Economic DevelopmentEconomic Development
A robust, thriving and diverse economy is of vital importance for all communities and provides a building block for achieving a range of desirable social and environmental outcomes.
Local authorities (and their partners) have an important role to play in creating the right conditions for economic success. As well as being major employers and buyers of services, they are responsible for a number of functions that impact the wider local economy – planning, licensing, transport infrastructure, education. As such, councils' economic development activity covers a broad spectrum including enterprise and growth, skills training, tackling unemployment, planning and sustainable development.
This section provides resources to help councils improve their own economic development activity.
Economic Development Improvement Guide
The Scottish Local Authorities' Economic Development Improvement Guide was developed by the Improvement Service, the Scottish Government and the Scottish Local Authorities' Economic Development Group (SLAED).
The Guide provides a practical toolkit, which encourages councils to 'raise the bar' in economic development by critically reviewing their activities, sharing good practice and identifying areas for improvement. The key aim of the Guide is to enable councils and their partners to achieve greater and more sustainable economic impact.
It was launched on 5 October 2011 by Fergus Ewing, MSP, Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism.
Download the Guide (2mb – lower quality version, suitable for reading on screen)
Download the Guide (12mb – high quality version for printing, this version may take a while to download)
For further information on the Economic Development Guide contact Andrew McGuire.
For further information on the Public Service Improvement Framework contact Sarah Gadsden.
For further information on SLAED, visit www.slaed.org.uk
Improvement Guide Launch Event
Download the materials from the launch of the Scottish Local Authorities' Economic Development Improvement Guide...
Download the launch event agenda
