When we launched the first One City Plan in 2019, we did not know how it would be received but it is clear that there is an energy in our city to continue to work together to secure a better, more inclusive, and more sustainable future for Bristol.

We have been able to capture this energy over and again through ongoing collaboration from partners across our city. Yesterday, this culminated in the launch of its fourth iteration, which you can read below ahead of it being published on Bristol One City's website. The One City Plan is not the council’s plan or my plan, but it is a combined effort from all key organisations that signals Bristol’s intent up to 2050. It is written by and for our city.

City partners and One City board members gathered to celebrate the launch of the new One City Plan and the hard work of colleagues in pulling this together at pace. It is always great to see Bristol coming together with a renewed energy to map out and deliver ambitions for our city. 

The plan has evolved to reflect the change facing our city. In 2020, our goals focused on the 2030 carbon neutrality targets and the climate emergency. In 2021, our focus was on covid and how we recover from the social, health, and economic impacts. This year’s refresh of our shared goals has been developed in the context of the national cost-of-living crisis.

In this version, we have included more details of how we track delivery of the goals and also how we measure them against the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) using the SDG indicators. Within the plan we have set out which boards are contributing to which SDGs. We also provide clearer information on how One City operates and the definitions that are used.

The event also gave an opportunity to reflect on some of the successes of the One City approach so far. We heard from Christina Gray, Director of Public Health, who reflected on the mobilisation of support through the national cost-of-living crisis, with 105 Welcoming Spaces opened for Bristol’s residents over the winter. We also heard from Stephen Peacock, Bristol City Council's Chief Executive, on the future of One City; Rebecca Mear, CEO of Voscur, shared perspectives from the voluntary, community, and social enterprise sector; Victoria Matthews, Business West, offered the business sector perspective; and Councillor Tom Renhard, Cabinet Member for Housing Delivery and Homes, reflected on the work of the Living Rent Commission, ahead of its report being published, as another working example of city-wide collaboration through our One City Approach.

A big thank you to all of our city partners and board members for contributing to the plan and working collaboratively to deliver this refresh. I would also like to thank Andrea, the outgoing Head of the City Office, for leading the process to refresh the plan, as well as Allan and Sarah who have also been pivotal in supporting work to deliver on shared goals as One City.