Central Coast Economic Development and Recovery Plans
Recover, Re-imagine, Revitalise, Rebound
Council has now adopted the first ever Economic Development Strategy for the Central Coast, positioning the region as the place to do business, creating jobs and prosperity for the region.
The plan represents a 20 year vision to guide Council’s decision making around sustainable economic development initiatives that assist in creating jobs and stimulating the Central Coast economy.
The local economy will be strengthened through targeted investment, improved partnerships between the community, business and education sectors and all levels of government.
We are now facing the impacts of an unprecedented heath event that has impacted our community, our local businesses and our local economy. COVID has challenged local and global economies, but Council is determined to lead to way with a positive plan to deliver jobs for the growing community.
Council will continue to engage with the local community, collaborate with the business community and advocate to state and local governments, ensuring the best outcomes for the Central Coast.
The draft Economic Recovery and Resilience Framework and the revised Draft Economic Development Strategy were presented to Council on the 9 June 2020 and were endorsed for public exhibition.
The public exhibition period ran between Monday 22 June 2020 and 20 July 2020.
The community were invited to:
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View the Draft Economic Recovery and Resilience Framework
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View the revised Draft Economic Development Strategy and supporting documents
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Read the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
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Provide feedback via the online submission form
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Send a submission to ask@centralcoast.nsw.gov.au, or PO Box 21, Gosford NSW 2250.
678 submissions were received during the exhibition of the Economic Development Strategy 2020-2040 and Economic Recovery and Resilience Framework with 86% agreeing it was important for Council to develop and implement a detailed plan to grow the local economy.
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What is the draft Recovery and Resilience Framework?
The draft Recovery and Resilience Framework is a plan to respond to the economic challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Action Plan provides the detail of each action item and identifies key stakeholders and Council teams responsible for its implementation.
The draft Recovery and Resilience Framework has been designed as a live document that will be regularly reviewed and updated to respond to and address emerging risks and opportunities.
What is the revised draft Economic Development Strategy?
The revised draft Economic Development Strategy is an overarching framework to strengthen the local economy through targeted investment, improved partnerships between the community, business, state and federal governments and promotion of the local government area as a desirable place to do business.
The Strategy was originally prepared in early 2020 before COVID-19. The original draft strategy was presented to Council on 23 March 2020 but was deferred due to the COVID-19 pandemic and fluctuating economic data.
The Economic Development Team have addressed this by reworking the original plan to include the most recent employment and economic data.
Why do we need both plans?
The draft Economic Recovery and Resilience Framework aims to keep businesses active, support jobs, foster human capital growth, increase community outreach, and drive collaboration and innovation. To do so, the Economic Development team will be dynamic in its response, monitoring crucial data and then reviewing and revising actions to support the local business community.
The revised draft Economic Strategy will take a long-term view to 2040 and is still relevant and required. The Central Coast region has been operating without an overarching strategy to prioritise actions and align the efforts of the multitude of stakeholders involved.
Having a strategic framework for economic development has never been more important than it is today.
Collectively these two plans will help to secure the future of business, employment and liveability for our region.
How will the directions, actions and projects identified be implemented?
During public exhibition, we will be inviting the community to help us prioritise actions to help the local economy recover and rebound.
Implementation of the Economic Recovery and Resilience Framework will commence immediately following adoption of the plan.
The revised draft Economic Strategy sets a 20-year vision for the Central Coast to guide growth and investment into the future in a sustainable way. This plan will focus on long term deliverables over the next five-10 years with a 20-year outlook.
What are some other initiatives Council are currently working on to support local businesses and the community?
Grant Funding - Central Coast Council is excited and proud to partner with GrantGuru to have recently launched our new Central Coast Grant Finder website. This site provides a comprehensive list of grant and funding opportunities available to the Central Coast community. It has been designed to provide additional support for local businesses, community groups, not-for-profits and individuals. This is a free service to ensure our community never miss a grant opportunity again. This service provides alerts for new grants and access tips to help the community apply for grants. For more information visit the Grant Guru website(External link).
Bigger Backyard app and website - Council has fast tracked a funded project called Bigger Backyard Central Coast. This app is a joint initiative of Gosford/Erina, Wyong, The Peninsula and The Entrance Business Chambers, Business NSW and Central Coast Council. For more information visit the Bigger Backyard website(External link).
This is a free app for all businesses on the Central Coast to sign up to and make a pledge to do more business within our community. By working together we’ve been able to provide a platform to showcase the myriad of businesses both large and small on the Coast. This unique platform is much more than just a directory app - it’s a way of reaching out to our neighbours and supporting their business, ensuring a brighter future for all.
Regional collaboration approach - Central Coast Economic Taskforce
During the recent COVID-19 pandemic the Central Coast has taken a progressive regional collaboration approach to support local businesses throughout this uncertain time by creating a Central Coast Economic Taskforce. The taskforce is a collaboration of the following organisations:
Central Coast Council, Business NSW Central Coast, Central Coast Industry Connect, Regional Development Australia Central Coast, NSW government (Regional NSW), Australian Government (Treasury) and Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council.
We have joined forces to assess the economic impact of COVID-19 to the Central Coast economy and respond with local initiatives aimed at stimulating business investment, maintaining jobs and helping businesses withstand the effects of the pandemic.
We believe local progress needs local knowledge. The task force has been working together sharing our collective knowledge, support and connections for the benefit of the business community with the aim for a quick recovery. This initiative has been extremely successful with other councils currently adopting our approach. For more information on the business support please visit the Central Coast Economy website.