L’Aida Prima didn’t stay long at dock in Southampton. Just enough time for Helmut, a German from Berlin, to get off and visit the port city in southern England, a stopover on a week-long cruise to the Baltic Sea. “Next stop, Le Havre”he said, time to get back on board and wait for theAida weighs anchor in the early evening. The 300-meter-long, 16-deck high ship can hold up to 3,300 passengers. A floating city.
And yet, there is bigger. L’Arvia of the P & O company, specializing in cruises to the Caribbean, recently arrived in the port where it will be based, can accommodate up to 5,500 passengers with a crew of 1,500. While being more ecologically responsible, because it sails on liquefied natural gas (LNG)!
A city turned towards the sea
An average British city, Southampton has always been turned towards the sea. Located at the bottom of a wide estuary, it has an exceptional port location, facing the Isle of Wight. She had her hour of glory with the departure of the liner Titanic, April 10, 1912, from the port of Southampton for a maiden voyage to New York. She was to consecrate the largest and fastest cruise ship that ended in a shipwreck four days later in the North Atlantic near Newfoundland after the flagship of the White Star Line hit an iceberg. Mourning in passing a whole city which had provided three quarters of the members of its crew.
This tragic episode did not prevent Southampton from bouncing back and experiencing its golden age in the 1920s and 1930s, again with transatlantic crossings to America. Film stars then went down to Southampton, spent two or three days there before heading to London, leaving in the bars and hotels of the time, the Dolphin and the Star Hotel, photos for posterity. And long before them, the famous 19th century novelist, Jane Austen, used to stay sometimes for several months in the port city.
Of this glorious past, the city has hardly any traces today. The two slightly faded hotels no longer welcome stars but asylum seekers, to the chagrin of Royston Smith, the Conservative MP. «Southampton takes in more migrants than any other locality and the government doesn’t even fund their stay to match the cost,” he complains while calling for them to be relocated elsewhere.
A city of migrants
It’s forgetting a little too quickly the very history of this port city with its arrivals and departures of men, women and children tossed about by the chaos of history. Those who left on board Mayflower to America, in 1620; Basque children fleeing the civil war in Spain in 1937; Poles arriving in 2004 after Poland joined the European Union. But also the Indians who arrived in the 1950s with, among them, the family of the current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, himself born in Southampton, or the migrants from the Caribbean, a community still present in the city, such as the Chinese who arrived in the 1970s, etc.
Martha, a young employee of a small convenience store, open on the same street as the old hotels, only sees the “dilapidation» of the High Street for the benefit of the modern city. The old city is still home to a few period buildings, survivors of the World War II bombings that partially razed the city, although they mainly targeted the Spitfire aircraft factory. But most economic life now takes place outside the walls, in Above Bar Street.
So when in early December Southampton learned that it was among the towns selected to benefit from the government’s ‘Leveling Up’ scheme, it was like a Christmas present from heaven. Key theme of the Conservatives’ election campaign in 2019, Boris Johnson had made it “the decisive mission” of his government to “Level the country up”. Unveiled in February 2022, its regeneration program is to be completed by 2030.
The United Kingdom, country where the disparities are the most glaring
Certainly, since then, Boris Johnson has taken the door and Rishi Sunak now occupies 10 Downing Street. But this former Chancellor of the Exchequer, also a conservative, did not question the “Leveling Up”. The stated objective is to tackle the deficit suffered by certain regions hit for decades by economic decline, by stimulating job creation, training and productivity. Because, among the developed countries, the United Kingdom is the one that displays the most glaring regional disparities. At the top of this sad list, the old industrial regions of central and northern England and the deprived coastal regions.
Among the initiatives to revitalize declining areas and create wealth is the opening of ten free ports. Including Southampton and Portsmouth, 30 km away, which will benefit from the free port of Solent. «We take full advantage of the freedoms obtained since we left the EU (January 1, 2021, editor’s note). These freeports will attract new businesses to often overlooked areas, creating thousands of jobs», said Leveling Up Minister Dehenna Davison, visiting Southampton in mid-December.
The government estimates possible direct investment at 1.75 billion pounds (1.99 billion euros) in Solent and the region. “A big boost to face the challenges facing the region”, said Peter Taylor, president of the Hampshire County Chamber of Commerce.
Ahmet, 45, arrived from Turkey ten years ago after turning his back on the politics of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. First settled in London where he bought a butcher’s shop, he came to invest in Southampton. First, he renovated an old pub into a grand restaurant in the old part of town where he serves oriental cuisine. «Since the end of the Covid, tourisma repris », he rejoices.
Between cruise ship passengers and ferry passengers, he does not complain, business is good. Soon he hopes to invest in another new restaurant, but this time in the modern part of town.
Weak effects due to Brexit
Southampton is little affected by the direct effects of Brexit at the maritime level because most of the port activity, freight and containers, mainly concerns the Far East, China, Japan and South Korea. It is with cruises, the major economic activity of a city which, moreover, is changing and turning more and more towards advanced technologies. Thanks also to its two major universities, that of Southampton and the Solent University.
“One in nine people in Southampton is a student”, enthuses Mark Farwell, professor of political sociology at Solent University. At over 54, he returned to his hometown after traveling the world.
If the exit of the United Kingdom from the European space penalizes the port city less than others in the country, its universities have lost their attractiveness, still judges Mark Farwell. ” Not only have we lost a considerable number of European students who came to us under the Erasmus programme, but we are now deprived of theEU research funds. Since we no longer have European aid, universities now depend, for their operation, almost exclusively on student registration fees. »
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What are free ports?
Free ports aim to create economic activity near ports or airports. Goods imported into Freeports from overseas are exempt from taxes normally paid to the UK Government on arrival.
Companies that set up in free ports can import raw materials duty free, by only paying customs duties on finished goods leaving the site elsewhere in the UK. Alternatively, the goods may be re-exported overseas without UK duty being paid.
In England, businesses inside freeport sites will also be able to claim reduced property taxes, including on the new buildings they buy. They will also benefit from reduced National Insurance rates – paid out of employees’ salaries – if they create new jobs.