We should stop taking the Capital’s successes for granted - Donald Anderson
I’m delighted to join the Edinburgh Evening News as a weekly columnist. I’ve read the News since I was young and I’ve enjoyed working with more journalists and editors at the News than I care to remember - I am really old.
Quality journalism has never been in greater supply in my experience, but alas, it often gets drowned out by the white noise of misinformation and falsehoods that populates so much of the internet these days. Quality news and information can be harder to find simply because there is so much information out there.
My aim in this column is to try to provide positive insight into life in and around Edinburgh in a way that celebrates the amazing city that we live in and helps raise the quality of the debate about the city’s future.
In a world where cynicism and despair about politics dominate the debate about our country, Edinburgh stands out as a public policy success.
What was a tired provincial city in the 1980s renowned for its gap sites and as a place where nothing much happened apart from summer festivals, has now become one of the most successful cities in the world and arguably the most successful city in northern Europe.
Manchester’s success looks as if it could well help its mayor to become the new Prime Minister. In Edinburgh by contrast, the city’s success seems taken for granted and largely ignored in the political debate about modern Scotland.
But don’t take my word for Edinburgh’s success, just look at the facts. Edinburgh is Scotland’s largest economy. It is the country’s most important and stable economic engine, more important to Scotland than many sectors of the economy including oil.
Edinburgh generates roughly 15 per cent of Scotland’s economy, slightly more than Scotland’s other economic powerhouse, Glasgow.
Every year, the council publishes what used to be ‘Edinburgh Facts and Figures’ and is now called “Edinburgh by Numbers’. The latest numbers are astonishingly good.
The average hourly wage in the city is £20.49, more than any UK city outside London and over 50 per cent above the ‘Real Living Wage’. Relative poverty at 17 per cent of the population is below the national average of 21 per cent. The main cause of poverty (established by the city’s Poverty Commission) isn’t low pay, it’s housing costs. And more people are in jobs – 83.2 per cent – than in any UK city including London.
The fact is that Edinburgh residents are living longer, healthier, and wealthier lives than at any time in the city’s near 1,000-year history. So, are things perfect?
Certainly not. Edinburgh faces huge challenges, and economic growth is harder to achieve. We live in a world that is more challenging, not least because of the war in Ukraine and Donald Trump, and other cities are not standing still. Edinburgh faces more and tougher competition than ever before.
In writing this column, I’ll celebrate the city’s success, highlight success stories, and I’ll try to set out the many challenges the city faces. I’ll try and do so honestly while being positive and optimistic, because I do believe there’s a lot to be optimistic about. Edinburgh is a fantastic success, and that took lots of hard work to achieve.
The challenge is to build on our success to create an even better future for the city and its residents.