Bath BID Annual Report 2020/21

ANNUAL REPORT 2020/21

BATH BID ANNUAL REPORT 2020/21 | 1

CONTENTS THE BATH BID AREA

2

MANAGING AND SAVING

7

WELCOME AND GOVERNANCE 3

WELCOMING AND PROMOTING

8

2020/21 FINANCIAL REPORT

4

DEVELOPING AND INNOVATING 10

OUR RESPONSE TO COVID-19

5

THE BATH BID BALLOT

12

2020/21 HIGHLIGHTS

6

WHAT’S NEXT?

12

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2 | BATH BID ANNUAL REPORT 2020/21

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The BID’s initiatives in the city are funded by the Levy Payers who pool their resources via an annual contribution based on their rateable value. As well as Levy Payers, the BID also works with several smaller businesses in the city who choose to participate. These are known as Voluntary Levy Payers.

Camden Crescent

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The Bath BID represents almost 700 business properties that operate within the city centre in the BID designated area, as shown on the map.

AD

THE BATH BID AREA

As we all know, 2020/21 was an incredibly difficult year, when the role of the Bath BID has really come to the fore.

I am proud of the work that the team has done with you this year, and have been so impressed by how businesses have responded to the challenges.

overwhelmingly positive mandate from the businesses of Bath, and are pleased that despite the difficult circumstances, businesses have placed their trust in the BID to help secure a successful future for Bath.

ALLISON HERBERT Chief Executive

We are delighted to have secured our third five-year term, having had an

GOVERNANCE The Bath Business Improvement District (Bath BID) is an independent, not-for-profit business-led company working to enable the businesses in Bath to succeed.

The BID represents almost 700 businesses that operate within the city centre in the BID designated area. Each business sector is represented by one or more Directors on the Bath BID Board, and each Director supports one of our themed sub-groups, Managing and Saving, Welcoming and Promoting, and Developing and Innovating.

The Bath BID’s Board of Directors oversees the running and governance of the BID on a voluntary basis. There are currently 15 Board members, representing a whole spectrum of city centre businesses in a range of different sectors.

At every Annual General Meeting, the Directors retire from office and many offer themselves for reappointment by the voting members. New Directors are also voted for by members of the Bath BID at the AGM. The next AGM will take place on 20th October 2021.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

David Hobdey (Chair) – St John’s Foundation Tarquin McDonald (Vice Chair) – Bath Rugby Maeve England – Mogers Drewett Richard Godfrey – Rocketmakers Simon Hall – Hotel Indigo Bath Guy Henderson – SouthGate Bath James Hughes – Loake Shoemakers

It has been an extraordinary year for businesses, but the Bath BID remains something you can rely on.

We acknowledge your support through the positive vote we received in this year’s ballot, and look forward to a successful five years of working with you.

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Mike Killpartrick – Ellis and Kilpartrick Ellie Leiper – The Grapes Allan Lloyd – CSquared John Pearce – Mallory Jewellers Cllr Dine Romero – B&NES Council Andy Salmon – Bath Spa University David Trethewey – B&NES Council Nicholas Wylde – Wylde Jewellers

DAVID HOBDEY Bath BID Chair

BATH BID ANNUAL REPORT 2020/21 | 3

2020/21 FINANCIAL REPORT ANNUAL INCOME

Earned Income Voluntary Levy Income Government COVID Support

BID Levy Income

14% 3% 4%

85%

Annual Income: £655,074

Chart ANNUAL EXPENDITURE* M

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13%

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7% 57%

OTING ROM P D AN

22% Ranger Services

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Christmas Activities

NG SAVI

Welcome Ambassadors

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ND GA IN AG AN

Research and Insights

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Chart Title

MEN GE A AN

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IN NO VA T

BID Management

Title

W

Bath Gift Card

Managing and Saving

Other Promotions and Events

Welcoming and Promoting Night-Time

r Services

Trade Waste Economy DevelopingCOVID andSupport Innovating BID Management Education Night-Time Economy Education

Support

Other Promotions and Events

Bath Gift Card

Welcome Ambassadors

Developing and Inno

Annual Expenditure: £627,477

BID income was down by around 21% vs the previous year. Expenditure was reduced accordingly, particularly in our Welcoming and Promoting activities, which were focussed on the various reopening periods including Christmas.

mas Activities

Savings made during 2020/21 have been carried forward to 2021/22 to fund a 25% discount anagement on this year’s levy fee with no reduction in services provided.

4 | BATH BID ANNUAL REPORT 2020/21

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OUR RESPONSE TO COVID-19 The COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on people’s lives dominated 2020/21. The Bath BID adopted a three-step response to the pandemic emergency, from crisis management to future transformation. As Bath, and the country as a whole, has moved in and out of lockdown regulations, we have remained agile in our response.

RESPONDING TO THE EMERGENCY Crisis management and emergency communications.

■ We significantly increased our Levy Payer communications, working closely with other information providers to ensure clear and consistent messages.

■ We continued to be at the end of the phone seven days a week.

■ We stepped up to show leadership in the city and worked in partnership to ensure the city operated effectively under rapidly changing circumstances.

■ We participated in nationwide campaigns, lobbying for support to the most impacted sectors.

■ We provided our data insights to decision makers to influence support and funding for impacted businesses.

■ The Bath BID Rangers remained in the city every day to support businesses.

■ During the first lockdown period, we actively promoted the essential businesses that remained operational with listings on the Bath BID website.

REOPENING Preparing the city centre for the safe return of business activity.

■ We continued our proactive communications as regulations changed and were updated at very short notice.

■ We created a shared reopening plan with different council departments and other regulatory services.

■ The Welcome to Bath website was launched at the beginning of the second lockdown to promote the ways people could support local from home.

■ In preparation for reopening, the Rangers undertook a street-bystreet deep clean, working in partnership with Bath & North East Somerset Council.

■ We worked with the Highways team to coordinate queue management in the city, and provided free social distancing stickers to businesses.

■ We held a series of webinars to support businesses as they prepared to reopen.

■ Over the summer, we supported businesses to make the most of the more relaxed outdoor seating regulations, and promoted the Eat Out to Help Out scheme.

RECOVERY Adjusting to the new normal as people return to the city safely.

■ We worked on the joint Rediscover Bath campaign with Visit Bath, to promote visits as the city reopened.

■ We worked with Minuteman Press Bath and Bounce Back Bath on an art competition to fill the city streets with artwork by local people.

■ We shared regular footfall updates with Levy Payers, the council and the police, to help support their business decisions as the city reopened.

■ We worked on a joint festive programme of activity with Visit Bath, Bath Festivals and Bath & North East Somerset Council, to encourage people to spend time and money in the city over Christmas.

■ We launched the events section of the Welcome to Bath website.

BATH BID ANNUAL REPORT 2020/21 | 5

2020/21 HIGHLIGHTS

Over 230

4,071

businesses supplied with social distancing stickers

individual tasks completed by the Bath BID Rangers

+28%

£41,000

vs previous year

of Bath Gift Cards purchased

£15,000

spent at 106 different merchants

Over 300

Daily

Levy Payers took advantage of SUEZ trade waste deal

20

morning and evening security checks

volunteer Welcome Ambassadors

2,620

visitors helped by our Welcome Ambassadors

2

visitor demographic

33,611

Welcome to Bath website sessions 6 | BATH BID ANNUAL REPORT 2020/21

13,528

Christmas Light Trail Map views

counters

10

footfall counters

MANAGING AND SAVING RANGER SERVICES Our Ranger services remain at the heart of what we do to keep Bath running smoothly.

Our friendly, flexible team of Rangers accomplished planned and responsive cleaning and light maintenance tasks every day, continuing to offer their services throughout lockdown periods.

In 2020/21, the Rangers completed 4,071 individual tasks around the city, which was an increase of 28% versus the previous year.

TRADE WASTE

CITY SECURITY

The management of trade waste is an important ongoing activity in the city. In 2020/21, the BID co-funded an Education and Enforcement Officer who worked to improve compliance and help businesses avoid fines.

Throughout the year, the Bath BID team conducted daily morning and evening security checks, keeping businesses informed of security issues.

The SUEZ trade waste initiative provided a cost saving for Levy Payers. Over 300 Levy Payers took advantage of this deal.

In our daily city centre checks, we were able to spot issues as they arose and dealt with alarms going off in empty premises, graffiti, squatters and other challenges on behalf of Levy Payers.

SAVING YOU MONEY Over the past five years, we have delivered savings to local businesses which outweigh the cost of their levy fees. There are several ways that the Bath BID offered value to Levy Payers, from savings on cleaning and trade waste to initiatives that bring people and spend to the city centre…

RANGER SERVICES WITH NO CALL-OUT FEE

HIGH-QUALITY DATA INSIGHTS

NIGHT-TIME SECURITY MARSHALS TO ENSURE BATH STAYS SAFE

BUSINESS SUPPORT INFO DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX

SUEZ TRADE WASTE DISCOUNT

FREE PROMOTION FOR YOUR BUSINESS

BATH GIFT CARD SALES DIRECT TO YOUR TILL

CAMPAIGNS TO BRING MORE SPEND TO BATH BATH BID ANNUAL REPORT 2020/21 | 7

WELCOMING AND PROMOTING

WELCOME TO BATH In November 2020, as we moved into the second lockdown, we launched our new consumer website, Welcome to Bath.

The website was originally planned to be a what’s on guide, but was rapidly reconfigured to become a guide to local businesses that continued to trade during lockdown. Essential businesses, including healthcare services and banks, food and drink businesses offering takeaways and grocery delivery services, and retailers that continued to trade online, were all included on the website.

Over the Christmas period, the website also offered event listings and a guide to Bath at Christmas, with practical information to help people plan their visit.

WELCOME AMBASSADORS Our volunteer Welcome Ambassadors provide a warm welcome to visitors to the city centre, offering directions and advice, and handing out free maps.

Although our Welcome Ambassadors weren’t able to take to the streets for most of 2021/22, the team were able to help over 2,600 people, as well as offering recommendations on the Welcome to Bath blog.

As lockdown began to ease in March 2021, the Welcome to Bath website pivoted to its original purpose, providing up-to-date information about large and small events and special offers across the city, a job vacancies page, and a blog featuring things to do, businesses to visit, and recommendations from the Bath BID Welcome Ambassadors.

BATH GIFT CARD

Bath BID Levy Payers are able to submit details of their upcoming events and job vacancies to be included on the website, or to send us content to be included as a guest blog post.

The Bath Gift Card was a great way to support local during lockdown, offering a flexible present that would guarantee money for Bath’s businesses once they reopened. In 2020/21, £41,000 worth of Bath Gift Cards were purchased.

From its launch until the end of March 2021, the Welcome to Bath website had: ■ 25,294 users ■ 33,611 sessions ■ 61,595 pageviews welcometobath.co.uk 8 | BATH BID ANNUAL REPORT 2020/21

The Bath Gift Card is a MasterCard-based gift card that can be used at over 200 participating businesses in Bath. It is completely free for Bath BID businesses to accept the card and the process of joining is straightforward.

bathgiftcard.com

REDISCOVER BATH

BATH AT CHRISTMAS

With lockdown easing and the city gradually reopening, in August 2020, we launched a joint campaign with Visit Bath, Rediscover Bath, which encouraged people to explore Bath safely and aimed to reignite their love for the city. As people were more likely to stay within their local area at the time, the campaign primarily targeted local residents and domestic visitors.

In the lead-up to the festive period, we worked with Bath & North East Somerset Council, Visit Bath, Bath Festivals and organisations throughout the region to bring the magic of Christmas to Bath.

The campaign was largely digital, focusing around a landing page on the Visit Bath website, with social media and e-newsletter activity to drive traffic to this page.

We also splashed the hashtag #RediscoverBath around the city centre as part of our citywide bunting display, with bunting designs submitted by local people as part of a competition we organised in partnership with Minuteman Press Bath and Bounce Back Bath.

The joint Bath at Christmas campaign was focused towards local residents and domestic visitors, encouraging people to spend time and money in the city safely over the festive period.

We responded to the challenge of bringing visitors to the city safely with the Bath Christmas Light Trail, Bath at Christmas Bunting Display, Father Christmas Advent Trail, Welcome to Bath Card, and Welcome to Bath Chalet, which was staffed by our volunteer Welcome Ambassadors.

During the campaign period, Bath at Christmas pages on the Welome to Bath website had 33,000 views.

BATH BID ANNUAL REPORT 2020/21 | 9

DEVELOPING AND INNOVATING RESEARCH AND INSIGHTS

FOOTFALL DATA

We invest in business intelligence about the city centre, which we use to measure the positive and negative impact of events and campaigns. During COVID-19, our data has been in great demand, and was on the agenda for the city’s recovery board every week.

We provide weekly footfall updates to Levy Payers. There are ten counters, so we can identify which areas of the city are busiest and at what times – all of which can be compared to regional and national averages.

As well as citywide analysis, individual businesses use the data to plan staffing levels and opening times. This has been particularly key for businesses in choosing when to reopen as we have emerged from lockdowns.

With over three years of data, we can make year-on-year comparisons.

2020/21 FOOTFALL Bath BID provides weekly footfall data updates, a measure of the number of people in the city each day. There are ten counters so that we can identify which areas of the city are busiest and at what times of day – all of which can be compared to regional and national averages. With two years of data we can make year-on-year comparisons.

01-Apr-20 01-May-20 April

May

01-Jun-20 June

01-Jul-20 July

01-Aug-20 August

01-Sep-20 01-Oct-20

September

October

2020–2021 2020–2021

FOOTFALL BY COUNTER LOCATION Union Street Union Street

18.8%

Burton Street Burton Street

15.5%

St Lawrence Street North St Lawrence Street North

12.5%

Southgate Street South Southgate Street South

12.4%

Southgate Street North Southgate Street North

11.8%

Sawclose Sawclose

8.4%

Northgate Street Northgate Street

7.1%

St Lawrence Street South St Lawrence Street South

5.3%

Milsom Street HoFHoF Milsom Street

4.6%

Milsom Street Milsom Street

3.7%

10 | BATH BID ANNUAL REPORT 2020/21

01-Nov-20 01-Dec-20

November

December

01-Jan-21 January

01-Feb-21 01-Mar-21

February

March

April

2019–2020 2019–2020

Overall, footfall in 2020/21 was down by 57% compared to 2019/20, with peaks during periods where regulations were eased and troughs during lockdown periods, with the lowest footfall during the first lockdown.

The periods with the highest footfall were during the summer holidays and in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

As in 2019/20, the busiest two locations for footfall in 2020/21 were Union Street and Burton Street, representing 18.8% and 15.5% of total 2020/21 footfall respectively.

UNDERSTANDING CITY CENTRE VISITORS The Bath BID pioneered the Smart City Data Project, a collaborative initiative to provide the city with cutting-edge visitor profiling. Data collection began in late January 2019, so we now have over two years of data from the project and have begun to form a picture of who the user of Bath city centre is. We have also been able to see how the Bath visitor changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

IMPACT OF COVID-19 As well as causing a dramatic drop in visitor numbers, the onset of COVID-19 also caused a change in the type of visitor spending time in the city centre.

The maps to the right show how footfall in the city looked in May 2019 compared to May 2020, in terms of visitors by home location.

Heat map showing the home location of visitors to Bath in May 2019

Heat map showing the home location of visitors to Bath in May 2020

COVID-19 CASES VS FOOTFALL IN BATH

Apr-20 Apr-20

April

May-20 May-20

May

Jun-20 Jun-20

Jul-20 Jul-20

June

July

Aug-20 Aug-20

August

Sep-20 Sep-20

Oct-20 Oct-20

September

October

Footfall

Nov-20 Nov-20

Dec-20 Dec-20

November

Jan-21 Jan-21

December

Feb-21 Feb-21

January

February

Mar-21 Mar-21

March

COVID-19 Cases in Bath

DISTANCE TRAVELLED TO VISIT BATH

DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION

PROPENSITY TO SPEND OF VISITORS TO BATH

Based on UK resident mobile contracts, during 2020/21, nearly 70% of visitors to the city centre travelled less than 20km to get to the city centre.

■ 56% of the city’s visitors in 2020/21 were female.

■ The age groups with the highest presence in the city were 45–54 and 25–34.

Bath consistently attracts people with the highest propensity to spend, approximately 10% more than the national average.

0%

50% 50%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

18–24 18–24

40% 40%

16%

Very High Very High

25–34 25–34 High High

35–44 35–44

30% 30%

45–54 45–54

20% 20%

Mid Mid

55–64 55–64 Low Low

65+ 65+

10%10%

0%

0%0%

m 0km 1–50km 0km+ 0km 1–20km 1–30k 5 1 2 31–4 4

0–1

2%

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6%Male 8% 10% Female Female

12%

14%

Very Low Very Low

0%

0%

10%

10%

20%

20%

30%

30%

40%

40%

BATH BID ANNUAL REPORT 2020/21 | 11

THE BATH BID BALLOT The Bath BID is required by law to 89% of eligible businesses voted in favour by number, with 88% ballot our Levy Payers every five voting in favour by rateable value. years.

In early 2021, we did just that, and were successful in securing the votes required for a new five-year term from 1st April 2021 to 31st March 2026.

On 1st April, we launched our third five-year term. We will now commence work on delivering the goals set our in our new 2021–2026 Business Plan.

BATH BID BUSINESS PLAN 2021–2026

WHAT’S NEXT? As we move into our third term, we continue to be committed to local businesses, creating opportunities to promote the city and supporting the city through its recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

OUR KEY THEMES FOR 2021–2026 A WELCOMING CITY

A CONNECTED CITY

A SMART CITY

A SUCCESSFUL CITY

For your staff and customers, visitors, clients, tourists, and our local community.

Using technology to enhance our understanding of the city’s performance.

Bringing together our business partnership of over 680 local businesses.

A programme of work to create the environment for businesses to succeed.

OUR PRIORITY ACTIONS FOR 2021–2026 1

TO CONTINUE OUR BRILLIANT BASICS

■ Free responsive and planned cleaning.

■ Trade waste discount.

■ Business intelligence.

■ City promotion, events and campaigns.

■ Volunteer Welcome Ambassadors.

2

TO IMPROVE SERVICES

3

■ Trade waste management.

■ Increased ‘Tap to Donate’ opportunities.

■ Stronger partnership working.

■ Proactive solutions to improve the streetscape and tackle empty shops.

TO DELIVER NEW PROJECTS

■ Daily city security.

■ Staff training opportunities.

■ A new independent business partnership.

■ A programme of campaigns and social activities to build links and make Bath a great place to work.

WITH THANKS TO OUR PARTNERS AND SUPPORTERS Bath Festivals, Bath & North East Council, SouthGate Bath, St John’s Foundation, Julian House, Visit Bath, and all of you.

01225 430640 12 | BATH BID ANNUAL REPORT 2020/21 info@bathbid.co.uk

bathbid.co.uk welcometobath.co.uk