We need to get better at singing our city’s praises

No one would dispute the enormous challenges that businesses have faced in Edinburgh in recent years – we only need think of the global pandemic and lockdown, Brexit with its myriad difficulties or the recent cost of doing business crisis which has seen so many companies suffer.

Yet despite all of the headwinds, Edinburgh’s economy has remained resilient, protecting jobs and opportunities for the city’s population better than almost any other area in Scotland, largely because the Capital’s businesses have constantly managed to innovate, navigate and simply work their way through obstacles.

Many of our businesses haven’t simply survived – they have thrived in areas as diverse as financial services and biotechnology, data analysis and creative industries. We will soon celebrate that success, as we do each year, at our Edinburgh Chamber Annual Business Awards, which this year has seen a record 200 entries across 15 categories.

Celebrating is one thing, but “pioneering progress” – the theme of our awards this year – is another, and it would be foolish to rest on the city’s laurels. Failing to progress would mean regressing. We need to keep on making our city better, for all of its citizens. We believe we can. And as the American President Theodore Roosevelt said: “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”

That is why we are constantly seeking to work better, work more closely and work in partnership with others to help move the city’s economy forward, creating growth, and providing the revenue we need to fund our vital public services.

An excellent example of how Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce does this is with our partnership with the City of London Corporation. The business-led Call to Action we convened and launched in October 2024 aims to create a common vision for good economic growth for Scotland’s Capital, and was inspired by their Roadmap to Prosperity initiative. Our plan, like London’s, aims to bring business leaders, policymakers and third-sector leaders together to create an action plan to deliver the kind of city economy we all want to see. Not another strategy, but a plan – with deliverables.

This partnership was reaffirmed recently when we convened a round-table discussion with Alastair King, Lord Mayor of the City of London, and a range of Edinburgh’s high-growth potential businesses. As expected, access to funding and investment remains a significant barrier and was much discussed in the session. Emerging technology businesses in particular can find accessing investment difficult – through our partnership, we are trying to make progress in this area. The City of London is working with the UK Government to encourage greater investment of UK pension funds in UK businesses, whilst a clear and well-communicated package of our investible opportunities would strengthen the ability of the Lord Mayor and others to promote Edinburgh and Scotland to potential investors. The Lord Mayor, as an international business ambassador for the whole of the UK, can support our ambitions for growth as a major city.

But to do any of that we need to be able to tell our own story clearly, and align it with a common ambition for our city. We have incredible strengths in a huge range of areas such as quantum, data, technology, biotech, and financial services, but can everyone in our economic eco-system clearly articulate what those are? Are they even aware of what these strengths area? And are we telling the right story in the right way to the right people?

This reflects a theme that emerges constantly – and is also a critical part of our Call to Action. We need to tell Edinburgh’s story, sing its praises, and articulate its ambition much more and far better. All of us. That includes the business community itself, and it certainly includes our political leaders at all levels. We need to deal with the barriers and challenges, of course, but we need to be much more proactive in talking about our many successes, and claiming our place as the capital city of Scotland, making a hugely significant contribution to the UK economy a whole.

Partnerships provide us with opportunity and learning. As Helen Keller, author and activist, said “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”

Joanne Davidson is Director of Policy and Insights at the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce