Stoke-on-Trent BID Annual Report - November 2024

The first year of the second term for your City Centre BID has been notable as a year of pushing forward with fresh opportunities and strategy.

Our team of seven employees, supported by a committed board of directors, work hard to help Stoke-on-Trent City Centre become a 'Safe, Welcoming & Engaging City Centre Destination'. As we work to bring improvements across our city centre we are ever mindful of keeping one eye on meeting the needs of our businesses today whilst keeping another eye firmly on helping lead our city centre into tomorrow.

It has to be a balance of both. In our first term the emphasis was very much on establishing the foundations of the operation; ensuring we could deliver across the three key priorities the BID is tasked to deliver against: Place Management, Place Marketing and Business Community Support. And the enclosed infographic will give you a good summary of the actions and activities delivered over the past year against these priorities in particular.

However this year has also seen your BID implementing a number of more strategic actions andengagements that we believe will also help influence and steer the city centre into a stronger future.

There are a number of key highlights worth noting:

1. Actioning Your Concerns

First, we have been very intentional in responding to levy payers’ top two concerns, whichcame out during the consultation process towards the second term ballot. These are issues of Cleanliness and Security. We have been able to assign one of our Ambassadors Rich Wood to the role of Business Security Liaison Officer. This has seen notable results including about a 30% rise in reported incidents, tens of thousands of pounds of savings from recovered retail items, and most notably the issuing of 21 Criminal Behaviour Orders against individuals causing ASB and criminal acts in our city centre. Compared to just one CBO issued across the whole of the rest of the city, this highlights our success.

Additionally, through securing Shared Prosperity Funding we have employed a new
Cleanliness Ambassador, Alex Dick. His role has significantly impacted the environment, removing tonnes of waste, hundreds of needles, hundreds of pieces of graffiti and discarded rough sleeper bedding, implemented a pressure washer programme and much more.

Additionally, through securing Shared Prosperity Funding we have employed a new
Cleanliness Ambassador, Alex Dick. His role has significantly impacted the environment,removing tonnes of waste, hundreds of needles, hundreds of pieces of graffiti and discarded rough sleeper bedding, implemented a pressure washer programme and much more.

2. Keeping Students in Staffordshire

The BID is also keen to actively encourage university graduates to stay in our city. There is a brain drain where many quality students, originally from our area, after graduating, leave the area because there aren’t enough opportunities for them. We want to try to attract more of them to employment or setting up their own business in the city centre. 

As such we have set up what we call an Empty Units Partnership between the BID, the University of Staffordshire and the Staffs Chambers of Commerce. The BID profiles the opportunities in the city centre (including market stalls, co-working spaces, Potteries Centre units, High Street units, offices and available Council properties); the University promotes these to their graduates and particularly those in the newly established Entrepreneurship school; the Chambers offers business start-up packages to support these new businesses. They also promote the city centre offer to their list of small start-up businesses, up to three years old. The first event from this partnership, City Centrepreneurs, will take place on Small Business Saturday, 30th November, as a small start-up business showcase in the city centre.

3. Partnerships

As an additional service to support levy payers, the BID has agreed a partnership with the Chambers of Commerce to offer a business support package for any business needing advice. Called Quest, it will be rolling out imminently and features a dedicated HR advice line that businesses can call for advice on HR, Health & Safety, some Legal, Tax and VAT. A website will also host a library of documents on HR, H&S and Legal topics. A special BID agreed rate of just £49 a year makes this service available to levy payers only.

4. The City Centre Gift Card

The launch this year of the new City Centre Gift Card heralds a tool with great potential for leveraging additional spending power into our city centre, whilst at the same time fostering loyalty towards our city centre businesses. More than 50 of our businesses are already signed up to receive the card, and with its unique local design, as well as promoting it to the general public, we are intentionally meeting with high employers in the area to encourage them to consider offering these to their employers as an attractive alternative to their Christmas bonuses.

As a benchmark target, we discussed with another BID the success of their gift card and, after a period of being established, they regularly now bring in about £100,000 a year for city centre spend. That should be achievable for ours we believe. So if your business is not yet set up to be a potential recipient of some of this new spend let us know. The more businesses signed up the more attractive the offer.

5. Changing Perceptions 

One of the main challenges to our city centre is to change perceptions and language around it. It has been far too easy for people and Press to paint an excessively negative picture of the city centre. The BID is determined to work to change and shape a more constructive and positive narrative for our city centre. Central to our strategy to do this has been the employing this year of a part time Business Support Officer, Emily Whitehead, to work with businesses to help identify their positive stories and get them out further afield. A key focal point for this is our sponsoring of a unique, bespoke category at the annual Staffs University Business Awards. We called this the High Street Impact Award. Our goal is to celebrate and profile the great work happening in city and town centres, particularly those making a lasting impact for good. The first winner was Castle Artisan who deliver the monthly Artisan Markets in our city centre.

6. Changes to our Team 

A BID is not strong because of its budget or its ideas. It is as strong as the quality of its team that deliver it, and this year we have been blessed with the addition of some exceptional people to the BID team.

At Board level we have seen the retirement of Sara Williams and Julie Davies replaced by Rachel Laver (Chief Exec at Staffs Chambers of Commerce) as our Lead Director for Business Support, and Amy Whittaker (General Manager at the Potteries Centre) as our Lead Director for Place Management. We have also added Tracey Barker (Boots Store Manager) as our representative for large stores. More recently we have invited our city centre MP Gareth Snell to the board as an Observer. This a strategic move. There is an expectation that all board members reason and serve only in the best interest of the city centre, not their own, so this is not a political appointment. Rather it opens up
opportunities.

Gareth is keen in his term in office to help make a difference to our city
centre. He brings much experience along with connections locally and nationally that could be of benefit. He will provide a valuable link with central govt and can lobby for our city centre and be kept close on issues facing us such as Policing, Social Care Costs, the loss of the anticipated Home Office building, the effect of National Insurance rises on businesses etc.

At an operational level, in addition to employing Emily Whitehead as a part time Business Support Officer, and Alex Dick as our new Cleaning Ambassador, we took on Charlotte Perry, initially as an apprentice from the University of Staffordshire, and from November 1 st as a full time Marketing Assistant, to support our Marketing Manager.

We recognise the BID has quite a large mandate of opportunities and responsibilities and our marketing and comms work is vital to maximise on these. This year our marketing team have seen 1.45million users reached across our social media channels and a 21% increase in visits to our City Centre news pages on our website.

We now have a total amassed social media following of 14,322.
It has also been interesting to note that people from the BID industry further afield havebeen noticing Stoke-on-Trent BID, remarking on the frequency of posts and news and activities we are involved in. This raising of profile has also turned into two invitations this year to speak at national BID conferences, and we have been earmarked for a visit from a govt minister in the new year to find out more about the BID work and our city centre.

Of course, it hasn’t all been positive this year. The recent budget will see fresh National Insurance and Business Rates challenges for many. And of course we suffered through being a location for the summer riots. We learnt three positive things through the riots however.

First, the value of having an effective radio system was critical to hear in advance where groups were approaching from and to be able to go ahead of them and warn businesses, getting the public into shops and locking doors.
1 in 5 of our businesses have a radio through membership of PABCIS and that helped a lot. Second, we saw afresh how trusted and valued the BID is to businesses who appreciated our support and looked to us for advice. Third, the experience elevated our understanding and sense that the BID has a role of being a steward in the city centre on behalf of the whole city. What does this mean? The city centre is the arena for our city. It is the natural focal point for activity, actions, events and demonstrations, whether negative or positive. As such, where we have been used for rioting we
should also be open to being used for healing, for constructive events on behalf of our city.

That is why we are thrilled to support a brand new event in the city centre next year called Lift that is for the youth of the city, from across all sectors, and will be put on in partnership with the SOT Youth Collective. Youth from different sides were involved in the rioting we suffered and it will be positive to be intentional to support and event that can build bridges.

2025 will indeed be a year of events in the city centre as the city celebrates its centenary. And alongside Lift look out for opportunities to engage with and participate in the 100 Years 100 Faces Mural unveiling, an associated Lighting Up event, the Centenary Celebration Event and Parade, the Remix Digital Interaction events, the return of Appetite’s Big Feast and many more.

Most significantly however, as we celebrate the last 100 years, as a city centre we also have come to a moment where we will be able to look and push forward for a better future. A brand new 15 year City Centre Masterplan will be consulted on in the New Year and then the focus will be on delivery of its strategy and vision. We encourage all levy payers to actively engage in this process.

So, your BID has been pushing forward more intentionally this year. But there is every likelihood that forward momentum will build even further in 2025.

Jonathan Bellamy
Chair, Stoke-on-Trent City Centre BID