City of Norwood Payneham & St Peters ranked as the top Council in Australia to do business

CreditorWatch’s August 2024 Business Risk Index (BRI) revealed the rate of business failures is at its highest level since January 2021 with an average rate of 4.95% across the country. 

The failure rate has been attributed to low levels of consumer spending, high inflation and interest rate increases.

However, the BRI also shows the City of Norwood Payneham & St Peters as the lowest risk region for business failure in Australia, ahead of the City of Unley which came in second.

Norwood Payneham & St Peters Mayor Robert Bria said that in the current economic environment, achieving this status was a massive boost of confidence for the local business community.

“This is a stunning result and testament to the professionalism, tenacity and resilience of the nearly 8,000 small businesses in the Council area,” said Mayor Bria.

“Traders who either set up in, or move their business to the Council area, understand they are opening in an area where the Council genuinely cares for and supports the local business community”.

“The Council is always looking for new opportunities for a deeper level of engagement with different sectors, which will be the focus of its work in the economic development space over the coming months”.

“We know there are some great ideas out there waiting to be explored and want to strengthen our partnership and collaboration with commercial property owners and traders to help realise their aspirations”.

“Our role is to develop the right policy setting and where appropriate, partner with State and Federal Government, to create an environment conducive to growth,” he said.

Mayor Bria said that City’s reputation as a great place to do business has been enhanced by the advent of events such as AFL Gather Round, which saw two matches played at the iconic Norwood Oval in 2023 and 2024, as well as the return of the Norwood Food and Wine Festival this year. 

He also pointed to recent Spendmapp data to confirm the strength of the local economy, which shows $1.83 billion in expenditure in the City during the year ending July 2024, up from $1.75 billion during the previous 12 months.

The sectors which experienced the biggest growth in expenditure were:

• supermarkets ($31m);
• dining ($13m);
• specialised and luxury goods ($7m); and
• pubs and clubs ($3m).

“At a time when the hospitality sector in particular, is feeling the cost-of-living crunch, a thirteen million (or 7%) increase in expenditure in dining over a year is an amazing result”.

“The City of Norwood Payneham & St Peters is playing its part to grow South Australia’s economy,” said Mayor Bria.

For more information please visit www.npsp.sa.gov.au

Media enquiries: Lisa Mara, General Manager Governance & Civic Affairs on 08 8366 4549