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The Place - South Hampshire
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South Hampshire map of general location with Local Authority Boundaries 
South Hampshire is home to almost one million people and is the largest urbanised area in the south of England outside London. Its two main centres are the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton.
Growth has occurred on a massive scale over the last forty years, creating a complex urban area focused on the two cities and a series of adjacent complementary settlements, which now form an almost continuous spread of loose knit suburban development adjacent to the Solent coastline.
South Hampshire has an environment that is the envy of other parts of England, with easy access to rural hinterlands and miles of beautiful coastline. It is bordered to the east by the South Downs and to the West by the New Forest National Park. It contains wildlife sites and habitats of international importance, particularly the Solent Specially Protected Area.
It has world class higher education institutions and excellent transport links by air, road, rail and sea. Historically it has been England's sea gateway to the continent, the Americas and beyond and it still plays this role today. Portsmouth’s continuing tradition as a major Naval Base is complemented by Southampton’s commercial role as a container port and cruise terminal.
South Hampshire’s economy
For the last two decades, South Hampshire’s economic growth rate has been consistently below that achieved by the South East Region. There are signs of improving economic prospects with strong business investment within the two cities in the retail and leisure sectors, reflected in significant, transformational projects both completed and under development – such as Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth and West Quay in Southampton.
Whilst traditional manufacturing industries within South Hampshire have declined, there has been growth in service sector jobs and businesses in the ‘knowledge economy’. Advanced manufacturing in specialised sectors such as marine, aerospace and defence-related industries remains a relative strength.
Although considered relatively affluent with a significant skilled labour supply, South Hampshire also contains pockets of high unemployment and deprivation. The Government’s Indices of Multiple Deprivation 2004 (IMD 2004) show that Portsmouth, Southampton, Gosport and Havant experience significant levels of multiple deprivation, particularly in relation to education, skills and training and the quality of the living environment.
Tackling these pockets of deprivation is essential if we are to create inclusive and sustainable communities, to ensure that everyone enjoys the benefits of regeneration and economic growth. But it is also vital in order for us to achieve growth: to help equip people with the skills that employers in growing businesses are looking for, to help people develop higher level skills that will enable them to get higher value jobs; and to tackle the problems of poor housing and other factors that compound peoples’ experience of deprivation.
South Hampshire’s environment
South Hampshire is an area of contrasts. At its two ‘poles’ are the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton, whose spheres of influence encompass the substantial towns and settlements of Eastleigh, Fareham, Gosport and Havant. So a large part of the PUSH area is taken up with urban and suburban development.
At the same time there are also significant areas of open space of landscape and recreational importance; there are wildlife sites and habitats of both national and international significance – Special Areas of Conservation, Specially Protected Areas, Sites of Special Scientific Interest and more. The New Forest National Park and proposed South Downs National Park define a substantial part of the inland boundary to PUSH, with the Solent and various harbours – notably Portsmouth, Langstone and Chichester Harbours – creating the coastal boundary.
So South Hampshire has some environmental assets to be proud of, but it also has the legacy of past industrial uses and present-day problems such as traffic congestion that mean that some parts are degraded and need restoration and regeneration.
Individuality and identity
Despite the importance of the two cities as centres for employment, business, retail, leisure, culture and learning, each of the towns making up Urban South Hampshire has its own distinct character and identity. These are attributes we aim to maintain and enhance in terms of how development and growth is managed and in terms of what each place has to offer individually and as part of a larger sub-region.