The City of Edinburgh Council has set out its plans for a Stronger, Greener, and Fairer economy.
After months of consultation with the city’s businesses, citizens, key partners and stakeholders, the refreshed Edinburgh Economic Strategy sets out the actions the Council will take to support the economy, and a clear direction for the priorities on which it will collaborate with partners across the city.
Agreed at yesterday’s (30 November 2021) Policy & Sustainability committee, the strategy sets a vision for the Edinburgh’s economy to be:
1. Stronger: so that Edinburgh businesses recover from the pandemic and create an economy that is more resilient, flourishing, and innovative than ever before.
2. Greener: so that Edinburgh’s transition to net zero brings local jobs and high skilled opportunities which people from all backgrounds can access though education and retraining.
3. Fairer: so that everyone in Edinburgh has the opportunity to access fair work that provides dignity and security of income.
Key highlights for delivery by the Council during the first year of implementation of this strategy in 2022 include (full list included in the full strategy report):
- Increasing the number of people helped into work, learning or training through Edinburgh Guarantee For All and our funded employability programmes
- Encouraging 100 businesses per year to become accredited Real Living Wage employers, through our work with the Edinburgh Living Wage City Action Group
- Continuing to support 3,000 businesses each year through our Business Gateway service
- Supporting the launch of new programmes to help businesses thrive in a net zero economy, including proposals for a new Green Innovation Challenge Fund
- Establishing a business led Just Transition Economic Forum to convene the city’s business community to provide leadership on the just economic transition to a net zero city.
A new ‘Edinburgh Means Business’ annual conference programme will also be launched by the Council. This will bring together existing business networks and everyone with a stake in the development of Edinburgh’s economy. Convened by the Council Leader, the conference will share latest evidence on the progress of the city economy and delivery of this strategy, celebrate successes and identify challenges for city wide action, and build the networks and relationships needed for a Stronger, Greener, Fairer economy.
Council Leader, Adam McVey said: “There has been a lot of work and collaboration over the past months as we have listened to the valuable insights and data from businesses to deliver a robust plan of actions to support businesses, protect and create jobs. Despite the extreme challenges, this plan continues to progress to ensure a just transition to a net-zero economy and a fairer economy at its heart.
“Through our new business conference programme we’ll be engaging in real and meaningful discussions to help tackle our key challenges as a city while driving practical solutions.
“We hope that through these regular opportunities to come together we can make sure that we work in partnership with business across our Capital to recover and grow our economy in a sustainable, stronger and fairer way for everyone.”
Council Depute Leader, Cammy Day said: “Our refreshed Edinburgh Economic Strategy falls quickly on the back of our city gaining Living Wage City accreditation and stating our ambition to get over 40,000 people out of in-work poverty.
“This was one of the key recommendations of the Edinburgh Poverty Commission, which I co-chaired, and through this strategy we hope to build on existing commitments, tackle the fall out of how the pandemic has changed our business landscapes, while setting out actions to support and collaborate with businesses to radically increase the number of workers who can rely on fair work and real living wages.”
Christine McCaig, Living Wage Projects Coordinator at the Poverty Alliance said: “It’s fantastic that employers from a range of sectors and industries, including the City of Edinburgh Council are working together on Making Edinburgh a Living Wage City, and it is further encouraging to see efforts to increase the number of workers earning at least the real Living Wage embedded in to new economic strategy for Edinburgh.
“The real Living Wage is an important benchmark for decent pay and fair work, which are central to inclusive and thriving local economies.”
Liz McAreavey, Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive, said: “This is a strong and fair vision for the city and establishing an effective public/private collaborative partnership will give us the best chance of delivering a successful economic future for Edinburgh.
“Business engagement and knowledge sharing is critical to making this vision a reality.”
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