Sectors, Clusters and Diamonds
Sectors and Clusters
Sectors enable SEEDA to focus on the needs of key industrial sectors across all its activities. They have strong links with the educational sector (particularly universities), industry groups, trade associations and local industry networks. This allows closer collaboration and partnership than is possible nationally and the opportunity to exploit mutual interests not available at a local authority level.
To this end, SEEDA established seven sector consortia, independent companies governed by senior business people to pursue a business–led approach to winning market share.
SEEDA has identified the following sectors as being instrumental in the sustainable future of the South East:
- advanced engineering and marine
- aerospace and defence
- environmental technologies
- financial services
- information and communication technology (including digital media)
- life sciences and health technologies.
These sectors have been selected for the following reasons:
- high potential to innovate and grow
- clustered within the South East
- importance in delivering a sustainable future for the region, and
- evidence that a sectoral focus (on supply chains or other business-to-business links) has particular potential to deliver benefits in these cases.
Businesses, especially SMEs in similar markets, often cluster together naturally in places like Silicon Valley because rubbing shoulders with older and more established firms makes it easier to learn, collaborate and grow. SEEDA Cluster Managers work with each cluster on projects that bolster competitiveness, for example, in the areas of supply chain improvement and group purchasing incentives.
South East Diamonds for Investment and Growth
In seeking to build upon the South East’s position as a powerhouse of the UK economy, the Regional Economic Strategy (RES) adopted a place-based focus. The South East Diamonds for Investment and Growth have the concentrations of people, employment, built assets, knowledge, transport, creativity, culture and diversity necessary to act as economic catalysts for the region as a whole.
The eight diamonds are:
- Basingstoke
- Brighton & Hove
- Gatwick Diamond
- Milton Keynes & Aylesbury Vale
- Oxford / Central Oxfordshire
- Reading
- Thames Gateway Kent
- Urban South Hampshire.
Related documents:
South East Diamonds for Investment and Growth: A Prospectus for Prosperity
