Live BetterAbout Us

About us

Exeter Live Better is a vision for our city and those who live, work, study and visit here.

Exeter is the brilliant alternative. It’s the first choice for people who want to live, work, study or visit somewhere that offers great opportunities for them and for their families, their lifestyles, their careers and their health.

Developed to encourage civic pride and active citizen engagement, Exeter Live Better, isn’t just about business leaders, or policy makers. Exeter Live Better is for everyone who contributes to making life Exeter what it is today. It is all about community and wellbeing, telling the city’s stories and revelling in it's individuality. So however you're involved in Exeter we invite you to join us and help us celebrate what this beautiful city has to offer. 

Established and run by Exeter City Council, Exeter Live Better works to guide many initiatives that speak to the city’s vision for 2040. The vision includes: 

Innovative and Analytical City: As model of strong local democracy Exeter’s innovative and analytical culture will support communities, businesses, civil society and public bodies to work together to solve the city’s challenges and achieve its ambitions. The city’s institutions work collaboratively with a coherence in pursuit of the city’s vision.

Healthy and Inclusive: Exeter will be healthy and happy and local services will support people to live their lives well, in the ways that matter to them.

The most Active City in the UK: Exeter will be the most active and accessible city in the UK. With a high-quality built environment and green spaces, arts and cultural facilities, the city will serve to encourage healthy, active lifestyles.

Accessible World Class Education: All residents will have access to world-class education and training, as well as meaningful, high-quality employment with fair wages. The life-changing benefits of access to and participation in arts, culture and physical activity will be realised. Employers will be able to recruit, nurture and retain a skilled local workforce as well as attracting the best global talent.

Liveable and Connected: Exeter will be a thriving city, within a network of thriving rural and coastal towns and villages. Urban planning will protect and enhance Exeter’s exceptional natural and historic environment, safeguard its iconic landscape setting, and encourage high-quality design that complements and enhances the city’s heritage.

A Leading Sustainable City: Exeter will be a carbon neutral city by 2030 and recognised as a leading sustainable city and a global leader in addressing the social, economic and environmental challenges of climate change and urbanisation. The Exeter of the future will have grasped the opportunities ahead of us today.

Culture: Under its UNESCO City of Literature status, Exeter will innovate and lead in the area of the environment, wellbeing, cultural literacy, creative making and heritage innovation to build a living city where everyone thrives.

Taking this vision to it's heart, Exeter Live Better shines a light these initiatives and tells us what we can really achieve if we work together with the city’s spirit of collaboration. These initiatives include: 

The Liveable Exeter Programme: Liveable Exeter exists to strengthen neighbourhoods, create new communities, invest in sustainable transport, and deliver the infrastructure needed to attract investment and improve quality of life in Exeter and the surrounding region.

Live and Move: Live and Move want to celebrate all the different ways that people choose to be more active and are committed to learning about what we can do – as individuals and as a place – to make this change last.

UNESCO City of Literature: Exeter joins 245 other ‘Creative Cities’ in 28 countries across six continents, all working together towards a common objective: placing creativity and cultural industries at the heart of their development plans at the local level and cooperating actively at the international level. 

Exeter City Futures: Exeter has made a commitment to become carbon-neutral by 2030. Achieving this ambition will require collaborative action from everyone across the city. ECF are bringing Exeter’s businesses, individuals, communities and leaders together and providing the coordination and focus needed to deliver the city’s carbon ambitions.

Get involved! 

If you have a story you'd like to share, maybe you're thinking of moving to our neck of the woods, or perhaps you'd like to find our more about how to partner with us, then email exeterlivebetter@exeter.gov.uk or call 01392 265597. We look forward to hearing from you.