Business plan unveiled to invest £14m in city centre over next five years

Leeds Business Improvement District (LeedsBID) revealed its ambitious five-year Business Plan for Leeds city centre in front of an audience of over 300 company representatives at the City Varieties Music Hall.

The “LeedsBID: The Next Chapter event” saw Andrew Cooper, Chief Executive of LeedsBID, set out the organisation’s priorities for Term Two, which runs from 2020 to 2025, focusing on five core themes: Ambition; Curation; Animation; Collaboration; and Innovation, underpinning its work in improving and enhancing Leeds city centre.

The Business Plan seeks to spend £14m on the city centre and has been developed after a consultation with LeedsBID’s levy payers regarding what the next chapter of LeedsBID should look like.

The outcome of this consultation endorsed continuing the core projects brought to the city by LeedsBID, including the Welcome Ambassadors and Street Rangers, and other schemes which will benefit business.

Cooper revealed aspirations to grow LeedsBID, through the consideration of a waterfront Business Improvement District to the south of the river. He explained that with Leeds city centre on target to double in size over the coming years, the Southbank regeneration area is of considerable importance to the city.

He said LeedsBID aims to act as a catalyst in supporting the changing needs of businesses and organisations in the area.

Also addressing the audience was keynote speaker Tina Ziegler, Director of Moniker Arts Festival, a contemporary urban art fair with its roots in London and New York.

Ziegler talked about why she believed Leeds had the ambition and energy to be a destination of international proportions. She then joined a panel, alongside Professor Gary Warnaby – a Fellow at the Institute for Place Management; Jen Mitchell – General Manager at First Direct Arena; and Isabel Hunt – Director of Improvement at NHS Digital, to talk about the opportunities and challenges of a modern city and LeedsBID’s central role in place changing for the future.

Cooper said: “Today’s event marks the first step on our journey towards a second term for LeedsBID. Over the past five years, we’ve worked closely with our levy payers and partners to introduce a diverse range of innovative, exciting and much-needed projects and initiatives to put Leeds firmly on the map and improve the city centre.

“Those who come to the city to live, work and thrive have hopefully gained enormous pleasure and benefited from our activity, which is only achievable through working together with businesses, organisations and individuals across the city. That is why Collaboration is a key theme for the next five-year term.

“This October, levy payers will be asked to vote to endorse and continue the work of LeedsBID for the next five years, and we believe that today has helped make the case for what can be achieved with ambition.”

Prew Lumley, Partner at Squire Patton Boggs and LeedsBID Chairman, said: “Our levy payers have played an integral role in helping shape the past five years so it’s only right that city centre businesses are the first to engage with plans for the next five.

“LeedsBID’s successes to date should be celebrated, but the Term Two Business Plan really takes things to the next level. It was brilliant to see so many familiar faces in the room and engaging with helping to shape our city’s future.”

Cooper added: “In the consultation the businesses said they’d like us to continue with about 75% of what we’ve been doing for the past five years.

“This means we’ll be able to free up 25% of investment to spend on new things, so we can respond nimbly to issues as needed, such as supporting green initiatives in the city.

“We also want to be more strategic about how we put on events, so we can position and tell the story of Leeds. We’re a vibrant city with lots going on so it’s about telling that story and retaining talent here.

“Through the BID we have businesses working together who weren’t doing so in 2015. We have competitors sitting round the same table who see the benefits of working strategically and seeing the bigger picture.”

Mitchell said: “The business plan is very ambitious and really draws people together to bring life into different aspects of the city, with nothing being left out or ignored.

“LeedsBID are very good at getting out and talking to people. For them it’s not just about the vote to approve the BID at the beginning, then collecting the levy. They are always good at keeping the conversation going.

“I have just joined the LeedsBID board and it’s an honour to have been asked. I’m really excited to be part of the decision-making process.”

Ziegler said: “What has really stood out for me has been LeedsBID’s openness and their interest in challenging their own ideas about how to grow a city.

“The BID’s five year plan aligns with my own objective, which is to present a zero carbon themed exhibition as part of Leeds International Festival next year. It’ll be the first time we’ll have come to Leeds in this capacity.”

To fund LeedsBID, levy payers with a rateable value of £60,000 pay a small percentage to contribute to the initiative, which helps to improve the city centre, and drive footfall. Levy payers will have the opportunity to vote on Term Two from 10 October to 7 November 2019.