NEWS

City council gives Exeter Chiefs permission to hold Sandy Park concerts with 15,500 attendees

Permanent consent for six weekend events between 1 May and 15 July each year with amplified music to 10.30pm follows four trial concerts with audiences of just 3,500.

Friday 17 November 2023

NEWS

Exeter employment rate second lowest in South West for second year running

Economic inactivity levels related to large student and retiree population remain high, creating recruitment challenges from healthcare to refuse collection, but council celebrates top retirement destination ranking as 'more good news'.

Thursday 19 October 2023

NEWS

Home Office fails in bid to shut down local restaurant

Hearing following December immigration raid revokes premises supervisor's authority and briefly suspends but stops short of revoking premises licence.

Thursday 7 September 2023

NEWS

Home Office demands closure of local restaurant

The Home Office has asked Mid Devon District Council to revoke the premises licence at Belluno, an Italian restaurant in Newton St Cyres, effectively shutting down the business.

Monday 4 September 2023

NEWS

Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership to be wound up

The government has confirmed that the Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership will be wound up in April next year.

Saturday 5 August 2023

NEWS

Decline in Exeter economic activity levels among largest in country

Census figures also show population increasing at nearly six times rate of job creation over past decade while healthcare, wholesale/retail and teaching make up nearly half of all employment, reflecting low pay and productivity.

Thursday 23 March 2023

ANALYSIS

Council borrowing nearly triples in three years as property acquisition and development loans mount

Freedom of information request reveals five paragraph 'outline business plan' for £55 million Guildhall shopping centre investment.

Wednesday 28 September 2022

ANALYSIS

Exeter beset by unaffordable housing, low graduate retention and economically inactive over 50's

Exeter City Council executive ignores key challenges flagged in major council-commissioned employment and skills research report.

Thursday 23 June 2022

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.

Thursday 26 May 2022

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.

Monday 25 April 2022

NOTES & SKETCHES

Nice work if you can get it

Any Exeter-based readers who fancy £144,000 a year to help the government deliver its “Levelling Up” agenda (still only a white paper) in the South West need look no further.

Monday 28 March 2022

NOTES & SKETCHES

Keep it in the family

Earlier this year the University of Exeter drew attention to the South West’s significant social mobility issues, which it described as “blighting young lives”, when it launched a research project hoping to better understand the region’s challenges.

Wednesday 8 December 2021

NOTES & SKETCHES

Public sector pay pals?

Instead of announcing the biggest council funding rise for over a decade, Exeter City Council’s press team marked budget day by celebrating Exeter’s latest quarterly YouGov popularity rating. The Paris Street PR machine forgot to mention that those surveyed need never have visited the city.

Wednesday 10 November 2021

NOTES & SKETCHES

It's grim down South West

Recent synthesis of economic data by Devon County Council doesn’t make for very cheerful reading.

Tuesday 21 September 2021

NEWS

Exeter workers to be among hardest hit by £20 cut in universal credit

Analysis shows proportion of benefit claimants in Exeter in work is among highest in country.

Friday 10 September 2021

NOTES & SKETCHES

Partnership agreement of the week

In a hotly-contested field, this week’s winner must surely be the new Exeter Civic University Agreement, which found its way onto last night’s city council Executive agenda.

Friday 9 July 2021

NOTES & SKETCHES

On the beach

The Heart Of The South West Local Enterprise Partnership has confirmed that its bid to house the UK Atomic Energy Authority STEP fusion test reactor in Bridgewater Bay passed the first stage of the competitive site nominations process.

Monday 14 June 2021

NOTES & SKETCHES

Buzzword bingo!

Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership has published its contribution to the increasingly popular genre of “Build Back Better” plans.

Wednesday 31 March 2021

COMMENT

Selective use of statistics presents an unbalanced account of Exeter's economic & environmental status

Exeter City Council's Chief Executive uses statistics to show the city in a good light, but in doing so presents a picture which omits important information about the city's true position.

Friday 26 March 2021

NEWS

Exeter Science Park STEMM 'grow-out building' construction begins

A new specialist centre for fast-growth Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths & Medicine businesses will be completed by November 2021.

Wednesday 17 February 2021

NEWS

Half of COVID-19 support grants unclaimed by Exeter businesses

Exeter City Council in bottom third of local authorities as only 45% of eligible local businesses claim government coronavirus support money.

Wednesday 22 April 2020

ANALYSIS

Will a new South West industrial strategy deliver what it promises?

Our business-led Local Enterprise Partnership appears committed to a new approach to driving growth which its CEO describes as 'game-changing'.

Tuesday 12 November 2019