page_title: Exeter
section_title: Economy
hierarchical_section_title: Exeter / Economy
caption_attribution_description: English: A Middle East Soldier Revisits Britain- Life in Wartime Exeter, Devon, England, UK, October 1943 A busy everyday scene inside the Higher Market in Exeter. The original caption states that the larger firms have joined the smaller shopkeepers' stalls in the market, which, before the war, along with neighbouring Goldsmith Street, was earmarked for demolition. A new Civic Centre was to be built on the site. Clearly visible is 'MacFisheries'. Many women can be seen with their shopping baskets.
context_page_description: Exeter is a city in Devon, England, on the River Exe 36 miles northeast of Plymouth and 65 miles southwest of Bristol. It is the county town of Devon, and home to Devon County Council and the University of Exeter.
  In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal command of Vespasian. Exeter became a religious centre in the Middle Ages. Exeter Cathedral, founded in the mid 11th century, became Anglican in the 16th-century English Reformation. In the late 19th century, Exeter became an affluent centre for the wool trade, although by the First World War the city was in decline. After the Second World War, much of the city centre was rebuilt and is now a centre for business and tourism in Devon and Cornwall.
  The administrative area of Exeter has the status of a non-metropolitan district under the administration of the County Council; a plan to grant the city unitary authority status was scrapped by the 2010 coalition government.
context_section_description: The Met Office, the main weather forecasting organisation for the United Kingdom and one of the most significant in the world, relocated from Bracknell in Berkshire to Exeter in early 2004. It is one of the largest employers in the area (together with the University of Exeter, Devon County Council and the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust).
  Around 35,000 people commute into Exeter on a daily basis, from nearby surrounding towns. Exeter provides services, employment and shopping for local residents within the city limits and also from nearby towns in Teignbridge, Mid Devon and East Devon, together sometimes known as the Exeter & Heart of Devon area (EHOD). Exeter therefore provides for the EHOD area population of 457,400.
  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. In 2010, a similar survey reported the city was still the worst clone town. 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 still intended that a number of the new units will be let to local independent stores. The House of Fraser building on the high street has been bought by a local wealth performance management firm, Prydis, who have released their plans to redevelop the building as a three-storey hotel with a rooftop bar and retail shops.
  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).
  There are also plans to build on land in the Teignbridge and East Devon areas, which border Exeter's boundaries, as part of the "Exeter Growth Point" strategy. This includes the new town of Cranbrook, located about five miles to the east of the city in East Devon, where construction began in 2011 and which is now home to several thousand residents.
caption: The Higher Market, Exeter, in 1943; at this time the larger firms such as Mac Fisheries had joined the smaller shopkeepers' stalls in the market, which, before the war, along with neighbouring Goldsmith Street, was earmarked for demolition; a new Civic Centre was to be built on the site
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