The Evolving Environment
A personal appraisal of the Solent crisis

Solent Crisis

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Economic Contribution

The best attempt to put a “value” on coastal activity has been carried out by David Pugh and Leonard Skinner in a report for the Government’s InterAgency Committee for Marine Science and Technology (IACMST). The report shows that on a national scale, coastal industry adds about £39 billion to GDP. Of this some 30% is attributed to leisure. However, this includes cruising (such as QE2), and leisure activities probably account for about 30% of the leisure figure, say £3.6 billion. Lets guess that one sixth of this total is attributable to the Solent area. That leaves a staggering £600 million a year of GDP is generated in the Solent area.

Such an amount cannot be put at risk.

Note that this calculation does not include any contribution from commercial shipping operations. It has been estimated that the port of Southampton alone supports some 20,000 jobs.