Business Environment

Southend-on-Sea offers companies a prosperous and successful business environment, a wide range of premises and a great variety of development and business opportunities at very reasonable rental levels.

Office accommodation is concentrated in the Town Centre along Victoria Avenue and the High Street with smaller units in district centres along the London Road and Southchurch Road. Westcliff and Leigh-on-Sea also offer a variety of compact office accommodation. New, purpose built high specification office accommodation can be found at the Old Garrison site to the east of the Borough.

To the east, in Shoeburyness, the Seedbed Centre offers workshop and office space ideally suited to smaller companies and start-ups. The units can be rented on a short-term basis and secretarial services and conference facilities are available on site for tenants. The Seedbed Centre also offers a “virtual office” service for non-tenants with everything from a mailbox service through to computer use, full secretarial support, conferencing and Board Room facilities to project a professional image to clients.

The brand new University of Essex Southend Campus houses the innovative Business Hub. This incorporates the BIC (Business Incubation Centre), providing modern office space to start-ups and young companies. Businesses benefit from purpose-built office accommodation in a prestigious location, a variety of modern and innovative facilities, a network of other start-up companies, and support and guidance from business development experts and academics specialising in entrepreneurship and innovation.

In the Social Enterprise sector, funding has recently been secured by the Southend Association of Voluntary Services, (SAVs) to create a Resource Opportunities Centre. The project will include four training and conference rooms, retail units and 15 office units for social enterprises, extending and redeveloping the existing SAVs building.


Manufacturing in the Borough is concentrated in seven main industrial sites and smaller estates totalling 88ha. Most are less than one kilometre from the A127 and A13 trunk roads. There are a range of commercial and light industrial units available and a number of new purpose built units to house modern business activity.

An expanding aviation based business cluster has grown up around London Southend Airport, providing maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) operations to the world’s airlines. World leaders, specialising in manufacturing, engineering and electronic services to the airline industry can be found at the airport. The recent planning approval granted for the new railway station, hotel and terminal at the airport will ensure that Southend Airport will be well placed to take advantage of the opportunities presented by London 2012. The planned extension to the runway will also mean that larger, fully loaded jets will be able to use Southend, so attracting more operators to the airport.

Town Centre retailing is focused on the pedestrianised High Street between Victoria Avenue and the seafront. The Royals indoor shopping centre, at the southern end of the High Street, is anchored by Debenhams, Boots, TK Maxx and a Tesco Metro Store. Along the High Street Marks & Spencer have recently redeveloped their store, increasing floorspace, and upgrading the food hall.

The High Street itself stretches down to the seafront and the shops include a good mix of well known multiples and independent stores. Future plans for the Alexandra and Clarence Road area include specialist retail shops and boutique area which has been enabled through a partnership between English Partnerships, East of England Development Agency, Southend Council and Renaissance Southend Ltd.

The recent £25 million redevelopment of The Victoria, a shopping centre at the northern end of the High Street provides modern retail space and an improved link between Southend Victoria railway station and the Town Centre. New Look have recently relocated to the centre opening one of their largest retail units in the UK here.

The town centre offers a range of leisure and entertainment activities including the Odeon multiplex cinema, and many quality restaurants and bars including the chains, Bella Italia, Pizza Express, Nando’s and Yates’s Wine Bar which can all be found near the north end of the High Street. In addition, there are a range of hotels and Bed & Breakfast accommodation to meet a range of leisure and business requirements, with further developments offering high quality hotel accommodation currently in the planning stage.