At the Council Meeting on Tuesday 11 August 2026, Council adopted the Economic Development Strategy. This Strategy backs local business with a plan built to last.

Project background

The new Economic Development Strategy aims to help local businesses grow and succeed. The Strategy was developed with feedback from Yarra’s Business Advisory Committee, business owners and key stakeholders across two stages of consultation. It builds on the success of the previous Strategy and responds to challenges and opportunities created by a growing and changing community. The Strategy focuses on practical actions Council can take to support local businesses, strengthen Yarra's economy over the next five years and support what makes Yarra a great place to live, work and play.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the community consultation process.

Who did we hear from?

The stage 2 engagement was conducted via a survey on the Your Say Yarra website alongside in-person pop-up events.

There were 717 visitors to the Your Say Yarra page, and 36 survey participants.

Key participant highlights include:

What did we ask?

• Do you own or operate a business in Yarra?
• What industry is your business in?
• Where do you operate your business from?
• What is the size of your business?
• As a business, do you think there is anything missing from the draft Economic Development Strategy?
• As a community member, do you think there is anything missing from the draft Economic Development Strategy?
• What should be added or changed within the Economic Development Strategy to help support businesses?
• Do you have any other comments on the draft Economic Development Strategy?

Demographic information collected: connection to Yarra; age; gender; suburb; and diversity information.

Engagement Summary

For the question, "As a business, do you think there is anything missing from the draft Economic Development Strategy?"

When asked to indicate whether anything was missing from the draft Strategy, 23 businesses responded with “Yes”, while 6 businesses responded with “No.”

For the question, "What should be added or changed within the Economic Development Strategy to help support businesses?"

Business responses included 10 themes for possible alterations or changes. They included:

• Continued focus on planning and regulatory approvals
• Invest in safety improvements to create safe and welcoming precincts
• Focus Area 3: Protect live music and nightlight
• Activate vacant shopfronts and revitalise precincts
• Invest in streetscapes and public amenity
• Preserve precinct identity and market destinations
• Embed an integrated, place-based planning approach
• Champion arts, culture and heritage assets
• Protect commercial diversity, emerging and independent businesses
• Support businesses to achieve their sustainability goals

For the question, "Do you have any other comments on the draft Economic Development Strategy?"

Business responses included 7 themes:

• Continue to support small businesses
• Provide realistic delivery and implementation timelines
• Support businesses to access funding opportunities
• Collaborate with workforce/training providers
• Support community activations and safety initiatives
• Encourage active transport
• Investigate opportunities to alleviate transport congestion

For the question, ‘As a community member, do you think there is anything missing from the draft Economic Development Strategy?’

All 7 participants indicated that there was something missing and provided no further responses to, ‘Do you have any other comments on the draft Economic Development Strategy?’

Community responses included 9 themes for possible alterations or changes. They included:

• Encourage active and public transport to drive visitation
• Continued focus on planning and regulatory approvals
• Add measurable outcomes and implementation detail
• Support advocacy for reforming parking requirements
• Proactively plan for and enable population growth
• Invest in safety improvements to create safe and welcoming precincts
• Elevate and invest in neighbourhood activity centres
• Continue to support streetscape cleaning initiatives
• Strengthen alignment between economic development and community initiatives

Feedback received from the participants has been incorporated into the Economic Development Strategy. A summary of the changes is included in the table below. For more information about the engagement results read the engagement report by clicking the button below.

Summary of changes to Economic Development Strategy

More information

Visit the Your Say Yarra project page to learn more about the consultation