Even if you’ve never taken Junction 15 or 16 off the M4, or hopped off the train between Bristol and Paddington, it’s almost certain that Swindon has already touched you and your business. Swindon is reaching out across the UK and beyond to make it even easier for ambitious entrepreneurs, innovative companies and talented employees to Switch on to Swindon.
In September 1840 a young Daniel Gooch, then Superintendent of Locomotives for the Great Western Railway wrote a letter to Isambard Kingdom Brunel recommending Swindon as the location for the new Engine Repair Station. The plans were approved on 25th February 1841 and using the extract from Box Tunnel, work began at once on the new railway works which would transform the town and its people. A new railway town was born which was to become famous the world over. Swindon has a track record as a place of economic innovation with a thriving business and social community. It has been at the forefront of new technology. Ever responsive to economic changes and opportunities, it has developed from the railways of the 19th Century to the Spitfires of the 20th, to the hydrogen cars of the 21st.
If you bank with Nationwide, use Intel products, drive a Mini, get to London on a GWR train, enjoy Formula 1, have ever visited a National Trust property, watched Tim Peake’s progress through space or have simply benefited from scientific or medical research, you’ve got Swindon to thank. Set on the M4, A419 and A420 and the mainline railway between London and Wales and the South West, Swindon has exceptional transport links to London, Heathrow, the Midlands, South West – with Paddington just 55 minutes away (and getting closer via electrification). A highly skilled, hard-working and versatile workforce along with some of the lowest land prices and commercial rents in the South of England gives Swindon a competitive edge. Recently identified as one of five Fast Growth Cities, companies that are hungry for growth and success are thriving in Swindon.
Switch on to Swindon is a campaign designed to highlight the strength of Swindon as a great place in which to live, work, invest in and visit. It will celebrate Swindon’s hidden gems and symbols of change – keynote developments and changes. By showing people, both inside and outside of Swindon, just how positive doing business and living here can be, we can shout about the Swindon story and ensure it prospers.
Swindon has a great location and connectivity, a legacy of fast growth and boundless enthusiasm. Switch On To Swindon is enabling everyone – businesses, communities and volunteers – to come together with a common goal of promoting Swindon. It will build positive recognition and attract interest from those who are looking to invest; relocate, start or grow a business; move house and/or job. Join us – Swindon’s in motion.