Important Announcement

After nearly ten years Southern Policy Centre is to cease trading from July 20, 2023, and formally wind up its operations as an independent ‘think tank’ in the South.

In that time, we established SPC as a critical and neutral space to discuss the key challenges and opportunities facing the region. Sadly, and despite the support we have received over the years, it has become increasingly difficult to raise the resources needed to fund a small organisation like ours on a sustainable basis.

We are proud of the contribution of our wide-ranging programme of work to debates about the future of the central South.

Building a regional strategy for devolution was a key pillar of our work together with meeting the challenges of levelling up, low skills and productivity.

We championed the area’s success from its universities, its outstanding natural environment as well as its connections to every part of the UK.

We worked in partnership with public authorities and commercial partners seeking ways to expand the region’s opportunities in areas of education, the creative and digital economy as well as looking at ways of future proofing our city and town centres.

Recently we explored future opportunities that the Solent Freeport will bring to the region summarised in our earlier report.

All of the above featured in our conference ‘Ambitions for the Central South’ which was attended by over 150 delegates in March this year and can be found here.

We would like this opportunity to thank our sponsors for their generous support over the years. In particular, the contributions of our project sponsors has been invaluable, and we are very grateful for their willingness to sponsor our work which has helped us produce a valuable body of work for the region.

The SPC website will remain online for some time while we seek a long-term archive for our work. This contains our rich archive of previously published reports, conference and seminar notes, as well as the specialised opinion pieces from our many friends and supporters in the region.

Please feel free to use them as a reference in your future thinking and policy setting.

Should you have any questions concerning the above please contact us via the following email address: info@southernpolicycentre.co.uk

Ruth Eastwood

July 2023