The British BIDs Podcast

We speak to Colmore BID about their green infrastructure masterplan. It's ambitious, and sets out practical approaches to getting green infrastructure into our urban areas such as vertical forests, green rooves, and urban woodlands. Project Manager Mike Mounfield explains more in the latest of our mini-conversations. 

We’re off to Belfast in the latest in our series looking at what BIDs are doing to build back from the pandemic. Linen Quarter BID has reinstated The Golden Mile to boost tourism and footfall in the city centre. Find out more in this mini-conversation with BID Managing Director Chris McCracken. 

The 11th annual pancake race was Hinckley BID's first event of 2022, one of many pulling shoppers and visitors into their town centre. More than 140 people took part, including 20 people living with disabilities. Steve Wegerif runs the BID, and joins us in this episode.

BIDs are leading many interesting projects right now to help their communities build back from the pandemic. Bournemouth Coastal BID has partnered with a local charity called Grounded Community to turn food waste from businesses into vegetables for food banks. Fiona McArthur runs the BID and explains more. 

This month is independents month, where we celebrate and support our incredible local independent businesses. It’s important we get out and shop local in July - but also throughout the summer, and the whole year. We braved the rain to talk to some independents along with Hemel Hempstead BID. 

We are seeing office space rapidly evolve in our towns and city centres and on the fringes. Zoe Ellis Moore from Spaces for Places and Rupert Dean from X+Why talk us through what is happening. 

It’s been just over 3 weeks since we started reopening our towns and cities - and we checked in with Saffron Walden BID to see how their high street is doing. The BID's Shara Vickers joins us in this episode to discuss everything from how they're reopening their historical town, to the appeal of their independents, to al fresco dining in their market square. 

In Bradford, the BID is thinking outside the box as it gets the city back to business. While big events may still be out for now, they are getting the cleaning the done, showcasing the city and highlighting what's on offer. Nikki Chadburn joins us in the latest of our business recovery conversations.

We’re in Putney (virtually) where outdoor dining, deep street cleaning and maps for households are all on the BID’s agenda - as businesses prepare to reopen on Monday. Nicola Grant from Positively Putney joins us in this episode.

Just a few days left until April 12th, when many businesses can open their doors after a long old lockdown. Business Improvement Districts like Croydon BID are bringing their communities together and leading the way to recovery. Matthew Sims joins us in this episode.

Did you know that in Hammersmith, the BID is organising free delivery of shopping to local homes on zero-emissions bikes. Patricia Bench joins us for the next in our series of business recovery conversations.

Next stop for our virtual business recovery conversations is Epsom, conveniently located just outside London on the M25, and Go Epsom is convincing businesses to move staff to shared work spaces in their town. The BID's Karen Pengelly joins us for this episode! 

Welcome to our series of business recovery conversations as the country prepares to reopen from 12th April. We’re off to Swansea (virtually) to find out what Russell and the BID are doing to help the coastal city restart after the pandemic.

With the roadmap underway to ease lockdown, our eyes now turn to the Budget. In this episode, we discuss what the Chancellor needs to announce for us to properly recover from the pandemic. From extending the business rates holiday and a voucher scheme for our gyms and leisure centres, to a national match funding programme for converting empty buildings - our guests tell us what they would like to see announced.

South Bank BID's Nic Durston joins our Chris, Fiona and Ben in the final episode of 2020. They give their verdict on the past year, and look ahead to what 2021 will bring for our towns and cities. 

Epsom is an example of a suburban town that’s benefiting from many of its residents not commuting into London and instead spending locally. We spoke remotely to Karen Pengelly at Epson BID and local business owners Angie and Carolina to find out how it has been going since shops have reopened since Covid. 

The issue of returning back to the workplace has dominated our national conversation over recent weeks, it is a complex conversation and the impact varies greatly between our city centres, suburban towns and villages. We brought together Business Improvement Districts of a range of sizes and locations to discuss what we can do to help bring people back to work safely. Between them they represent thousands of offices as well as retail and hospitality businesses that rely on them.

Steve Sawyer from Manor Royal BID is a valued member of the British BIDs Advisory Board. The Board will be very helpful to businesses and BIDs across the UK now more than ever, as we recover from Covid. Steve joins us in this episode.

As shops open their doors from Monday for the first time in 3 months, we speak to Simon Jenner from Leicester BID about their efforts in getting the city running post Covid.

As our businesses begin to re-open, we’ve done some detailed research with New Economics Foundation and Nottingham BID which shows the change in our high streets will be monumental. There’s no going back to 12 weeks ago. And we've found people want to visit the centre of their cities less - but the small suburbs in which they live more. Our Chief Executive Chris Turner explains more. 

BIDs across the country are adapting to the pandemic in big ways - take Swansea BID who are refusing to let COVID19 spoil its summer events season! From talent contests and variety shows it’s all going ahead - virtually! Russell from the BID joins us to discuss this and much more. 

The Bath community has come together to plan the city centre’s re-opening as we recover from the Covid pandemic. Over 100 people joined with Bath BID to give their ideas for the ‘Big Bath Welcome Back’! More here with Allison Herbert from the BID. 

Towns and cities across the UK are busy planning how they restart post COVID19. Trish from Coventry BID joins us to discuss their efforts in kick starting their local economy - and how they're helping prepare Coventry to become next year's City of Culture. Please forgive the sound quality as we're recording these remotely to keep everyone safe. 

#RaiseTheBar is a campaign calling on government to raise the £25,000 rateable value threshold to help our retail, leisure and hospitality survive through COVID19. Croydon BID is behind it, and Matthew Sims joins us to tell us how it came about, and how Croydon is navigating the recovery phase.

Good communication between BIDs, levy payers, landlords and customers will be key as we navigate the crucial recovery phase after COVID19. That’s why we are thrilled to parter with MallComm and introduce their tool to our towns and city centres. Michelle and Ed explain more.

Today we're off to Cornwall (remotely of course) where we catch up with Helen from St Ives BID.  Businesses there are using real ingenuity to get through the crisis - a fisherman has set up a Facebook page with PayPal links, takes orders on Messenger, and delivers your fresh fish the next day!

Health and safety, machinery, staff, stock, public safety - just some of the challenges businesses in Cambridge are grappling with as they look to the coronavirus recovery phase. Ian from Cambridge BID joins us to discuss this and more. 

Business Improvement Districts are helping their communities during the coronavirus lockdown in innovative ways. Melanie from My Milton Keynes is putting unused BID assets to work to deliver food parcels to vulnerable residents. Mel joins us remotely to discuss this and much more in our latest episode.

BIDs up and down the country are using the COVID-19 lockdown as an opportunity to improve their communities. New West End Company is deep-cleaning the streets of London’s West End while they're empty. Chief Executive Jace Tyrrell joins us for our latest episode to discuss this and much more. 

BIDs such as Orpington 1st are stepping up to promote local businesses as they evolve their services during the COVID 19 lockdown. Chris from the BID joins us remotely to talk about their work and its impact in this latest episode of our industry podcasts. 

Be it gyms or pubs, businesses up and down the country are showing real entrepreneurial spirit and innovation in serving their communities during this COVID-19 crisis. And when this is all over, we will flock to our high street businesses. We talk about this and much more with Naomi from Hemel Hempstead BID.

Business Improvement Districts, such as Hammersmith BID, are working hard for their high streets, towns and cities during this horrible outbreak of COVID-19. In Hammersmith, they are getting banks together virtually to help local businesses bust some of the jargon and complex information.  Patricia from the BID joins us to discuss this and much more. 

One Oswestry Business Improvement District is working round the clock to help local businesses as they deal with the impact of coronavirus. Thanks to Adele for joining us as we discuss some of their challenges, initiatives and success stories coming out of the situation. Once again, forgive the audio quality as we are recording these episodes remotely to keep everyone safe, and we're getting information out as quickly as possible.

Over the coming days we are recording a series of industry information podcasts, sharing practical advice and some of the amazing work being done by BIDs and businesses during this challenging time for our towns and cities. We're pleased to be joined by Vaughan from CityCo on the big effort happening in Manchester in the face of coronavirus. Forgive the audio quality, these episodes are being recorded remotely to keep everyone safe and we're getting information out as quickly as possible.