Agenda item

Lady Lucy French and Ruth Duston, OBE, to provide an update to the Committee on City BIDs.

The Chairman welcomed Lady Lucy French, the Chief Executive for Fleet Street Quarter and Ruth Duston, the Managing Director of Primera to the meeting.

Ms Duston began by sharing some insights on the Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) across the Square Mile and the impact that they had had across the UK more generally. Ms Duston highlighted that Primera as an organisation were very focused on place-based leadership and were keen to develop partnerships between the private and public sector which was where the BIDs, still relatively new as a sector, came in.

The Committee were informed that there were now approximately 300 BIDs operating across the UK. Primera were primarily focused on Central London in terms of their portfolio of BIDs and were normally commissioned to set up partnerships. Ms Duston explained that it ordinarily took around two years to get a BID up and running and that the seed funding for this was normally provided by property owners or developers which in turn allowed for leverage of more funding to support place-based activity. In terms of the BIDs that Primera had operating across Central London, Ms Duston highlighted the London Heritage Quarter which generated around £5 million per annum and the Central District Alliance which generated around £2.5 million per annum. She also made reference to the City BID portfolio including the Cheapside Business Alliance which was now a very well-established BID in the Square Mile and the first BID in the City of London which had now been operating for 7-8 years. It was reported that this BID generated approximately £400,000 per annum. Ms Duston also spoke on Aldgate Connect, a cross boundary BID operating across both Tower Hamlets and the City of London which generated around £800,000 per annum.

Ms Duston commented that, over the years, BIDs had become bigger and more ambitious and there was now a new addition in the form of the Fleet Street Quarter as well as Eastern City BID. It was anticipated that these two BIDs combined would generate approximately £7-8 million per annum. It was reported that, overall the private sector were investing approximately £9 million per annum into the Square Mile across these geographical areas.  Aldermen were informed that there was a new partnership which would be going to ballot in January - the Culture Mile BID. Pending the outcome of the ballot, this would go live in April 2023.

Ms Duston commented that, unlike other BIDs which tended to focus very much on retail, leisure and hospitality, this portfolio was predominantly corporate-led. Over the years, Primera had raised over £800 million through its Central London BIDs, generating more than £6 billion in further investment from various property owners. Ms Duston underlined that much of the Square Mile was now covered by BIDs which currently stretched from the Victoria bid in the South through to Aldgate Connect in the East. With regard to BIDs in the City, it was underlined that the City Corporation were the BID proposers and, ultimately therefore the accountable body, whereas ordinarily these would be entirely business-led, set up and proposed by the business community. 

With reference to London more generally, Ms Duston reported that there were now more than 70 BIDs established with approximately £130 million spent throughout the UK on an annual basis within the BIDs sector, 35% of which was generated within the central activity zone.

Ms Duston went on to describe what a BID was, underlining that it was a very consultative process with BIDs established for a five year term after having been voted on by the business community. The Committee were informed that the ballot was normally managed by the relevant local authority – the City Corporation in the case of the Square Mile. Ms Duston highlighted that the average size of a BID brought together 300-400 hereditaments with some of the smallest having fewer than 50 and the largest 2,500. Annual income from a BID averaged at £200,000 - £600,000 across the country but this tended to be much more in Central London where BIDs were often more strategic.

Ms Duston went on to speak on why BIDs were needed in urban cities, making reference to the fact that less and less money was coming into the public sector with a lot more onus therefore on the private sector to drive things forward in terms of place-based leadership for investment in infrastructure and public realm. Ms Duston used the North Bank BID as a fantastic example of this where Strand Aldwych had been created (a new civic space outside of Somerset House) in partnership with Westminster City Council. Ms Duston underlined that BIDs were also about making attractive destinations and cited work with the City Corporation on its ‘Destination City’ policy in this respect. The importance of businesses within a BID working closely and collaboratively together at a local level to balance profit with purpose was also underlined. Ms Duston also mentioned the enormous opportunity for the City to work alongside City fringe residents in terms of attracting and retaining talent.

The Committee were informed of what BIDs do in terms of public realm and placemaking, security and business resilience, marketing and promotion, ESG (Economic, Social and Governance) and positive social impact. In terms of the City specifically, Ms Duston made mention of the on-street concierge team/ambassador service positioned around Cheapside, building relationships with the City of London Police, the City Gift Card and In The City App launched during COVID to help promote support for the ecosystem. The Committee were also informed that a lot of work had been done on the Culture Mile with residential communities to ensure that they also felt integral to the BID district. Ms Duston referred to work with various agencies and the City Corporation around homelessness and rough sleeping in the Square Mile to provide the right level of support and putting the right systems and interventions into place. She also reported on volunteering and the Tempo Time Credit system – a scheme whereby volunteers were rewarded through credits that could be spent anywhere throughout the UK.

Lady Lucy French addressed the meeting specifically on the Fleet Street Quarter reporting that this came into operation in April 2022 after a very successful ballot. It was reported that there was a very strong mandate from the business community for the BID which covered 43 hectares of the City of London and spanned from the Royal Courts of Justice to St Paul’s, the south side of Holborn and the north side of Blackfriars.

Lady Lucy reported that the BID was seeking to address several strategic themes – namely putting Fleet Street Quarter back on the map, clean and green, creating a connected community and safe and secure with more than £12 million invested over 5 years to drive enhancement and growth to really drive this enhancement and growth. She went on to speak of the various opportunities and challenges in terms of reinvigorating and redefining this Quarter – an area that had welcomed business for over 2,000 years and constantly evolved to meet market challenges. It was highlighted that, at present there were many empty retail units here as well as vacant office space with the intention being to now reposition the area as a real incubator for emerging markets and a key driver for international drive. It was reported that Fleet Street itself had a very ambitious and exciting development pipeline and it was anticipated that approximately 25,000 additional people would be seen in Fleet Street alone within he next 5 years. It was underlined that the development of an infrastructure to support this footfall was therefore vital with developers, the BID and the City Corporation working closely together on this. Much work was also being undertaken to tackle the climate emergency, including working alongside the City Corporation on the Healthy Streets Plan and the City Plan 2036 to ensure a joined up, cohesive approach to how the Fleet Street Quarter and BIDs across the Square Mile.

In terms of the Fleet Street development pipeline, Lady Lucy reported that the BID would be working with developers to join up on the hoarding going up around the area to ensure a cohesive look and, in so far as possible, a safe and enjoyable environment around these development schemes.

Lady Lucy sketched out plans for the Quarter in Year One of the BID which would see work undertaken alongside Publica on an area based strategy. Communications had been commissioned around this to raise the profile of the area on a global stage alongside a series of events to meet the need of the area’s diverse workforce, climate action project and an emerging retail strategy. Lady Lucy stated that she believed that the Fleet Street Quarter BID was the ‘glue’ between the private and public sector whereby private sector investment would be harnessed as well as a local commitment validating and linking up a shared vision for the Square Mile going forward. Whilst the Fleet Street Quarter had less than 900 residents, Lady Lucy reiterated the fact that she was keen for every person living and working in the area to feel genuinely engaged with and a part of this BID.

Lady Lucy shared images of the Fleet Street that was aspired to with widened streets and additional greening, reinvigorated retail units and the new Fleet Street Courts and Police accommodation development also visible.

Lady Lucy highlighted that the forthcoming Lord Mayor’s Show would also be widely promoted across all of the City’s BIDs as was customary. Finally, Lady Lucy went on to report on a forthcoming Christmas extravaganza whereby various events would be hosted for all from Tuesday-Thursday each week in the run-up to Christmas. 

The Chairman thanked both speakers for their contributions and invited any questions that the Aldermen might now have of them.

An Alderman stated that he felt that the private/public sector partnerships were a really positive agent for change but added that he had seen SMEs in his own Ward of Bassishaw devasted by the recent pandemic. He therefore questioned how much success the BIDs had had in terms of post-COVID recovery. Ms Duston responded to report that this had been a huge challenge but highlighted that the BIDs had worked with those businesses that were still present to support them in terms of promoting themselves using the City App and City Gift Card, encouraging workers to utilise the facilities within their local footprint. She added that an important part of this had also been the ability to gain access to some of the empty retail units. She stated that it could often be difficult to identify the property owners for this purpose. The Committee were informed that a project had also been undertaken during the partial lockdown period of 2021 alongside the University of Arts that had seen the animation of various empty retail units across the City to ensure that the area appeared more vibrant and inviting and also thereby support the small businesses which remained. It was reported that this was an ongoing project. The Committee were also informed that work had been undertaken alongside the City Corporation who had worked hard to support SMEs via their grants scheme which the BIDs had helped push out and communicate to all.

Another Alderman referred to the recent Destination City launch event and questioned how the BIDs had engaged with this and linked up various SMEs into this. Ms Duston reported that follow-up work would be undertaken to measure the success of this in due course and reported that they had engaged with the Destination City team on this event but highlighted that the lead in time for this and communications around it had not been as extensive as they would have liked. However, she recognised that two major City BIDs were still very new whilst those such as Aldgate and Cheapside which were more established tended to have more well-established communication channels within the City Corporation.

The Lord Mayor commented that, from what he had seen to date, the success behind the Aldgate BID really seemed to be driven by the extent of community engagement. He went on to underline the need to be holistic in terms of the BIDs and things like Destination City in order to really harness the ‘multiplier effect’. He also mentioned the importance of the BIDs and indeed Destination City working hand in glove with the City’s Liveries to ensure that all investment was really achieving the best return that it could. Ms Duston responded by reporting that there was a BIDs Partnership Advisory Group chaired by the current Deputy Chairman of the City’s Policy and Resources Committee. She reported that the Group had met last week and had spoken extensively on Destination City. She added that they had also entered into a Communications Framework so that the BIDs and the City Corporation could establish better, two-way, communication channels. This would also examine how the BIDs could help shape some of the future Destination City programme.

An Alderman commented that the Aldgate and Portsoken Wards had been very disappointed not to see any real communications on the Golden Key event and asked the Director of Communications to take this on board when planning ahead for any future events of this kind.

With further reference to the Lord Mayor’s Show, the Chairman of the LMS Board reported that they were now looking very seriously as to how they might do more to commercialise the brand and the show and welcomed any conversations that he might have separately with the BIDs on this agenda going forward.

The Committee thanked the speakers once more for their contributions and congratulated them on all of their work to date.