Last update

10th September 2006

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Industry & environmental regulation

Business environmental performance

Economy - Environmental accounts for the SW

Mapping industry

Regional trends in business & industry

Business density

Business growth

Business survival rates

Energy

Rewable energy

Economy

Climate change

Air quality

Tourism in the South West

Useful websites:

South West Business & Economy module

Office of National Statistics

Environment Agency

Environment Agency NetRegs

Defra

Small Business Service

South West Observatory

South West Public Health Observatory

Industry

What's new on this page...

• Spotlight on business environmental performance 2006 - including detailed South West results

There are over 2.3 million (2,361,000) business sites in the South West, just over 9% of the UK total. Just over 10% of these businesses are in agriculture, forestry, hunting and fishing, whilst around 7% are in mining & quarrying, energy, water supply & manufacturing.

The South West has the highest survival rate for new businesses outside the South East and East of England.

More details about the region's business sector are available from the South West Observatory's Business and Economy module and the State of the South West report.

The tourism industry in the South West is covered here.

Industry and environmental regulation

All businesses have some impact on the environment. They emit pollution, produce waste and use resources for power.

Throughout the UK, the Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) regime is currently being progressively replaced by the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) regime. The IPPC regime is introducing a more integrated approach to controlling pollution from industrial sources. It aims to achieve a high level of protection of the environment as a whole by preventing or reducing emissions into the air, water and land.

The Environment Agency is responsible for regulating Part A1 processes (formerly known as Part A), which are the larger industrial processes such as chemical plants, power plants and waste management sites.

Local authorities regulate the smaller industrial processes Part A2 and Part B processes (formerly known as Part B processes), including vehicle re-spraying, furniture manufacture and unloading of petrol.

A practical guide to Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control is available from Defra (2005) or the Environment Agency.

Advice and guidance on current regulations and forthcoming legislation, sector specific technical guidance and information on how and why businesses are regulated is available from the Environment Agency's business and industry pages.

A guide to environmental regulations is also available from the Environment Agency. The NetRegs website is free to use and is regularly updated. Its aim is to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK to understand the complex environmental regulations that can affect them. The site provides guidance on how to comply with environmental law as well as advice on good environmental practice.

Spotlight on Business environmental performance 2006

The Environment Agency produce an annual report on how business and industry is meeting its environmental responsibilties, and what we can do to help those who need to improve and prosecute those who are wilfully neglectful.

Spotlight on Business 2006 (Environment Agency, 2006) reveals that good environmental performance could save UK industry £5.8 billion every year, enhance reputation with customers and investors, drive innovation and create markets; all giving business a competitive edge. But it works both ways: poor environmental performance will cost, and cost you in more ways than you might realise.

What was better in 2006?

• There are fewer releases to the environment. Most releases of chemicals to air are falling, particularly lead and sulphur dioxide. Most releases to water are also falling.
• Environmental performance is improving. Most of the sites we regulate are performing better, with 51 per cent of companies regulated under Pollution Prevention and Control rated A.
• Fines are going up. The courts are taking environmental damage more seriously. Our successful prosecutions against companies totalled over £3.5 million fines compared to £2.7 million in 2005.

What was worse in 2006?

• Greenhouse gases are increasing. The industry we regulate releases 34 per cent of all UK greenhouse gases. These releases have decreased since 1990 levels but have started to creep up again.
• Emissions trading must step up a gear. Releases from sites that are part of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme increased by four per cent. We need caps to be harder to drive carbon prices up and make investment in coal alternatives and new technology more attractive.
• Business are still too wasteful. The industry we regulate generated 42 per cent more waste than in 2000. And the proportion of waste recovered for further use has fallen by eight per cent from 2005 to 2006.

Key highlights for the South West

There are some key examples of both good and bad environmental practice in the South West, including:

• The Environment Agency require all water companies to minimise both pollution from their assets and wasted water, an increasingly valuable resource. Last year water companies began to work on the first of a new round of schemes to improve the environment (‘AMP4’). Eight out of the ten biggest water companies have finished all the schemes planned for last year, with only South West Water and United Utilities falling short.
• Nine of the 10 big water and sewerage companies were fined large amounts last year. Most of these were for water pollution. Thames Water again had the highest cumulative fines in 2005, and these were the highest fines of all businesses, not just water companies. Thames Water, Southern Water, Anglian Water, South West Water and United Utilities were fined more than £10,000 for the seventh year running.
• Case study: Profiting from good environmental performance. At St Regis Paper Company’s site in Cullompton, Devon we had been concerned it hadn’t been able to find the root cause of several pollution incidents. Last year the site implemented an accredited Environment Management System, a condition of its PPC permit. Our officer carried out an audit of its environmental accident prevention procedures and was very pleased to find its system was very specific to the site and involved a great deal of emphasis on staff training and awareness. We found that the site managers had put a significant amount of effort into trying to create a system that worked for everyone, from the Managing Director to the production staff, and most importantly the environment. As a result the site’s operator performance improved by four bands last year to an excellent band A.
• Case study: Investment in the environment and in people. Westbury Dairies Ltd in Wiltshire sought our advice on how to improve its environmental performance at itsWestbury site (formerly run by United Milk PLC) after we found the site didn’t have any environmental policies and its staff had no environmental management training. The dairy also had problems with emissions of milk powder, causing complaints from neighbours, and had polluted a nearby stream. The company implemented an environmental management system, including training for its staff. It also invested in better filters and new emissions monitoring equipment. Emissions of fine particles dropped by 58% between 2003 and 2005. Operator performance at the site has improved from a poor band E in 2003 to a band D in 2004, followed last year by a large improvement to a band B.
• Case study: The cost of poor performance. Hollingsworth and Vose Company Ltd, a paper manufacturer atWinchcombe, Gloucestershire, caused over 30 licensed abstractors over 2km of the River Isbourne to cease taking water after inadequate information on a fungicide treatment led to a massive pollution incident. The paper company miscalculated the safe level of toxicity of the fungicide, which was discharged into the river with treated process water killing more than 300 fish including 62 brown trout. Licensed abstractors taking water from the Isbourne and Avon had to be notified and informed to stop abstractions. The pollution incident required a large number of staff to deal with its impact and investigation. The company was given a £10,000 fine and ordered to pay costs of over £13,500.
• Last year the Environment Agency assessed the operator environmental performance at 66 sites we regulate in other sectors (smaller sectors regulated such as textiles and businesses that were regulated indirectly, or not at all, mainly textiles). Only 26% of these sites were rated in the highest band A. Three companies improved last year including: Buckfast Spinning Co Ltd in Devon and Autofil Yarns Ltd in Nottingham which improved from a band D to a band A.

(NB. all of the following information is based on the Environment Agency's regions, rather than to Government Office boundaries)

All Category 1 & 2 pollution incidents by business & industry

There were 108 Category 1 & 2 pollution in cidents in the South West (Category 1 being the most serious and Category 2 having a significant but less severe impact). This amounted to 12% of the 910 Category 1 & 2 incidents in England & Wales. Of these 108 incidents:

Economy - Environment Accounts for the South West

New environmental accounts for the South West have been compiled by the South West Observatory and the Business Economy Module using data from the Environment Agency led REWARD project. The REWARD database provides estimates of air pollutants, power generation and use, waste generation and management, and water usage for each of the UK regions.

The data includes estimates of environmental impacts related to non-transport and transport activities by firms and households. 93 industry groups are identified for air pollution and energy usage, and 50 groups for waste generation and management. Water usage estimates are provided only on a more aggregated basis.

These accounts can be used to analyse a number of issues relating to environmental aspects relating to sustainable development in the region.

Economy - Environment Accounts for the South West - statistical bulletin (February 2005) has been compiled by the Business Economy Module that provides some examples and further information.

Mapping industry

Pollution from large industrial sites (Part A) have been mapped by the Environment Agency and are searchable via postcode or place on the What's in Your Backyard facility.

The Environmental Hazard Mapping Project is a joint venture between the Environment Agency South West, Health Protection Agency South West and South West Public Health Observatory.

The aims of this project are to:

• Collate and validate data on a wide range of environmental hazards in the South West and to present it in an easy to use format.
• Encourage agencies that regulate, manage and control environmental hazards or their consequences, to use the data to inform environmental and public health actions.
• Demonstrate the potential for provision of accessible and current environmental data to support those working to improve public health.

The initial phase of the project is now almost complete and brings together, for the first time, Local Authority and Environment Agency data on regulated industrial processes across the South West of England.

This free facility will shortly be available online, a link will be made from this site.

Regional trends in business and industry

There were 2,361,100 businesses in the South West in March 2003, just over 9% of the UK total. Of these businesses in the region, the majority fell into the distribution, hotels and catering industry (28.3% - just above the UK average) and the financial services (24.1% - 3% below the UK average).

Agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing businesses, accounting for 10.5% of regional businesses, was highest in the South West and was above the UK average (4%). The number of mining, quarrying. energy, water supply and manufacturing busineses (7.3%) was just below the UK average (7.6%) and the third lowest of the English regions.

The number of agriculture, hunting, forestry & fishing businesses is highest in Devon (19.4%) and Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly (17.2%) whilst lowest in the large urban areas of Bristol City UA (0.3%) and Bournemouth UA (0.4%).

The number of mining & quarrying, energy, water supply & manufacturing is highest in Poole UA (10.7%) and Dorset (8.4%) whilst lowest in Bournemouth UA (5.4%) and Torbay (5.5%).

Distribution, hotels and catering businesses are important throughout the region, reflecting the importance of tourism, but highest in Torbay UA (41.6%) and Plymouth UA (35.5%)

ONS, 2005

Business density

Business density - the number of businesses per 10,000 resident adults - is a commonly used measure of enterprise and a high business density is a crude indicator of economic health. It is encouraging therefore that the South West performs well on this measure. This in part reflects the relative importance of agriculture and tourism, where businesses are often small, and the region's relatively high incidence of self-employment.

As can be seen in the map below, the highest densities of businesses can be found in the rural districts. In contrast, Plymouth has the lowest business density.

Business density by local authority area: 2002, number of VAT registered businesses per 10,000 residents

(click to enlarge)

According to the Land Use Database Statistics (ODPM, 2005), 10,081 hectares of the South West are covered by non-domestic buildings.

Business growth

The South West's stock of VAT registered businesses grew by around 10,000 between 1995 and 2002, equivalent to 0.9% per year (compared to the England growth rate of 1.1%).

The fastest growth rates for new businesses were in Cheltenham, Swindon, North Wiltshire and Bath & North East Somerset (see map). Six areas suffered falling business stocks over this period: Caradon, Gloucester, Torbay, Torridge, West Devon and West Somerset. In all but Torbay, the main cause was the declining stock of agricultural businesses.

Change in number of businesses by local authority area: 1995 to 2002, annualized growth rate of VAT registered businesses

(click to enlarge)

Source: Small Business Service

Business survival rates

The South West has the second highest survival rate for new businesses of any region in England, behind South East. The number of businesses still trading after 1 year is increasing (by 2.5% between 1999 and 2001). Information for those still trading after 2 years is only available for 2000, but this also reveals around a 2% inrease on 1999.

Small Business Service (2005)

In the South West, all counties had over a 92% rate of new businesses still trading after 1 year. The highest survival rates were found in Somerset, Wiltshire and Swindon had the highest number of businesses still trading after 1 year in 2001 (94.2%), closely followed by Devon and Cornwall (93.3%). The lowest (although still 92%) was found in Gloucestershire.

All counties also showed an increase in the number of businesses surviving after 2 years between 1999 and 2000. The largest increase was experienced in Wiltshire and Swindon (5.8%).

Business survival rates in the South West

Small Business Service (2005)

Business Environment News