SWINDON is an ugly, average town according to research by the company charged with its regeneration.

Forward Swindon, the council-funded economic development firm, paid £10,000 to survey 300 corporate business gurus on what they thought of the town as part of its £300,000 marketing campaign to get Swindon on the map.

The town was slammed by 137 senior business people in Hampshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Dorset, and Gloucestershire, plus 163 in Greater London, Buckinghamshire, Bristol, Worcestershire, Bedfordshire, Gwent, Glamorgan and Herefordshire.

Forward Swindon chief executive Ian Piper says much of the data indicates a lack of strong views or knowledge, with many describing Swindon as “UK average” and a “new town”, and showing ignorance of its big, established employers or high level of productivity.

The results found the phrases most associated with Swindon were “UK average”, “new town”, and “ugly”, while the least associated were “creative”, “attractive” and “lots going on”.

The results will inform the key messages in a three-year integrated marketing campaign, launched this week with a new £20,000 website – www.swindon.uk.com – to encourage businesses to relocate to Swindon.

Mr Piper said: “There’s plenty of scope for changing people’s views because they don’t have particularly strong views. They don’t know or they’re neutral, and therefore for this sort of thing, when we come back to do another survey in two to three years’ time, we want to have improved the awareness.”

Ninety-seven per cent were able to pinpoint Swindon on a blank map, 79 per cent were aware of Swindon’s good motorway access, and 65 per cent were aware of the mainline railway services.

Very few knew much about Swindon’s development schemes or thought Swindon had established businesses.

Forward Swindon is getting on board large local firms to promote Swindon as business ambassadors.

In January, bosses from Honda, Intel and Nationwide told a council meeting they struggled to retain staff because they didn’t want to move to the town and companies didn’t want to relocate because it has a poor reputation.

The survey found only 12 per cent of the sample chose “productive” as a word associated with Swindon, even though it is statistically leading in the South West, with 11 per cent employment in manufacturing.

Ninety per cent identified Swindon as being on the M4 corridor, as opposed to more attractive nearby descriptors, such as the Cotswolds, the Thames Valley and the West Country.

Mr Piper said Swindon did not come out with a significantly negative image but the “ugly” image needed to be addressed, adding that one of the things which came out of a consultation was Swindon had to do more to build and keep attractive buildings.

Julia Falcon, head of communications and marketing at Forward Swindon, said: “What we don’t have at the moment is a unique selling point for Swindon. There’s not something that represents Swindon.”