Could Southampton become the next Bilbao?

A grand vision of an iconic building to grace the Southampton waterfront just as the Guggenheim Museum has transformed Bilbao - that was what guest speaker and former shadow chancellor Michael Portillo was advocating at the Business Southampton annual conference today.

He invited his audience of local business leaders at St Mary’s Stadium to consider whether Southampton could learn from the industrial Spanish city’s success in turning itself from a visitors’ gateway into a holidaymakers’ destination.

Like Southampton, Bilbao is a major port busy with commercial maritime traffic, so at the water’s edge you find dockland rather than beach.

As a result, the idea of British holidaymakers flying there was unheard of - until recently.

It all changed when the architecturally stunning Museum was opened and marketed well, prompting a low-cost air route from the UK to come into operation. Visitor numbers boomed and helped to put the city firmly on the world travel map.

Could Southampton build an equally iconic waterfront landmark as part of an urban renaissance?

Whether or not it’s a runner – and let’s not forget we do already have Ikea (!) – there was much to be positive about in the promotional work already being done by Business Southampton. Chief Executive Sally Lynskey outlined a series of developments the business partnership group and its city champions have achieved from events such as this year’s transport summit to promoting business involvement in local schools.

No-one today was in any doubt about the dire economic backdrop facing the city but there is solid work going on – the stepping stones Sally called it – to market Southampton and achieve the business growth and economic development that we all rely on. Mr Portillo said the aim of presenting a united face to the world would be attractive to inward investors. He said the reason an organisation such as Business Southampton exists is not for the good times when everyone can get business; it is most needed for finding solutions in the bad times.

On the wider economic situation, Mr Portillo put the recession down to “massive policy mistakes on both sides of the Atlantic” and was scathing about the lack of government response to warnings over the housing bubble and reckless bank lending. He did not agree with the current Chancellor or the IMF on forecasts for growth and fears the public finances are in even more of a mess than was indicated in the figures released with the Budget yesterday. He said: “There must be a danger that the government will not be able to borrow what it needs to borrow and that could lead to pension cuts and emergency tax measures. It is quite possible that there will be a real problem in financing the public debt.”

On the plus side, he said the recent G20 meeting had been a success and “the prospect of systemic failure in the world’s economy had been hugely reduced”. He detected a thawing in the financial markets with “a fair number of mergers and acquisitions happening”.

Overall, despite the economic crisis, today’s event was really enjoyable and the various discussions gave much food for thought on supporting Southampton’s future.

Bosses and learners take centre stage at Portsmouth awards night

Just as the government promises more training places for people out of work for more than a year, so Portsmouth businesses who champion work-based training have been honoured with awards.

Catch22 South East Training staged their inaugural awards bash to highlight the success of apprenticeships and other training support in childcare, business administration, health and social care, and sport and recreation. It was great to see such important work celebrated in front of more than 100 guests.

Employers picking up honours included the Co-op, Asda, Farlington Day Nursery and the Portsmouth Marriott Hotel, all of whom spoke about trainees and apprenticeships making a positive difference to the workplace and learning skills for life.

The achievements of young people aged 16-18 seeking to enter employment, college or apprenticeships on a training programme called SET4 Life were also recognised with awards.