observatory, professional, scientific and technical activities was the only sector to see a significant drop in GVA from 2020 to 2022, a fall of more than £260m, while the number of professional, scientific and technical businesses fell by 50, the steepest decline of any sector after the transport and storage sector. In addition, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics, the number of learners achieving a funded further education and skills learning aim in Portsmouth stood at 4,160, around 13% behind the national average, while the number of business deaths, at 930, was about 50% higher than the national average.
Nonetheless, the creation of a suite of recent initiatives raises hopes that the tide will quickly turn. The launch of The South Coast Institute of Technology (IoT), a major collaboration between Solent University and the University of Portsmouth along with four further education partners, which will welcome over 1,000 students per year, will cultivate the technical skills and qualifications that will plug many of the skills shortages in the region over the next decade. In addition, the creation of TechSolent, a community interest company set up to run networking and education events for local technology businesses, suggests a rise in collaboration in the region, removing the friction in fostering connections and building joint ventures that will be vital to the economic growth of the tech sector.
Jon Hales,
Partner and Head of WBD Southampton office
There’s so much potential in the region, tech could really be a boom sector. Ensuring our key players are able to come together – private and public sector – would enable us to truly become more than the sum of our parts.
UKTN would like to thank our sponsor, international law firm Womble Bond Dickinson (WBD), for their support and contribution to the research that made this report possible.
Womble Bond Dickinson (WBD) is a full-service international law firm ranking in the top 25 in the UK and 109th globally. With a strong focus on innovation, WBD ranks in the Top 50 most innovative law firms in Europe by the Financial Times.
In the UK, WBD has more than 140 partners and around 450 lawyers based in eight locations, including the UK’s biggest cities and legal hotspots. Its Southampton office has roots going back more than 200 years, including in the US, WBD boasts 37 offices following the merger with Lewis Roca on 1st January 2025. The firm also has strategic partnerships with law firms in Germany and France and, through the Lex Mundi network, WBD can offer clients access to counsel in more than 120 countries.
The firm’s technology team advises businesses that lead the way in innovation both as providers and users of technology, with a core part of the team based in Southampton. Clients range from worldwide leaders in software, electronics and communications, to emerging entrepreneurs, sophisticated technology customers and those starting to dip their toes in the new world of AI and emerging tech. WBD understands both the legal and business issues unique to their clients and the rapidly evolving technologies that drive their success.
