As Managing Director of Maritime Solent, I’ve never doubted the quiet strength of the South Coast’s maritime sector. It’s woven into the very fabric of our economy, our communities, and our identity. Yet, the latest iteration of the UK’s Industrial Strategy leaves that legacy – and our future potential – adrift and barely acknowledged.
This absence is more than an oversight. It’s a strategic misstep.
The South Coast’s Maritime Economy: A National Asset in Disguise
Stretching from Poole in the west to Chichester in the east and including the great port cities of Southampton and Portsmouth, and the maritime hotbed of the Isle of Wight, the Central South Coast represents the UK’s most concentrated and capable maritime ecosystem. We’re not simply ferry terminals and cruise liners. We’re advanced manufacturing, green shipbuilding, logistics, marine autonomy, hydrogen research, naval innovation, and clean growth. Put simply, what happens on our coastline powers what happens in the UK economy.
Yet in the recent strategic framing of national priorities, the South of England – and maritime – are largely absent from the industrial conversation. With a strategy so firmly centred on stimulating growth, how is it that one of the UK’s most trade-connected, innovation-led, and strategically critical sectors and regions has received only passing mention?
London ≠ The South East
All too often, policy thinkers fall back on the mental shorthand of “London and the South East” as a homogeneous zone of wealth and opportunity. But those of us working here know the truth: the South East is NOT London – not in infrastructure, not in opportunity, and not in outcomes.
Across the Solent region, the story is far more nuanced. Yes, we have high-skill, high-wage pockets – but we also have areas of deprivation and chronic underinvestment. Places like Gosport, Havant, and parts of our cities and the Isle of Wight suffer from persistent economic fragility, underpinned by skills gaps and ageing infrastructure.
To treat this area as uniformly prosperous is to ignore its complexity – and to undermine the very notion of “levelling up”. Regional inequality doesn’t stop at the Watford Gap. Rebalancing efforts must recognise all of England’s under-served economies, not just those to the north.
Maritime’s Strategic Importance to National Growth
The UK Industrial Strategy rightly focuses on delivering economic growth through innovation, green transition, and global competitiveness. But here’s the paradox: the maritime sector – and particularly the South’s maritime sector – is core to all three goals.
- Innovation: From AI-driven port logistics to autonomous vessels, the Solent is a world leader in maritime innovation – backed by incredible University capability.
- Green Transition: We are home to projects pioneering clean propulsion, with potential for hydrogen bunkering infrastructure, carbon capture, and maritime decarbonisation.
- Global Competitiveness: Southampton is the UK’s number one export port and the gateway to global markets.
Beyond Ports: An Ecosystem Worth Backing
This isn’t just about ships or ports. The maritime economy touches defence, energy, advanced, manufacturing, engineering, professional services, digital technology, tourism, and education. Our region’s universities and colleges are producing the next generation of marine engineers, low carbon scientists, and logistics innovators. Local supply chains stretch deep inland, bolstering SMEs across the UK.
To view maritime through a legacy lens – as something old, traditional, or geographically peripheral – is to misunderstand its modern potential. We don’t need nostalgia; we need backing.
We need strategic investment in skills, infrastructure, and innovation capacity, underpinned by a recognition that the South’s maritime sector is not a regional niche – it’s a national driver.
A Call for Redefinition
We welcome the government’s intent to drive growth through sectoral alignment and regional strength. But to do so effectively, we urge policymakers to:
- Acknowledge the Maritime Sector as a foundational economic contributor, not an afterthought.
- Disaggregate London and the South East in economic modelling and strategic planning – to truly reflect the diverse needs within the region.
- Invest in Maritime Infrastructure and Innovation in the South, recognising its role in both export performance and green growth.
- Apply Levelling-Up Logic Consistently, accounting for inequalities wherever they exist – not just according to outdated North-South binaries.
We Stand Ready
As Maritime Solent, we have never waited passively for national attention. We are proactive, ambitious, and collaborative. We are building coalitions with academia, industry, local government and internationally, to realise the full potential of our coast. But there are limits to what can be achieved without central alignment.
Our maritime businesses are excelling in spite of industrial policy, but with the right support, the South’s maritime economy can deliver beyond expectation – for jobs, for growth, and for the global reputation of a thriving UK.
Looking Ahead
While maritime may not be explicitly named among the IS-8 “growth-driving” sectors, there is much for our industry to be optimistic about – and even more to contribute.
We have world-leading capability in three of the IS-8 Sectors – Advanced Manufacturing, Defence, Clean Energy Industries and are embedded within the other five.
The Solent maritime sector is leading edge in maritime advanced technological systems, autonomy, clean propulsion, ship design and build, and connectivity. The Solent is home to the UK’s leading maritime defence cluster. Our Ports our Foundational Industries, keeping Britain trading, and will play an important role in energy transition, and our Freeport provides a huge opportunity to unleash our regional strengths.
So let’s keep doing what we are doing but do it even better and shout even louder. At Maritime Solent, we will do all we can – every day – to promote and identify new opportunities for the maritime sector, which not only has shaped our history, but is our route to a more prosperous future.