The Vision

The vision for Southampton, over the next five to ten years, is a city centre comparable with the best in Europe as well as the principal centre of the South, offering a vibrant, exciting, well-designed and maintained centre with a sense of place.

Southampton�s city centre has a unique contribution to make to the future of the region. It provides approximately 50,000 jobs and plays a key role in the sub regional economy. It functions as a major retail, commercial, cultural and leisure centre, transport interchange and as a place to live.

The city centre has gone through a transformation over the last few years, largely due to the opening of the WestQuay Shopping Centre in September 2000. This has helped place Southampton at 7th position in the UK�s top shopping destinations. The pace of transformation is likely to increase further as a result of current projects set out below. Nearly 2,700 residential units, approximately 32,000 sq m of office floorspace, about 50,000 sq m of retail / leisure floorspace and new and refurbished public spaces are currently being developed. This will provide over 3,000 jobs and represent private sector investment of over �600m.

Click here for a full copy of the City Centre Vision for Southampton

Supporting documents:

The following strategy documents have been instrumental in developing the Vision for the City Centre and you can view these by clicking on the links below.

City of Southampton Local Plan - A land use framework and guidance for the development of major sites within the city.

Southampton�s Community Strategy - Developed by the multi-sector/multi-organisation Southampton Partnership, to guide the development and implementation of a shared vision for the future of the city, by promoting or improving economic, social and environmental well-being.