Essential Edinburgh Annual Review 2020

Annual Review - Year 12 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020 st

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We believe in working collaboratively, supporting all our businesses across the BID to create, develop and promote a city centre to be proud of.

ESSENTIAL EDINBURGH ŠESSENTIAL EDINBURGH 2020 | The reproduction or publication of any figures or statistics from this document is strictly prohibited.Annual Review 2019-20 | 2

Contents 04 06 08 22 26 30 34 38 42

Team & Board Introduction Promoting Enhancing Protecting Engaging COVID-19 Response Accounts Get in Touch

A hard working small team, committed to delivering for you.

Team & Board The Team

Directors

Emily Johnston Senior Manager, Marketing & Communications

Barry Blamire, The John Lewis Partnership

Louise Maclean, Signature Pub Group

Craig Thomson, Boots Plc (Resigned 18/02/2020)

Louise Masson, Harvey Nichols

Gillian James Business Engagement Manager Grant Roberts Business Engagement Manager Grant Stewart Senior Manager, Projects Mark Farvis Digital Media Manager

David Stewart, Aberdeen Standard Investments Denzil Skinner, Chair Derek Brownlee, Royal Bank of Scotland

Nick Peel, St James Quarter Edinburgh (Appointed 18/02/2020) Rochelle Burgess, Edinburgh St James & Multrees Walk (Resigned 18/02/2020)

Jenny McPartlin, Marks and Spencers Johan Scheepers, The Kimpton, Charlotte Square (Resigned 18/02/2020)

Roddy Smith Chief Executive & Director

Josh Miller, Charlie Miller Hairdressing

Essential Clean Team

Councillor Kate Campbell, Housing and Economy Convener, City of Edinburgh Council

James Reilly, Contract Manager MITIE (Clean Team are sub-contracted to Mitie)

Martin Clarke, The Edinburgh Woollen Mill

Company Secretary - David Lindgren

ESSENTIAL EDINBURGH Annual Review 2019-20 | 4

The past twelve months have been a roller-coaster for everyone. All projects and initiatives required prioritising to ensure we continued to deliver what was needed by you, our businesses.

Edinburgh city centre is a resilient and special place as we all know, but it will take time to recover.

Introduction Little did we know when we started out on our second year of the current business plan that a global pandemic was coming our way, with consequences not only for our everyday personal life but also for how our city centre operates, for the short and longer term.

Our 2019/20 report has two distinct parts, reporting on the period from July to March, and then the COVID 19 timeframe of late March to the end of June.

We continued with the delivery of our key business plan priorities such as our award winning city centre marketing campaign, The Sign of a Great Time; our partnerships with Police Scotland and The Cyrenians to support both security and the homeless community; our work to promote the city through supporting partner events; our partnership with FUSE to support employment opportunities and training; delivering a highly effective Clean Team operation to support an enhanced cleaning presence and ensuring the

city has fantastic Christmas lighting.

As always, we represent our members interests on numerous city-wide working groups, enabling and supporting new developments in the city centre, communicating widely and effectively on many issues and liaising with the Council and other partners to either facilitate change or raise concerns.

Once the scale of the pandemic became apparent, we re-focused much of our energy on supporting our businesses with enhanced communication, producing guides on re-opening, social distancing guidelines and window and floor stickers, as well as providing enhanced security for closed premises. Like all businesses we had to adapt to the environment by reducing our staffing compliment to a core team to survive on a reduced income.

We contributed to many forums to support business, especially in regard to re-opening and the longer-term economic impacts we will all face.

Edinburgh city centre is a resilient and special place as we all know, but it will take time to recover particularly as it is an environment that is changing quickly. Already we are seeing new planning policies and developments on Princes Street, the St James Quarter is nearing completion, and we are all dealing with the ever-changing nature of retail.

The pandemic will undoubtedly hasten this change, but we are optimistic that our city centre will recover, our residents, workers and visitors will return and Edinburgh will be as strong as before.

Roddy Smith, CEO Denzil Skinner, Chair ESSENTIAL EDINBURGH Annual Review 2019-20 | 6

Average hospitality sales across the eight months showed substantial growth of 5.6%, with September the stand-out month with an 11.1% annual increase.

Promoting

Spend: ÂŁ379,313 - 52% of Total BID Project Budget

A thriving city centre is a place people want to visit and spend time in. We have carefully invested in promoting the BID area, creating activity and engagement to support the BID community.

In five out of the eight months being reported Edinburgh retail sales saw annual growth.

Although both September and November 2019 saw declines, these were equalled out with growth in October, December and January leaving the eight months reported as flat.

Both the UK and Scotland followed a similar trend, averaging out into very slight annual declines of 0.8% and 1% respectively.

Average hospitality sales across the eight months showed substantial growth of 5.6%, with September the stand-out month with an 11.1% annual increase.

Over 90% of respondents to the Edinburgh Visitor Survey, conducted by STR, agreed that the shops in the BID area were of a higher quality than elsewhere in the city and 74%

believed the quality of eating and drinking on offer was better in the BID than the city overall.

George Street Festival We worked with Assembly Festival and the Edinburgh International Book Festival again in 2019 to animate George Street during August.

This successful mixture of festival entertainment and extended on-street space for our restaurant and bar businesses helped increase dwell-time within the BID area, helped boost footfall in the surrounding area and helped increase hospitality sales by 8.1% on August 2018 – all despite the poor weather, again, during August 2019.

Film Fest in the City A firm favourite of businesses and residents, this annual free film bonanza was unfortunately cancelled due to Covid-19 and unable to be rescheduled during this operational year. Planning is already underway for an enhanced event in 2021.

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We are Essential Edinburgh, looking after you and our city centre.

Over 50% of visitors went on to shop, eat or drink in the city centre - spending on average £27 – giving the market an economic impact to the city centre of almost £3.4 million.

Edinburgh Farmers’ Market

Communicating with you

During the eight months being reported there were over 250,000 visitors to the market. Over 50% of visitors went on to shop, eat or drink in the city centre - spending on average £27 – giving the market an economic impact to the city centre of almost £3.4 million.

We work hard as a team to keep you updated, informed and engaged. We use every tool at our disposal to share important and interesting information; we use all available digital platforms and our Business Engagement Managers to keep the information flowing.

Do make sure you are following us on social media, and that you are on our mailing list.

This was our final year of operation of the market. In August 2020 the farmers’ market was handed over to a cooperative of producers to operate.

The market will continue to attract hundreds of thousands of customers each year, to the benefit of businesses in the area. With over 50% of visitors annually going on to shop, eat or drink in the city centre, we are certain that this will continue to be the case without our involvement in the market. Essential Edinburgh staff can now focus entirely on the BID area and BID businesses.

Our Business Engagement Managers are not just a key communication conduit, they are there to support your business in any way they can.

Between 1st July 2019 - 29th February 2020 we were operating with one Business Engagement Manager (previously BID Liaison Officer) who interacted with 420 businesses within the BID during that time. This is such a crucial role, ensuring we are supporting your business, that we have doubled our Engagement Manager positions. If you haven’t yet met them, do get in touch to see how we can support you.

ESSENTIAL EDINBURGH Annual Review 2019-20 | 10

We are Essential Edinburgh, looking after you and our city centre.

Our BID-area marketing campaign won Gold at the Marketing Society Star Awards in the Retail category.

A large part of it’s success is the engagement from you, our levy-paying businesses.

Sign of a Great Time Marketing Campaign Year Two of the BID-centred marketing campaign began with one of our biggest activations to date - the ‘Grab a Great Time’ game.

The activity was twofold: an in-person experience using a bespoke branded arcade grabber machine, situated on Castle Street, packed full of prizes, discounts and offers from BID members.

Secondly, the first ever series of city centre Flash Sales – a digitally led activation across our social channels that gave Edinburgh residents the chance to, quite literally, grab a great time from BID members across Edinburgh City Centre.

The Flash Sale prizes were smaller in number but of a high value and for a limited time only.

The Flash Sales spanned four weeks and were ‘live’ during optimum engagement times for our target audience.

To round-off 2019 we created a traditional

Christmas Grotto with a twist – our Gift of Giving Grotto in partnership with Lothian Bus. The Gift of Giving Grotto was held on George Street, opposite The Dome, within a dressedup Lothian bus, complete with decorations and a very special driver – Santa. He was waiting inside to meet children and help them choose an affordable stocking filler for their loved ones.

This activity delivered an exciting inperson activation to raise awareness of the participating BID members, incredible array of city centre retailers and spread festive cheer in the lead-up to the holiday season.

Award Winning Our BID-area marketing campaign won Gold at the Marketing Society Star Awards in the Retail category. A large part of it’s success is the engagement from you, our levy-paying businesses. So a big thank you to everyone who has been involved in the on-street activations and social media activity over the past two years.

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Lothian Bus Partnership Our partners at Lothian Bus provided Essential Edinburgh with a bus-branding opportunity.

Our beautiful city centre bus has been circulating Edinburgh since November 2019, and at time of this publication was still visible on Edinburgh’s roads.

The videos helped the @EdinCityCentre channels receive over 3 million impressions between December and March, as well as 23,891 engagements and a 3% hike in followers across all channels. #EdinburghGreats

Edinburgh Gift Card

Our core promotional spike for end of 2019/2020 focussed on the people and businesses that make the city centre unique our #EdinburghGreats.

The Edinburgh Gift Card launched alongside the City Centre Marketing Campaign in October 2018. It is a pre-paid Mastercard that is currently accepted in over 100 BID area businesses. It is helping to lock in spend for Edinburgh city centre businesses; encouraging people to explore our great city and share their messages with friends, family and colleagues.

Unfortunately, due to the COVID outbreak we were unable to broadcast our final video as planned at the start of April, however we still saw huge success from December to early March 2020.

The videos helped the @EdinCityCentre channels receive over 3 million impressions between December and March, as well as 23,891 engagements and a 3% hike in followers across all channels.

The two most successful Facebook posts for the whole year hailed from #EdinburghGreats – Veganuary and #DitchNewYearsResolutionDay topping the ranks of engaged-with content.

This reporting year there have been 75 pieces of branded print and online coverage with 3.75million OTS (opportunities to see).

Within this reporting year almost £13,500 was spent in 330 transactions and almost £23,000 was loaded to 382 Edinburgh Gift Cards. As of September 2020 over £20,100 of Edinburgh Gift Cards were in circulation.

As a levy-payer it’s free to accept the gift card.

There’s no additional hardware or software required, no joining fee and you will get free promotion as part of the scheme through spotlight campaigns, promotional messages and competitions. So make sure you are signed up to accept the Edinburgh Gift Card and benefit from the locked-in spend in the city centre.

ESSENTIAL EDINBURGH Annual Review 2019-20 | 14

As a result of the activities, footfall in Rose Street increased 4.5% compared to the same time the previous year.

Burns&Beyond and Chinese New Year Festivals 2020

The second year of this innovative partnership event, produced by Unique Events, saw Chinese New Year and Burns Night occur on the same date.

To celebrate, a bumper twelve-day festival programme was produced which included some traditional Burns Night celebrations and ceilidh’s mixed with music, spoken word, comedy, busking, trails, lion dances, lanterns and theatre.

“Too many highlights to choose from!! This is the Edinburgh festival that should be in everyone’s calendars. Loved it!!”

- Burns&Beyond festival feedback survey

Our investment of £20,000 in this £300,000 partnership event ensured the continuation of the successful Red, Red Rose Street events programme and animation of the BID area, including the family trail Rabbie’s Ramble, 10,000 Lucky Chinese Envelopes distributed for business use, and The Big Burns Quiz.

As a result of the activities, footfall in Rose Street increased 4.5% compared to the same time the previous year.

“Soaking up the fantastic line-up this Culture Trail and whizzing around Red, Red Rose Street with the kids letting them join in the fun too. Simply fantastic!” - Festival feedback survey ESSENTIAL EDINBURGH Annual Review 2019-20 | 16

We are Essential Edinburgh, looking after you and our city centre.

The festival welcomed over 34,000 people to Edinburgh city centre to enjoy free and ticketed events.

In 2020 both the Freemasons Hall and the Assembly Rooms were included as venues. The Assembly Rooms hosted the Burns&Beyond Festival Club; presenting a four-night programme of spectacular live music and dance enjoyed by over 4,500 people.

It was a sell-out events programme at Freemason’s Hall with the Not So Traditional Burns Supper, new free Bairns Burns Supper and the Major Minor Music Club where parents and kids could enjoy great music together.

The festival welcomed over 34,000 people to Edinburgh city centre to enjoy free and ticketed events. It was a strong local audience with 69% of attendees hailing from Edinburgh (48.5%) or the Lothians (20.4%). 84% of attendees said they would either not have celebrated Burns Night at all or would have celebrated at home if they had not attended Burns&Beyond.

Edinburgh WOWS! Working closely with the Edinburgh Cultural Venues Group we have financially supported and promoted the digital marketing campaign “Edinburgh Wows”.

This campaign highlights Edinburgh’s yearround cultural offering and aims to boost the non-festival months, communicating the emotional experiences derived from visiting our vast offering of world class cultural venues.

At the end of phase 2 of paid advertising March 2020 - there had been over 1.5 million video views, over 3 million reach, and over 13 million impressions across YouTube and Facebook.

101 Objects In partnership with agencies across the city we continue to support 101 Objects, promoting important historical objects in our BID area.

ESSENTIAL EDINBURGH Annual Review 2019-20 | 18

©Roberto Ricciuti

Weibo & WeChat had 94,000 combined followers and over 220 million impressions.

China Ready – Weibo & WeChat With over 94,000 combined followers and over 220 million impressions to September 2020 the official Edinburgh Weibo and WeChat channels are increasingly valuable assets for local businesses.

The campaign was the largest Edinburgh has produced with 25 events and 16 dedicated promotions, a 30% increase in activity from the previous year. The campaign had a large number of media placements, including front pages, TV and China Daily.

Through collaboration with the China Ready group and ETAG we have been able to offer a regular platform for our levy-payers to engage with this growing audience.

In addition to Burns&Beyond Chinese New Year 2020 (CNY) celebrations, we worked in partnership with Edinburgh Tourism Action Group (ETAG), Unique Events and Heriot Watt University’s Confucius Institute for Business and Communication, to offer a platform for our businesses to be in the official Edinburgh Chinese New Year celebratory programme.

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我们是 Essential Edinburgh 为您提供爱丁堡市中心的商业管理服务.

Our Clean Team have removed over 16,000 bags of waste for recycling, up 24% compared to the same period the previous year.

Enhancing

Spend: £195,565 - 27% of Total BID Project Budget

Over 77% of respondents to the Edinburgh Visitor Survey, conducted by STR, agreed that the BID area was cleaner than the rest of the city and 81% found it more welcoming. Our continued investment in enhancing the BID area ensures an attractive year-round destination for all city centre users.

Clean Team Our superb squad continues to deliver an unrivalled additional cleansing service for our levy-payers, above and beyond the statutory responsibility of Edinburgh Council.

From July 2019 to February 2020 the Clean Team removed over 16,000 bags of waste for recycling – an increase of 24% compared to the same period the previous year. They also cleaned over 9,470m2 of gum from our city centre streets.

In the same period, the Clean Team’s Rapid Response service helped 314 businesses, responding to the call-outs within an hour.

They have responded to a staggering rise in incidents of graffiti, removing and cleaning over 400 items – an increase of 98% on last year.

The team have removed over 1,200 items of flyposting, an increase of 1.4%, and removed 295 items of environmental and hazardous waste including drugs paraphernalia, a decrease of 40%.

The audit carried out by Mitie of all BID area streets shows a cleanliness score of 93%, based on a nationally recognised rating system.

ESSENTIAL EDINBURGH Annual Review 2019-20 | 22

We are Essential Edinburgh, looking after you and our city centre.

We have continued our award-winning partnership with Changeworks Recycling, benefitting both individual BID businesses and the environment.

St Andrew Square Garden

Seasonal Decorations

Changeworks Recycling

St Andrew Square Garden continues to be a much loved and vibrant city centre space. It is a tranquil and reflective place to spend time as well as being a well-used thoroughfare. To soften the impact of heavy footfall within the Garden we continue to invest in the upkeep and upgrading of this key greenspace.

Creating an attractive and welcoming city centre is extremely important to encourage repeat local footfall as well as for first impressions of visitors. To create this ambience year-round we have invested in seasonal floral displays in our George Street planters, maintained the trees in Rose Street and ensured St Andrew Square Garden is the jewel in the crown of city centre spaces.

We have continued our award-winning partnership with Changeworks Recycling, benefitting both individual BID businesses and the environment with 238.25 tonnes of CO2 diverted from landfill.

We continue to solely fund the Christmas Light Trees on George Street to ensure a fitting Festive display during this crucial trading period, and following our investment in upgrading the Rose Street canopy lights with state-of-the-art colour changing LEDs, the city centre has year-round enhanced dressing.

A third of all BID area businesses benefit from our favourable ‘BID rate’ and the more businesses that sign up with Changeworks Recycling, the lower costs becomes for all.

From July 2019 to February 2020 we have had a number of low-impact events within the Garden including the final farewell weekend of the Oor Wullies BIG Bucket Trail, Armed Forces Day celebrations, Poppy Scotland, and Cut & Paste Live – celebrating 400 years of collage, with the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Between 1st July 2019 and 29th February 2020 they collected a total of 1020 tonnes of waste with a recycling rate of 62%.

If you have not yet switched drop them an email or give them a call and save some money and the environment at the same time!

ESSENTIAL EDINBURGH Annual Review 2019-20 | 24

Recorded crime is down 6.1% compared to last year and down 1.9% compared to the five-year average.

Protecting

Spend: £62,783 - 9% of Total BID Project Budget

Protecting customers, staff and businesses is of vital importance for a thriving city centre. The Edinburgh Visitor Survey again highlighted the success of our innovative partnerships with 87% of people feeling safer in the BID area than elsewhere in the city.

BID Cop Our ground-breaking partnership with Police Scotland provides an enhanced police presence and active support for our businesses through PC Leo Baker.

PC Baker regularly visits BID businesses to offer advice, support and training.

Between July 2019 and February 2020, Leo visited 231 businesses, an increase of 36% on last year. In addition, he has had email or telephone correspondence with 158 businesses and has provided nine “Hard Target” courses for retailers, training 68 staff members to minimise shoplifting opportunities within BID businesses.

Complemented by our Check Out communication system, linking over 165 retailers with the Police, our joined-up approach continues to deliver real results in reducing retail crime.

Due to national lockdown in March, bike marking events were unable to take place through the spring and early summer.

However, two marking events were able to take place in this reporting year, helping to address the growing issues around cycle theft.

PC Baker marked and added 17 bikes to the national register, helping speed up reuniting stolen bicycles with their owners.

NB: Crime figures reported by Police Scotland are for the reporting year – 1st April 2019 to 31st March 2020. Crime figures are for the whole City Centre Ward area. Reported crimes included are: Serious Assault, Housebreaking to a business, Robbery, Vandalism, Common Assault and the total of these five areas, with a five-year average.

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Crime Statistics

Recorded Crime

Detected Crime

Total crimes and offences

Total crimes and offences

-6.1% on last year

3.1% up on last year

-1.9% on 5-year average

2.6% up on 5-year average

Serious Assault

Serious Assault

Serious assault, housebreaking to a business, robbery, vandalism and common assault were all lower than last year and all except robbery were lower than the five-year average.

-27.2% on last year

5% up on last year

-16.3% on 5 year average

4.4% up on 5 year average

Housebreaking to a business

Housebreaking to a business

-31.9% on last year

1.7% up on last year

Total detection rates for crimes and offences were higher than last year and the five-year average by 3.1% and 2.9% respectively.

-53.5% on 5 year average

10.8% up on 5 year average

Robbery

Robbery

-20.6% on last year

10.5% up on last year

0.0% on 5 year average

4.4% up on 5 year average

Vandalism

Vandalism

-5.6% on last year

4.5% up on last year

-2.4% on 5 year average

4.5% up on 5 year average

Common assault

Common assault

-6.4% on last year

2.6% up on last year

-1.2% on 5 year average

1% up on 5 year average

Total recorded crimes and offences down 6.1% compared to last year and down 1.9% compared to the five-year average.

All individual areas have higher detection rates than last year and than the five-year average.

NB. Recorded crime is all crime reported to Police, detected crime = crime solved.

Source: Police Scotland, statistics for Edinburgh City Centre Ward area

The strength of our work comes from the city-wide partnerships that exist between the key providers of support in the city.

Navigator Project – with Cyrenians Our partnership with Cyrenians continues to provide support for some of society’s most vulnerable individuals. Our investment funds Outreach Workers through the Navigator Project, supporting their amazing work in caring for the homeless community in our city.

offers peer support, delivered by a team with first-hand experience of homelessness. Nick has over 25 years’ experience in working with vulnerable people and takes to the streets of Edinburgh several times a week alongside his colleague whose own experience of sleeping rough gives the service a unique advantage.

Working on a one-to-one basis with rough sleepers on the streets, Nick Harrold provides support by developing relationships, responding to each individuals priorities and supporting them to address these.

Nick’s two-person team also liaises with other specialist agencies including the Bethany Christian Trust, Access Point and the Community Police Team – including our BID Cop PC Baker.

The Navigator Team have helped accommodate 79 individuals over the year.

They have assisted three individuals into permanent tenancies of their own and one individual into a job. The Team is currently providing 1:1 support for eleven people, none of whom are now represented as homeless.

The team continued to provide at least five street shifts per week right through the year, including during the lockdown period.

The key to the project’s success is that it

How can you help?

• If you think someone is in immediate danger on the street, call Police Scotland on 999 or 101 • If you see someone sleeping rough who you think needs support, call Cyrenians on 0131 475 2503

The strength of our work comes from the citywide partnerships that exist between the key providers of support in the city.

Security Initiatives We continue to operate multiple channels to tackle and minimise crime within the BID; Check Out for retailers, Check In for hoteliers, Gold Watch for jewellers and Pub Watch for hospitality businesses - all helping to make the city centre an unattractive location for crime.

Check Out still leads the way with its innovative approach to tackling retail crime through partnership working. Coordinated sharing of information by over 165 signed-up retailers and Police Scotland helps to make our BID an unappealing target for shoplifters.

Between 1st July 2019 and 29th February 2020, reporting grew by 2.6%, with partners sharing data on 318 incidents.

• If you or someone you know is at immediate risk of homelessness, call 0800 032 5968 ESSENTIAL EDINBURGH Annual Review 2019-20 | 28

Nick Harrold and Mark Diver Outreach Workers, Homeless Navigator Project

Navigator Project Accommodation found for 79 individuals

3 into permanent tenancies

1 individual into a job Currently providing 1:1 support for 11 individuals (9 male & 2 female)

No one represented as homeless who is using 1:1 support

At least 5 street shifts per week right through the year including the lockdown period

We support the many developers investing in our city.

Engaging

Spend: ÂŁ60,615 - 8% of Total BID Project Budget

We amplify your voice, ensuring that your views are heard when key decisions that impact your business or the city centre are made.

Transforming the City Centre

FUSE

Throughout the year Essential Edinburgh has worked on behalf of levy-payers to engage with many exciting projects and developments in the city. These include the George Street redesign project, the Transient Visitor Levy, the Quaich Project, the City Centre Transformation Project and major transport initiatives and new developments throughout the BID area.

In preparation for the opening of the St James Quarter the Edinburgh Training Academy, FUSE, was set up last year to support citywide recruitment and training.

BID area development We support the many developers investing in our city. We help to co-ordinate the sharing of information, sit on city wide groups, comment on planning applications and traffic orders and liaise with Council officials and other organisations.

FUSE is delivering high quality recruitment and training for retail, leisure and hospitality sectors, offering our levy-payers high quality training opportunities for all their staff and supporting their recruitment needs at no cost.

If you are recruiting or want training for your staff, please get in touch with the FUSE team.

With complex developments like the St James Quarter, Johnnie Walker Experience, 64 and 111 Princes Street, Jenners, Gleneagles Hotel, The Hub on Rose Street and office developments on George Street, we represent the interests of our businesses at every opportunity.

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We are Essential Edinburgh, looking after you and our city centre.

We are working collaboratively with Edinburgh Council and Transport for Edinburgh to assist with the implementation of a new Wayfinding system for Edinburgh.

City Centre Monitoring Project

Wayfinding

This was the final year of our collaboration with LDC and University College London as part of the Smart Street Sensor Project.

From April 2020 the new data provider is Intechnology, the company that delivers Edinburgh’s free WiFi service.

We are working collaboratively with Edinburgh Council and Transport for Edinburgh to assist with the implementation of a new wayfinding system for Edinburgh city centre and have been integral to the solution being discussed.

The first evidence of this was our production of new wayfinding maps on our Rose Street directories, using the new city-wide design.

Intechnology provide footfall information for the BID area which includes demographic data to provide more detailed footfall patterns across the city centre. Alongside our retail and hospitality sales monitor, these vital metrics enable us to monitor the vitality of the city centre each year. Since July 2019 these key indicators are reported on our ‘stats dashboard’ on the Essential Edinburgh website, and continue to be printed annually in our Essential Trends publication.

Cycling Working closely with SPOKES and the Council we ensure appropriate cycle lane provision during both Christmas and Summer festivals.

Rose Street We continued to work with Council staff and contractors to facilitate effective communication with local businesses during the replacement works on Rose Street.

Unfortunately due to lockdown and social distancing measures completion of the resurfacing has been delayed.

Business Training and Master Classes This year we held a Marketing Masterclass “Dissect Your KPIs” led by performance marketing agency DAC, who kindly shared their expertise and knowledge for free with their fellow levy-paying businesses.

ESSENTIAL EDINBURGH Annual Review 2019-20 | 32

We are Essential Edinburgh, looking after you and our city centre.

With no levy invoices being sent out in April, the business was supported by a grant from the Scottish Government’s BID Resilience Fund.

COVID-19 Response It has been an exceptionally difficult period for Edinburgh City Centre and we are very aware of the unprecedented actions many of our members have had to take.

In late March 2020 the Board of Essential Edinburgh made the decision to delay the sending out of levy invoices to our businesses as we realised the significant financial pressures and operational difficulties being faced by all businesses.

Essential Edinburgh took immediate steps as many of you did, furloughing two thirds of our staff and stopping all but essential expenditure.

With no levy invoices being sent out in April, the business was supported by a grant from the Scottish Government’s BID Resilience Fund, enabling the remaining core staff to deliver a series of short-term measures for our levy-payers.

These measures included:

• • •

• •

•

Providing business support for finding funds, grants & loans.

Creating one-stop-shop guidance documents for retail, hospitality & tourism businesses.

Continuing to run social content on @EdinCityCentre channels to keep shops, hospitality & tourism businesses in people’s minds; reminding residents what they were missing and could not wait to come back to.

Highlighting good news stories of our community pulling together and sharing these across all Essential Edinburgh managed channels.

Collection Pot – raising funds to say thank you to key workers of Edinburgh, which were loaded onto Edinburgh Gift Cards.

• • •

•

Collaborative data projects with Edinburgh University and Edinburgh Council providing analysis and aids to planning Edinburgh’s post lockdown recovery.

Design and print of welcoming social distancing stickers for BID businesses to have free of charge for windows, internal floors, and pavements.

Re-design of planter covers in George Street and Rose Street to include social distancing messages within Edinburgh City Centre’s warm campaign style.

Re-design of St Andrew Square Garden entrance signs and waste bin covers to include the same social distancing messages being used by us across Edinburgh City Centre, creating uniformity of messaging.

Design of graphics for vacant units to keep the city centre an attractive location to visit and invest in.

ESSENTIAL EDINBURGH Annual Review 2019-20 | 34

In June we began to plan for enhanced lighting in the city centre for the 2020 Festive season, ensuring that the city centre would still be magical this Christmas.

• • • •

• •

Partnering ETAG, Edinburgh Council and other industry partners in “Forever Edinburgh” recovery PR, Media, and marketing campaign.

Working with The Edinburgh Locale to support businesses re-opening with freeto-use app.

Partnering REAL WORLD OUTCOMES on the development of trial areas in the BID for “My Covid Pass” to create a FeverFree high street.

The Clean Team continued to make the city centre welcoming and safe by disinfecting and deep cleaning the city centre. They also utilised the empty pavements to clean and remove chewing-gum.

• •

• •

We continued employment of our BID Cop to support city centre security.

We enhanced security presence in the city centre by using the Clean Team as extra staff looking after empty buildings.

•

We continued to keep the information flowing to all our businesses through the Friday Weekly Email Update.

In June we began to plan for enhanced lighting in the city centre for the 2020 Festive season, ensuring that the city centre would still be magical this Christmas if Edinburgh’s Christmas activities managed by Underbelly - were not to go ahead.

In May we began to lobby Edinburgh Council to increase available outside space for table and chairs licences.

We joined forces with London’s New West End BID, Scottish Retail Consortium and the International Retail Alliance to challenge the UK Government’s decision to abolish Tax-Free shopping on 31st December this year.

We continue to lobby Edinburgh Council to freeze or cap business rates for all hospitality sector businesses.

ESSENTIAL EDINBURGH Annual Review 2019-20 | 36

We are Essential Edinburgh, looking after you and our city centre.

Accounts 1st July 2019 to 30th June 2020

Income

Expenditure

£750,424 BID Levy £42,168 Voluntary Contributions £58,417 St Andrew Square Garden £15,369 Projects £16,169 Events £58,743 Edinburgh Farmers’ Market £941,290 SUB TOTAL £190,001 Scot.Gov BID Resilience Grant £51,763 Other Grants & Income TOTAL £1,183,054 Interest £692

Projects St Andrew Square Garden Edinburgh Farmers’ Market SUB TOTAL Operating Costs TOTAL Profit/(Loss) after tax

Project Costs £728,776 £96,446 £73,543 £898,765 £ 239,917 £1,138,682 £45,064

Promoting Protecting Enhancing Engaging SUB TOTAL Levy Collection

by CEC Interest on loan Contingency TOTAL

Operating Cost £379,313 £62,783 £195,565 £60,615 £698,276 £25,000 £5,500 £0 £728,776

Salaries £112,772 Travel & Subsistence £981 Training £854 Subscriptions £774 Hospitality/events £1,937 Print, Postage & Stationary £4,162 Insurance £12,929 Repairs & Maintenance £14,351 Telephones £4,748 Sundry £2,406 Legal & Professional £20,769 IT Costs £8,800 Bank Charges £890 Depreciation £1,505 Bad Debt £1,853 Rent & Property Costs £37,476 Rates & Waste £10,526 Heat, Light & Water £2,184 £239,917 TOTAL

ESSENTIAL EDINBURGH Annual Review 2019-20 | 38

Budget 1st July 2020 to 31st March 2021

Income BID Levy Voluntary Contributions St Andrew Square Garden Scot.Gov BID Resilience Grant Other Income TOTAL

Expenditure £450,000 £40,000 £41,342 £100,000 £10,000 £641,342

Projects St Andrew Square Garden SUB TOTAL Operating Costs TOTAL Profit/(Loss) after tax

Operating Cost

Project Costs £331,623 £33,618 £365,241 £ 240,718 £605,959 £35,383

Promoting Protecting Enhancing Engaging SUB TOTAL Levy Collection

by CEC Contingency TOTAL

£66,140 £43,520 £167,362 £15,000 £292,022 £25,000 £14,601 £331,623

Salaries £140,718 Travel & Subsistence £500 Training £500 Subscriptions £616 Hospitality/events £1,100 Print, Postage & Stationary £5,000 Insurance £11,000 Repairs & Maintenance £4,080 Telephones £4,000 Sundry £3,000 Legal & Professional £23,000 IT Costs £5,500 Bank Charges £500 Depreciation £1,643 Rent & Property Costs £28,000 Rates & Waste £8,786 Heat, Light & Water £2,775 £240,718 TOTAL

Get in touch: Clean Team Rapid Response: 07919 560 290 Marketing Team: marketing@essentialedinburgh.co.uk

@EssentialEdin

Changeworks: acolquhoun@changeworksrecycling.co.uk Cyrenians: www.cyrenians.scot FUSE: hello@edinburghfuse.com

@EdinCityCentre

113 (1f1) Rose Street Edinburgh EH2 3DT Tel: 0131 220 8580 www.essentialedinburgh.co.uk www.EdinburghCityCentre.co.uk info@essentialedinburgh.co.uk ŠESSENTIAL EDINBURGH 2020 | The reproduction or publication of any figures or statistics from this document is strictly prohibited.