Swindon
Railway works from 1842. Honda 1985-2021 (3,500 jobs ended). Site becoming 7.2M sq ft logistics/data hub. 18% knowledge services jobs (9th highest UK). M4 corridor location.
Swindon is a case study in economic reinvention—or rather, in being forced to reinvent repeatedly. In 1841, the population was 2,500. Then Isambard Kingdom Brunel chose the site for the Great Western Railway works in 1842, and Swindon became a railway town. At peak, the works was one of the world's largest railway engineering complexes.
When railway manufacturing declined, the town pivoted. Honda chose South Marston in 1985 for UK car production, explicitly citing the skilled workforce left by the railway works. For 36 years, Honda employed thousands; the Civic and CR-V rolled off the line. But in 2019, Honda announced closure, shifting production to Japan. The plant closed in July 2021, ending 3,500 jobs.
The site is being reinvented again. Panattoni's redevelopment will create 7.2 million square feet of net-zero logistics, manufacturing, and data center space—one of the UK's largest brownfield developments. Construction began in 2025.
Swindon's underlying strengths persist. Around 18% of jobs are in knowledge services—ninth highest of all British cities. The town has the eighth-highest employment rate and twelfth-lowest share of residents without formal qualifications. The M4 corridor location provides London access; technology companies cluster along the motorway.
By 2026, Swindon tests whether logistics and data centers can replace the manufacturing jobs that railways and cars once provided.