Fife’s Economic Strategy 2023–2030

Our priorities

To realise this ambition Fife Council and its community planning partners* will focus their activities on three priorities over the next seven years:

• Supporting businesses
• Investing in premises and infrastructure
• Delivering skills, training and fair employment

These priorities have been chosen based on an evaluation of Fife’s recent economic performance** and the current national, regional and local strategic context.

The priorities are interconnected and mutually reinforcing and align with the Scottish Government’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation and the Fife Partnership’s 2021–24 Plan4Fife update as shown in Figure 1.

A fourth priority Working in Collaboration and Partnership details how we will deliver the Strategy.

The strategy also commits to taking a Community Wealth Building approach*** to maximise the local impacts of investment in projects and programmes and to making sure that its actions help tackle climate change.

By targeting our resources and activities on these four priorities, by 2030 we aim to deliver the following outcomes:

• A recovery and increase in the number of businesses
• Increased levels of economic activity and employment
• Improvements in the economic performance of Mid-Fife
• The recovery & growth of Fife’s tourism and hospitality sector
• Vibrant, attractive and re-purposed key town centres
• A skilled workforce able to support business needs
• Fair and inclusive access to work
• Lower levels of carbon emissions, in line with national targets (75% of 1990 baseline by 2030).

*     Information about the Fife Partnership and Fife’s Community Planning Partners can be found here.
**   The detailed analysis of Fife’s economy which underpins this Strategy can be found here.
*** Community Wealth Building is a new approach to local economic development which seeks to retain expenditure in the local economy and enable more local communities and people to own, access and benefit from the wealth our economy generates.

Our actions

Over the next seven years, the Fife Community Planning Partners will deliver the projects and actions in our new strategy, working in partnership with businesses, the Scottish Government and our city region partners. The strategy contains 4 priorities or programmes of action, and 24 actions which are summarised below.

The Challenge

The number of businesses and jobs in Fife fell following the Covid-19 pandemic and during the start of the cost-of-living crisis. However, many businesses have remained resilient, adopting sustainable measures post Covid-19. Fife’s jobs density is lower than that for Scotland as a whole; Mid-Fife has a particularly low business density. Although many businesses in Fife have invested in digitisation, the use of digital technologies is still below the Scottish average; in addition many small and medium sized businesses are yet to achieve net-zero emissions.

Key actions we will implement to address this challenge

• Develop enterprise and entrepreneurial skills in our young people and in under-represented groups in the labour market.
• Support new business start-ups, and their early survival.
• Help small- and medium-sized enterprises grow.
• Help businesses accelerate their transition to net zero emissions and adopt digital technologies to enable them to compete in a digital economy.
• Develop and strengthen local supply chains and optimise the level of public sector expenditure retained within Fife’s local economy.
• Attract inward investment, focussing on our key strategic development locations.
• Support and develop community-owned and co-operative models of business ownership.

The Challenge

Market conditions make it unlikely that the private sector will provide the modern, high quality business premises required to attract and retain new and growing businesses. Whilst funding from the Edinburgh and SE Scotland City Region Deal has supported Council investment in new developments, much of Fife’s existing business property requires significant investment to ensure it continues to be fit-for-purpose and meets the transition to net zero emissions. There are gaps in transport and digital connectivity, and rising vacancy rates in some of our town centres. Fife’s tourism, hospitality and accommodation sectors were particularly badly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and are yet to fully recover.

Key actions we will implement to address this challenge

• Provide high-quality, modern business premises.
• Develop serviced employment land sites and bring vacant and derelict land and buildings back into productive use.
• Deliver place-based investment to revitalise and repurpose our key town centres.
• Expand our network of enterprise centres and hubs. 
• Support and deliver investment in sustainable tourism infrastructure.
• Support the development of and investment in digital infrastructure.
• Continue to make business cases for more funding and investment in Fife.

The Challenge

Although Fife’s labour market is more highly qualified than other parts of Scotland, businesses in many sectors are finding it hard to recruit and retain staff with the right skills. Despite record low levels of unemployment, Fife’s employment rates remain below the Scottish rate, and we have seen an increase in the number of people who are economically inactive. Around 10% of our school leavers are failing to achieve and sustain a positive destination. A significant number of people face multiple barriers to meaningful employment as a result of long-term physical and mental health conditions, and there are persistently high rates of people claiming out-of-work benefits in Cowdenbeath, Kirkcaldy and Levenmouth. The earnings of people who work and live in Fife are lower than the national averages.

Key actions we will implement to address this challenge

• Monitor and respond to current and future needs in relation to workforce skills, embedding skills to thrive in a digital economy in all that we do.
• Work with employers and training providers to up-skill and re-skill our existing workforce.
• Ensure school and college leavers have the skills, knowledge and opportunities to move on to positive destinations.
• Provide additional support to young people at risk of not achieving a positive destination.
• Target enhanced support to those most disadvantaged and furthest from the labour market.
• Work with employers and anchor institutions to encourage the adoption of inclusive employment and fair work practices.
• Increase the scale and range of community benefits achieved through public sector procurement expenditure.

The Challenge

No one organisation has sufficient influence or resources to achieve the strategy’s ambition alone. Success requires a culture of delivery in which objectives are shared, resources and expertise are pooled and responsibilities are clearly allocated and accepted across the public, private and third sectors at the Fife, regional and national levels.

Key actions we will implement to address this challenge

• Set out how we will take this strategy forward in a delivery plan detailing responsibilities and timescales.
• Work in partnership with key local, regional and national stakeholders to promote a shared understanding of priorities, alignment of policy, effective use of resources and a culture of delivery.
• Develop a robust evidence base of the Fife economy that helps to inform strategy and measure the impact of the strategy’s actions.