Edinburgh needs a taskforce to help the post-Covid recovery – John McLellan

A 9.1 per cent drop in economic output is nothing to celebrate and it’s only small comfort that it’s better than elsewhere, but it does once again illustrate the reliance on public sector administration and financial and legal services which were much better suited to home working than economies more dependent on manufacturing.

So much for brief back-slapping, because the index also shows the recovery will be faster elsewhere, and it’s not difficult to understand why in a place like Edinburgh, with the vital hospitality, travel and cultural sectors now steeling themselves for the loss of another spring/summer season.

Nor is the city in a good place to re-build its visitor economy, now it has no effective means of marketing itself as a destination, beyond what the national VisitScotland agency does on its behalf and it is under constant pressure to ensure whatever benefits tourism brings are spread across the country.

There will be plenty who regard this as a good thing, but there has never been a greater urgency to boost the rest of the wealth-generating economy and even the much-vaunted £1.3bn City Deal on which so many hopes were pegged, already looks woefully slow and inadequate.

Never mind an independence taskforce, a Capital City taskforce should be a far higher priority.

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