Change in industrial shares of GVA, between 1996 and 2006, South East
The South East is the second largest economic contributor among the regions and countries of the UK. It has the highest employment rate, although like all other regions this has fallen over recent quarters.
The South East was responsible for more than 14 per cent of the UK’s gross value added (GVA) − a key measure of the economic performance of a region. The region’s headline GVA was £176 billion in 2007. One-third of this was produced by the combined counties and unitary authorities of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.
Productivity, as measured by GVA per hour worked, was 5 per cent above the UK average in 2007. The South East is the only region apart from London which has been consistently above the UK average in recent years.
Real estate, renting and business activities contributed 29 per cent of the South East’s total GVA in 2006, an increase of more than 6 percentage points since 1996. After London, the region had the second highest GVA from this sector, amounting to 18 per cent of the UK total.
The proportion of the region’s GVA from manufacturing showed an equivalent decline and accounted for 11 per cent in 2006. Over one-fifth of the country’s GVA from the manufacture of optical and electrical equipment was produced in the region.
GVA per head was £21,200 in 2007, the second highest region and 6 per cent above the UK average. Gross disposable household income (GDHI) of South East residents was also the second highest after London, at £16,100 per head. There was wide divergence within the region, with GDHI highest in Surrey at about £20,000 per head, compared with only £11,300 in Southampton.
The employment rate for the region’s working-age residents was the highest among the regions, at 77.3 per cent in May to July 2009. This was 2.3 percentage points lower than a year earlier. The unemployment rate (for those aged 16 plus) increased by 1.6 percentage points to 6.0 per cent for the same period, the lowest regional rate.
Of the working-age population in the South East, 10.4 per cent were self-employed in 2008, rising to 19.9 per cent in Rother.
Notes:
GVA is on a workplace basis, which allocates the incomes of individuals to their place of work. Employment and unemployment rates are seasonally adjusted Labour Force Survey headline indicators. Self employment data are from Annual Population Survey, January – December 2008.
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Regional Trends 41