Cardiff is the fastest growing core city in the UK, with the Welsh capital’s population set to increase by 20% over the next 20 years and its economy forecast to grow by 7.2% by 2028.
This substantial projected growth is led in part by the city’s three universities, which continue to attract up to 70,000 students per year and represent a significant opportunity to retain talent for Cardiff’s growth sectors, which include science and technology and information and communication.
It is estimated that Cardiff University alone generated £3.7 billion of economic output in 2020-21, compared to an operating cost of £573 million. This output includes £883 million from research and knowledge sharing, which is boosting the city’s science and technology economy, a sector which is set to grow by 6.6% over the next five years.
Data from Oxford Economics, which appears within Avison Young’s report, also found that Cardiff University saw 164 spinout companies created between 2020-21, including start-ups established by staff and graduates.
This coincides with a particularly positive outlook for the city’s labour market. Over the next five years, job growth is forecast at 3.7%, compared to 2.4% for Wales and 3.1% for the UK as a whole, driven primarily by growth in the professional, scientific and technical services sector (6.6%) and the information and communication sector (4.4%).
Cardiff’s information and communication sector has also seen considerable employment growth over the last 10 years, with a 126% increase in employment within the sector, which made it the fastest growing sector of any UK city in the last decade. Now, this trajectory of growth is set to continue, enabled by the city’s university population and graduate retention rate.
With a population boom, continued economic growth and the creation of new employment opportunities on the horizon for Cardiff, the requirement for the accelerated delivery of housing will also come to the fore. Between 2006 and 2023, a total of 21,323 new dwellings were delivered, which equated to only 52% of the requirement. Ongoing large-scale regeneration projects, including Central Quay and Atlantic Wharf, are expected to help address this shortfall.
Other notable ongoing projects which are supporting the delivery of improved infrastructure within the city include Cardiff Crossrail, which received £50 million in Levelling Up funding last November, and Cardiff Parkway, a planned new railway station in the east of the city.
Source: www.avisonyoung.co.uk/country-outlook/urban-futures
