Economic Strategy

ETAG 14th September 2011

Graeme Rigg

The City of Edinburgh Council

Economic Development

Strategy & Research

Edinburgh Economic Strategy 2012-2017

• Justification

• Purpose

• Product

• Implementation

The Challenges

Economic Review

Business Perceptions Survey

Consultation

Stakeholders meetings

Councillor’s Away Day

1st Draft Strategy

Final Strategy

The Process

Further

Consultation

Input 1 -The Economic Review

Edinburgh Economic

Review

Economic context

Economic Futures

Productivity Employability and Skills

Enterprise and

Innovation

Jobs and Investment -

synthesis for key sectors

Low Carbon Economy

https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/economicreview2011

Recap: Economic Review findingsStrengths

• Edinburgh continues to deliver on Tourism spend & attract ‘replacement’ Finance jobs

• FDI attracted to ECR - with projects up 70% between August 2010 and 2011

• New firm formation is relatively healthy with 3.8 per 1000 residents pa

• 44% working age residents have HNC/HND+ and relatively few unskilled

Weaknesses

• Although resilient Edinburgh has lost 7,400 jobs from 2005 peak. Forecast not to regain until 2014

• We are part of a global market place and indebted finance system

• Businesses lag behind UK on innovation and internationalisation

• High unemployment amongst state school leavers

Opportunities

• Further exploitation of University sector – innovation and commercialisation

• Support ‘Innovation City’ and/or ‘Visitor Destination’ scenarios

• Edinburgh’s population is expected to grow c. 9% over 10 years

Threats• A growing population needs increased

Jobs (private sector based) and housing

• Cuts in public sector spend is expected to result in 4,200 direct job losses in the city between 2011/12 and 2014/15

• Between 2010 and 2020, major net job losses are forecast in the city in public administration (2,200), manufacturing (2,200) and utilities (700)

Threats

• Reliance on a limited number of sectors?

• Potential skills gap between current demands and demands of the future

Economic Review findingsTourism

• Bank of Scotland Purchasing Managers Index published in 2011- Tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors

• Retail, wholesale, hotels & catering together account for 26% of the business base

• 9 out of 108 FDI projects into the ECR between 2006-11 were in Hotels & Tourism. These totalled $328.8m

Economic Review findingsTourism

• Reliance on in-migration as a source of labour

• Big Issues - retention, customer service, management & leadership development

• Greater opportunity to exploit ICT?

• Potential tension between air travel and a low carbon economy?

Input 2: Business Perceptions

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Improving the employability and skillsof disadvantaged residents

Providing strategic direction and high-quality market information

Supporting new development andfacilitating regeneration

Attracting new inward investors to thecity

Providing support to new and growingbusinesses

Promoting the city as a place to live,visit and do business in

Very important

Somewhat important

Neither important norunimportant

Somewhat unimportant

Very unimportant

Input 3: Consultation & Stakeholder meetings

• Public Consultation – on paper or surveymonkey

• Expert verifiers and specialists

• ETAG, EDSP, Jobs Strategy Group, CoC, MEL, Essential Edinburgh….

• EBF

…and Councillors / Officer input

Milestones• May 2011 Committee - Draft Economic Review

• Committee Awayday 23 August – Review findings and Strategic Options

• 20 June to 16 Sept - open to public consultation

• Various meetings and workshops

• Oct 2011 Committee – Outline Economic Strategy

• Dec 2011 Committee – Draft Economic Strategy including new KPIs and draft operational plan

• March 2012 - Launch of Economic Strategy

Ongoing opportunitiesto input

• https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/economicreview2011

• economy@edinburgh.gov.uk

•graeme.rigg@edinburgh.gov.uk