
ANALYSIS
Bus back better? Exeter services expected to remain unfit for purpose without needed changes
Government underfunding and bus sector challenges limit scope for improvement but county council failure to upgrade routes and policy ambitions plus high housing costs make Exeter difficulties acute, undermining net zero aspirations.

ANALYSIS
Alphington "enhancements" will not mitigate traffic impact from massive South West Exeter extension
County council manipulates public consultation and allocates just 1% of £55 million grant to pedestrian scheme while spending 75% on new roads and increased road capacity for 3,500 new cars expected on greenfield housing estate.

COMMENT
Exeter Development Fund: rent extraction, unaffordable housing and gentrification, but not net zero
Exeter City Futures' private debt-driven Liveable Exeter property development financing scheme is under fire from councillors who say it is based on insufficiently-evidenced assumptions and won't meet Exeter's housing needs.

ANALYSIS
Exeter greenhouse gas report disregards hundreds of thousands of tonnes of annual city emissions
Restricted scope of study misrepresents scale of city's impact to produce partial decarbonisation targets while ignoring opportunities to reduce emissions imported by residents, businesses and visitors, guaranteeing net zero failure.
NOTES & SKETCHES
Race in pole position
Exeter Labour looks set to pick Steve Race as the party’s parliamentary candidate at the next general election after retiring incumbent Ben Bradshaw anointed his former assistant as his heir apparent in what has been a fairly safe Labour seat since the 1997 landslide...
DEMOCRACY & GOVERNANCE
NOTES & SKETCHES
How to inflate housing costs and influence people
Despite Exeter’s rapidly worsening housing crisis, the council has continued its relentless promotion of the city as a destination to potential incomers by commissioning a coterie of Instagram influencers to flog the place to their followers after spending a May weekend here...
ECONOMY & ENTERPRISE

ANALYSIS
Do Exeter Labour election campaign claims stand up to scrutiny? Part II: Economy & city centre
The second in our 2022 local elections series examines Exeter Labour claims about the city centre and Exeter's wider economy, including its misrepresentation of content marketing materials as authoritative sources of information about the city.