Economy of Exeter

Exeter has been identified among the top ten most profitable locations for a business to be based.

The city centre provides substantial shopping facilities. The High Street is mainly devoted to branches of national chains: A NEF survey in 2005 rated Exeter as the worst example of a clone town in the UK, with only a single independent store in the city's High Street, and less diversity (in terms of different categories of shop) than any other town surveyed. Three significant shopping areas that connect to the High Street provide a somewhat more varied menu. Princesshay, a post-war retail area connecting to the south side of the High Street was home to a number of independent stores prior to redevelopment in 2007, but is now also largely occupied by national chains. It is an innovative, varied development, and it is still intended that a number of the new units will be let to local independent stores. On the other side of the High Street, the partly undercover Guildhall Shopping Centre houses a mixture of national and more regional shops, and connects to the wholly enclosed Harlequins Centre where smaller businesses predominate. Smaller streets off the High Street such as Gandy Street also offer a range of independent shops.

On 26 June 2004, Exeter was granted Fairtrade City status.

Although Exeter contains a number of tourist attractions, the city is not dominated by tourism, with only 7% of employment dependent on tourism compared with 13% for Devon as a whole (2005 figures).

Future developments – The local economy in 2012 seems to be withstanding the pressure of the recession better than a lot of towns and cities in the UK. The city is rapidly expanding eastwards with a new Science Park at Redhayes, Intermodal Freight Depot (Sainsburys) at Clyst Honiton, Skypark (Business Park) adjacent the airport and then