The overall discussion was positive and informative with lots said about the economic recovery of Edinburgh being focused on a wellbeing economy and how the rich culture and heritage sector of the city can be involved.
A wellbeing economy is one that is based on human and ecological well being being the driving economic forces instead of profit. It is a reasonably new idea and Scotland was one of the founding countries of the Wellbeing Economy Governments group.
A recent report on the economic impact of covid in the UK ranked Edinburgh as the second least impacted city in the UK, while that is good news the citys economy still shrunk by 7%. The significant financial sector is largely responsible for this ranking, however that figure hides the damage done in the hospitality, entertainment, culture and heritage sectors.
Unfortunately the report indicates Edinburgh’s economy will be one of the slowest to recover.
However, in the last year the amount of innovation in how businesses operate and how services are delivered has been staggering. Perhaps this continued innovation will mean the City’s economic recovery will be better than predicted.