Bath
and North East Somerset’s economy is strong, with unemployment low
compared with national figures. However, the area’s wealth is not being
shared equally between our communities, with one ward in the top 20% of
areas facing social deprivation. Many communities that have faced
discrimination in the labour market, such as black and other ethnic
minority communities and disabled people, are still disadvantaged.
We need to prepare our economy for the future. Our town centres face
increasing competition from other retail developments. It is important
that we work to promote our town centres and encourage people to feel safe
and secure in them (for example, through our street wardens and our
closed-circuit television system, the first in the country to be awarded
the Charter Mark award for public service excellence).
‘Towards 2013: a Sustainable Economic Development Framework’ brings
these issues together in a vision of a ‘thriving, sustainable
economy’. The strategy contains clear action plans to meet four key
building blocks that will achieve this vision. The building blocks are:
Local businesses have worked with other partners to make sure that issues
relating to how businesses can improve their work in the community have a
high profile. We will continue to develop this work.
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