Herefordshire’s two decades of stagnation laid bare

Herefordshire has slipped over the past twenty years from slightly below the UK average of wealth created per person, to close to the bottom.

This is according to an initial report by the Herefordshire 2030 Project, a non-aligned team of professionals in the county launched a year ago with the backing of Herefordshire Council and the RSA – the royal society for arts, manufactures and commerce.

Herefordshire’s economy has seen almost no real-term growth in two decades, the report, titled “What the hell happened?”, says.

In fact its financial and manufacturing sectors both contracted in absolute terms during the period, according to the official statistics it quotes.

The 2011 census showed 1,565 people were employed in the relatively well-paying finance and insurance sector. “It is almost certain that many of these jobs have now gone for good,” the report says.

Manufacturing has meanwhile contracted by some £86 million, with much of the decline being since 2016, it adds.

Yet Herefordshire isn’t cheap. Average house prices in the county now top £300,000, putting it mid-table among the counties of England and Wales, and making home ownership all but impossible for most of those starting out on the housing ladder.

The report also claims Hereford’s “visitor offer is weak compared to some other UK cities of a similar size”.

However a couple of bright spots have kept the county’s economy from an even poorer placing. Its IT and communications sector has put on growth of over 8 per cent a year over the past twenty years, outperforming the national rate and more than making up for the contraction in the county’s manufacturing.

Herefordshire now also boasts a defence and security IT “cluster”, centred on the Centre for Cyber Security in Hereford’s Enterprise Zone and the Special Forces Signal Squadron at Credenhill, along with the nearby GCHQ at Cheltenham and defence tech firm QinetiQ in Malvern.

“This puts Herefordshire at the heart of the Cyber Valley, the second largest concentration of cyber-related activity outside London,” the report says.

Herefordshire’s utilities sector has also performed well, it adds, thanks to investment by Western Power and Welsh Water and the local rollout of broadband.

Herefordshire Council was invited to comment on the findings.