Shaping the future of the BID industry

The purpose of this report highlights where the Business Improvement District [BID] industry was and how British BIDs might best respond to the needs of that industry following the COVID-19 pandemic. 

We therefore set up a number of different research streams to see both where the industry was going and how best we might support it. These research streams included work conducted by NEF Consulting, Rocket Science and British BIDs. 

This report brings together all three of these strands, making use of as much of the original data and insight as possible. In total more than 100 BIDs have been involved in the research. 

All BIDs taking part in the focus groups saw the post-Covid ‘new normal’ as a place of major change, with much uncertainty but also much possibility. The consensus in all the focus groups was that of opportunity, of BID managers being positive individuals who had come into the industry because of the challenges and variety. This was refreshing and spirit lifting. 

It will now be for all of us in BIDs to reflect on both our own shared thinking, and the thinking taking place across the world outlined in this work about this ‘new normal’. It will be for BIDs to then integrate it into the way that we work, the way that we cooperate, and the way that we move toward an increasingly shared vision of place that brings together businesses, all the varied place users, and our local authorities. 

For British BIDs, the research now paves the way for the organisation to develop its business plan to best support the needs of the BID industry.