REVIEW YEAR 17
April 2024 - March 2025
PAGE 3 - INTRODUCTION
PAGE
PAGE
PAGE 20 - ENHANCING
PAGE 26 - ENGAGING
PAGE 34 - FINANCIALS
PAGE 36 - THE TEAM
PAGE 38 - GET IN TOUCH
PAGE 38 - BID BOUNDARY
INTRODUCTION
It is amazing to think we have now completed the second year of our fourth BID term. Edinburgh city centre continues to thrive as well as change, and has proved as dynamic as ever over the past twelve months.
Our work and achievements reflect the challenges our businesses face, as well as the environment in which we all operate. This annual review reflects the hard work and endeavours of 670 business who make up our community. We hope you enjoy the read.
Scaffolding and cranes epitomise the changing dynamics of our city centre. The many new hotel rooms under construction reflect the huge importance of tourism and hospitality to our economy and this must be supported wholeheartedly. Edinburgh cannot be complacent, and we have spent time this year working with partners to support businesses through issues related to the tourism levy, rising costs of business, tax-free shopping, and prohibitive business rates. As we head into a Holyrood election, these issues need to be at the forefront of our politicians’ minds.
Edinburgh continues to outperform Scotland and UK footfall metrics, as well as hospitality and retail sales. This year we have taken proactive steps to deter retail crime, as well as drive footfall and support a cleaner and more sustainable city centre.
We would like to say a massive thank you to our levy-payers and city partners for their support and efforts during the year, as well as our board and staff team.
Roddy Smith, CEO and Director, and Denzil Skinner, Chair
PROMOTING
A VIBRANT CITY CENTRE ENCOURAGES PEOPLE TO VISIT, SPEND TIME, WORK AND RETURN
All comparisons are annual and like-for-like
PROMOTING - £487,149
54% of total project spend
EDINBURGH CITY CENTRE PERFORMANCE
We performed well against Scottish and UK comparators. Footfall in the city centre was up 4.7% on the Scottish average and up 2% on the UK. Hospitality sales continued an upward curve, and retail sales fluctuated but remained in the black. The positive impact concerts at Murrayfield Stadium have on the city centre is undeniable, with both footfall and sales seeing boosts.
• Footfall up 3.2% annually in Edinburgh City Centre
• Sales up 5.4% for hospitality and up 1% for retail
• 33% annual increase in footfall on Princes Street during Taylor Swift’s Murrayfield concerts in June 2024
SQUARE CINEMA
Taking place in the stunning surroundings of St Andrew Square Garden, with LNER as the lead sponsor, Square Cinema took place from 14th to 16th June 2024. City centre footfall was boosted with the weekend’s event and we saw a tangible, positive impact on the city centre economy:
• Footfall on Princes Street up 2% on same weekend in 2023 and up 7% on 2022
• 6,000+ people attended
• 75% visited the city centre specifically for the event, 65% went on to eat, drink and shop spending on average £69 in city centre businesses - giving an R.O.I of 553%
Square Cinema 2024
EAT OUT EDINBURGH
Working closely with hospitality businesses, we delivered the fourth year of our campaign aimed at attracting residents, workers and visitors to eat out across the business improvement district (BID) during March 2025:
• Average spend of nearly £160 per booking by consumers, with 60% using two or more offers
• 75% of consumers who came for Eat Out Edinburgh also went shopping in the city centre, spending an average of £135 per person
• Bookings were up 31%, average hospitality sales up 33%, and city centre retail sales up 2.4% compared to March 2024
• 4.12M total impressions on Google Ads with 60,300 interactions
• Website users increased by 33% to almost 140K unique active users, amounting to over 445K page views - up 23.3% on 2024
CHINA READY INITIATIVE
As a founding partner in the China Ready programme, we continue to support their work; Edinburgh’s official Weibo, WeChat and RED channels are valuable assets for local businesses.
We had the city centre promoted across Edinburgh’s official channels, gearing content towards the Chinese audience. Key features included tips for visiting, Eat Out Edinburgh, Square Cinema, shopping trips and recommendations, and Edinburgh’s Christmas and Hogmanay.
• Over 152,550 combined followers with over 400.4 million content views to March 2025
Eat Out Edinburgh 2025 Launch
EDINBURGH COCKTAIL WEEK
For the fourth year Essential Edinburgh was the main sponsor for Edinburgh Cocktail Week, which ran from 11th to 20th October 2024. Our investment in this event ensures participation from any interested levy-paying bars and restaurants, making sure footfall is driven to our area:
• Event footfall was up 5.4% on 2023 with over 25K attendees
• 76% of attendees were locals or within one hour of travel
• Bar sales within participating BID businesses were up on average 13% year-on-year during the 10-day event
• Average bar sales within participating BID businesses totalled over £439K
• The event had an estimated economic impact of 3.61M
FRINGE FESTIVAL
We maintained our support for Assembly Festival on George Street during August 2024, ensuring the Fringe had on-street activity which could drive additional footfall and increase dwelltime within the BID.
EDINBURGH TOURISM ACTION GROUP
We work closely with Edinburgh Tourism Action Group (ETAG), the umbrella organisation for Edinburgh’s tourism sector and the team that delivers China Ready, to support continued sustainable growth.
As a member of the ETAG full group, and part of the Strategic Implementation Group and the Operational Advisory Group on Tourism, Essential Edinburgh represent members views at key industry forums.
Edinburgh Cocktail Week
PADDINGTON IN ST ANDREW SQUARE
In October 2024 we unveiled our Paddington statue and bench in St Andrew Square Garden in partnership with StudioCanal.
• One of twenty-three Paddington statues located across the UK forming the Paddington Visits Trail
• Included in a nationwide PR and promotional campaign supporting cinematic release of Paddington In Peru
• Provided a big boost to footfall with hundreds of thousands of visitors snapping a selfie with the most famous of bears
• The initial one-year agreement has now been extended indefinitely
FOREVER EDINBURGH
We continue to collaborate closely with Edinburgh Council’s Forever Edinburgh team, ensuring levy-payers are kept updated on promotional opportunities and BID area activities are supported through @Edinburgh social channels and website.
• Digital channels attracted 1.5 million users and 2.2 million sessions, with strongest audiences in the UK, USA, Ireland, Germany, Canada, and the Netherlands. Key UK cities included London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and Newcastle
• Neighbourhood pages generated 340K views, with New Town accounting for 13,550. The Resident Rewards website saw 200K active users and 370K page views
• Across social media, an organic audience of 620K delivered 32.4M impressions and 1M+ engagements, with wider reach through growing consumer, resident and business newsletter databases
Paddington statue in St Andrew Square Garden
EDINBURGH STYLE 28th - 30th March 2025
St James Quarter’s Edinburgh STYLE 2025 was a celebration of creativity, design and fashion, and was supported this year by Essential Edinburgh. Attendees enjoyed free masterclasses, expert speakers and live entertainment on the Essential Edinburgh STYLE Lounge stage, and for the first time Edinburgh STYLE extended across the BID, with in-store activities and promotions highlighted on a STYLE map. In addition, 50 BID brands created 70 “looks” over two fashion shows.
EDINBURGH CITY CENTRE CHANNELS
Through our Edinburgh City Centre consumer channels we provide our businesses with a platform to directly engage their local audience.
• Following a visual refresh this year, our website EdinburghCityCentre.co.uk promoted more than 200 businesses to over 112K active users, and amplified over 90 promotional messages across our social channels.
Essential Edinburgh STYLE Lounge, Edinburgh STYLE 2025
EDINBURGH’S CHRISTMAS & HOGMANAY
The Christmas and Hogmanay period is a vital component of our members’ annual revenue. To support footfall anchoring activity within the BID area we partnered with Unique Assembly, contracted to deliver Edinburgh’s Christmas and Hogmanay on behalf of Edinburgh Council, for the third year.
• Total event footfall was 2.8M, down 13% annually due to severe inclement weather over several weekends
• 37% of pre-booked attraction tickets were from Edinburgh & Lothians, 21% rest of Scotland, 32% UK and 10% international
• Two new attractions - the Polar Ice Bar and Coorie Inn - were created on George Street, with a covered ice rink again on the most westerly block with 59K skaters taking to the ice
• 11K people enjoyed Santa’s Stories and the Christmas tree maze in St Andrew Square Garden
• Visitors to Edinburgh’s Christmas stayed an average of 1.85 nights, with average spend of £537 across eating, drinking, shopping and attractions
• Princes Street recorded a rise in annual footfall of 4.4% during the winter festivals
• Hogmanay visitors stayed an average of 2.25 nights and spent on average £958 during their stay: 88% spent on eating out, 80% spent in bars and pubs, 56% paid for attractions or tours, and 56% spent on retail
• Despite the cancellation of outdoor Hogmanay events, 90% would recommend Edinburgh’s Hogmanay to friends or family
Edinburgh’s Christmas in St Andrew Square Garden
FOR OUR CITY CENTRE TO THRIVE IT IS VITAL FOR OUR BUSINESSES, STAFF AND CUSTOMERS TO FEEL SAFE AND PROTECTED
PROTECTING - £107,347
12% of total project spend
Partnership working is essential to help deliver a safer and more welcoming city centre for everyone. By working with Police Scotland, Street Assist and Cyrenians, and by delivering our security initiatives and business engagement, we are helping to drive real change and tangible results.
BID COP - PC EHSSAN SANII
Our flagship Police Scotland partnership, providing an enhanced police presence within the district, continues to build resilience and strengthen our business community, making our city centre an even safer environment.
PC Sanii is an active support for our businesses, providing a direct point of contact with law enforcement, readily available to support and advise for a safer, more secure and resilient city centre.
He provides us with vital alerts and security updates from Police Scotland and regularly visits businesses to offer advice, support and training.
• In this reporting year PC Sanii either visited, met with, called or emailed 334 individual levy-paying businesses, up 18% on last year
• He had 1,504 interactions in total, up 28% on last year
If you would like to arrange for PC Sanii to provide your business with advice, support or training, please get in touch.
BID Cop PC Ehssan Sanii
POLICE SCOTLAND
EDINBURGH CITY CENTRE CRIME STATISTICS
1Robbery includes assault with intent to rob.
2Vandalism includes reckless damage etc.
Data source: Police Scotland
Please note:
• Recorded crime is all crime reported to Police Scotland.
• Detected crime is the number of crimes solved.
• Crime figures reported by Police Scotland are for the reporting year 1st April 2024 to 31st March 2025 and are for the Edinburgh City Centre area.
• The 5-year average includes 2020/21 but does not include current year data.
SHOPWATCH RADIO
Essential Edinburgh has been working closely with Police Scotland to tackle a rise in retail crime in the City Centre.
In late 2024 we consulted with the Prevention Intervention and Partnerships Department (PIP) on the introduction of a ShopWatch Radio scheme for the City Centre. The aims were for:
• Retailers to be in direct contact with one another, providing support with ongoing incidents and sharing live information about offenders
• Retailers to be in direct contact with Edinburgh Council’s CCTV hub, enabling best evidence to be captured and for tracking of offenders in real time
• Retailers to have direct contact with city centre police officers and the newly formed Retail Crime Team to enable officers to apprehend offenders and take action when they were in the area
• Offenders to understand that Edinburgh City Centre is a “hard target” for shoplifters
In April 2025 ShopWatch Radio – fully funded by Essential Edinburgh – was introduced.
“Essential Edinburgh’s insight, support and funding made the creation of the scheme possible. They worked with Police, Apex Radios, City of Edinburgh Council and retailers to shape and deliver the scheme.”
Inspector Gordon Duff, PIP Department, Police Scotland.
ShopWatch Radio promotional video, Police Scotland
“Retail crime is now a national priority for Police Scotland and the new Retail Crime Task Force.
As theft by shoplifting rises, partnership working with organisations such as Essential Edinburgh and the businesses within its footprint becomes even more crucial to both preventing and detecting crime. This is evidenced by the recently funded Essential Edinburgh ShopWatch Radio initiative, which combined with their established Check Out website has already seen multiple successes in achieving both these goals of prevention and detection.
Police Scotland looks forward to continuing this strong relationship with Essential Edinburgh moving forward and into the future.”
PC Ehssan Sanii Police Scotland
A safe environment is key to a vibrant and diverse night-time economy, and essential to both the success of the city centre and the enjoyment for our residents and visitors.
STREET ASSIST EDINBURGH
Street Assist Edinburgh is a charity run by skilled volunteers offering all kinds of help and support to people enjoying our vibrant city centre nightlife.
They provide non-judgemental welfare and a first aid service to help people who may have become vulnerable during the busy night-time economy hours. In the second year of our partnership:
• 11.4K hours of support from volunteers, providing 1,184 welfare checks
• Treated 899 patients, 70% were local residents
• An estimated social return on investment of £764K
CHECK OUT
We have been tackling retail crime in the city centre with our innovative information sharing system since 2009. We upgraded to a new digital platform in September 2023 allowing 24/7 coverage. Sharing information with Police Scotland and subscribed retailers helps identify individuals and increases the detection rate for shoplifting.
• In the first full year since upgrading we circulated 1,592 alerts to 200 subscribed levy-paying retailers – that’s almost 320K emails!
• Following members’ feedback we have introduced and funded a ShopWatch Radio scheme to further support staff and aid in the reduction of retail related crime in the city centre.
Street Assist Edinburgh Volunteers
CYRENIANS
We have supported the homeless and begging community through our partnership with Cyrenians since 2017. Our funding directly contributes to their Homeless Navigator project, which supports people experiencing street homelessness as well as those in temporary accommodation.
As the housing emergency continues to worsen, Edinburgh’s temporary and emergency accommodation systems are overwhelmed. This means harsher challenges for people living on the streets, and new ways of approaching work for Cyrenians frontline staff.
Cyrenians Homeless Navigators provide care and comfort on the streets of Edinburgh. Face to face, hand in hand, day after day. In this reporting year the Navigator team supported:
• 344 people on outreach
• Engaged in over 800 hours of person-centred 1:1 support with 23 individuals - more than double last year
• Assisted 17 people with benefits claims and specialist advice referrals
• Helped 14 people access temporary accommodation
• Accompanied people to 33 health appointments
CHECKIN
Checkin was conceived in 2007 as a partnership between Essential Edinburgh, The Balmoral Hotel and Police Scotland and currently has over 130 active members
Our aim is to create a safe and secure environment for the residents, staff and visitors within our hotels. In this reporting year circulations increased annually by 41%.
Nick Harrold & Mark Diver - Navigator Outreach Workers, Cyrenians
ENHANCING
WE ALL WANT A CLEAN, ATTRACTIVE, ATMOSPHERIC DESTINATION YEAR-ROUND FOR ALL TO ENJOY
comparisons
ENHANCING - £313,984
35% of total project spend
The benefit of our continued project investment can be seen year-round, ensuring our district remains head and shoulders above other areas of the city.
CLEAN TEAM
Our amazing Clean Team continue to deliver an unrivalled additional cleansing service for our levy-payers. They work tirelessly throughout the year, offering an emergency call out service, a basement cleaning service, removing chewing gum, graffiti and flyposting, as well as doing their daily rounds.
All their services are above and beyond the statutory responsibility of Edinburgh Council. From 6am to 8pm they deliver an excellent service to our levy-payers, receiving superb feedback.
During the year the Clean Team:
• Rapid response call outs increased by 16% year-on-year
• Cleaned chewing gum from 5,000m2 of pavement
• Cleaned up 131% more hazardous waste (including drugs paraphernalia) than last year
• Removed 47.7 tonnes of litter from the streets and basements. That’s the equivalent weight of 8 adult bull African elephants!
• Removed 9% more flyposting than last year
Members of The Clean Team (L to R): Samir, Dylan and David
Creating an enhanced and attractive environment encourages repeat footfall and influences people to linger longer in the city centre
CHRISTMAS LIGHTING
Our year-round light strings on Rose Street, enhanced at Christmas with around 100 icicle drop lights, bring much needed illumination during the darker autumn and winter months. The lighting strings are in addition to our gable end projectors, using custom designed gobos.
Our four eight-metre light trees, joined by our four five-metre trees, were positioned around the BID to bring a bright focal point at ground level and elevate the ambience and festive appeal of the city centre.
In partnership with Unique Assembly we also enhanced winter lighting in St Andrew Square Garden, to make it look and feel as festive as possible.
OUTDOOR TERRACE SEATING
Following our successful lobbying of the City of Edinburgh Council, we again assisted 17 restaurants and bars to install outdoor terrace seating on George Street, Castle Street and St Andrew Square. The areas provided businesses with additional space for covers, and also helped to create a vibrant and attractive city centre for the spring and summer months.
SEASONAL DECORATION
We created year-round ambience by investing in seasonal floral displays in our George Street planters, and in ensuring St Andrew Square Garden continued to be the jewel in our crown.
Rose Street year-round lights and projectors
ENGAGING
WE LISTEN, SUPPORT & AMPLIFY YOUR VOICE
George Street and the First New Town Project
comparisons
ENGAGING
We listen to and amplify your voice, ensuring that your views are heard when key decisions that impact your business or the city centre are made.
REPRESENTATION AND RAISING YOUR COLLECTIVE VOICE
Throughout the year Essential Edinburgh worked on behalf of levy-payers to engage with many exciting projects and developments in the city. The Chief Executive had 131 opportunities to raise your collective voice on the issues that mattered most to you.
GEORGE STREET PROJECT
We continue to engage with all stakeholders regarding the redevelopment of George Street, working hard to ensure businesses on the street maintain access requirements for customers at all times.
As final decisions loomed closer, engagement with the design team and Council officers continued through the year and culminated in final designs being agreed.
We continue to raise concerns over build schedules and time, the management of disruption, and the need for effective signage during the build phase. Currently it looks like works may begin in 2027.
Roddy Smith, CEO, and Dr Scott Arthur MP
BUSINESS ENGAGEMENT MANAGERS
Our Business Engagement Managers, Gillian and Grant, are there to support your business and help you to maximise your benefit from the BID.
They are a key communication conduit, sharing important information with you and gathering your views and feedback.
• In this reporting year they were able to engage with 395 individual businesses with 1,333 interactions
• They made 494 visits, had email correspondence 746 times with 283 different businesses, and held 84 meetings with levypaying businesses
POLITICIANS
We have worked closely with Councillors Joanna Mowat and Finlay McFarlane to bring issues of concern to their attention, as well as regular engagement with senior elected members and officials at the Council. We continue to meet regularly with Angus Robertson, MSP for the city centre, to share matters of mutual interest.
BUSINESS RATES REFORM
We have worked with many partners to press for business rates reform. On your behalf we have lobbied against the huge discrepancy between the rates payable for city centre businesses compared to out-of-town centres and smaller city centre areas, and the reluctance of the Scottish Government to match the hospitality rebates given in England.
Gillian James & Grant Roberts, Business Engagement Managers
HIGH STREETS UK
As a founding member of High Streets UK, we have supported a pro-growth, nationwide partnership of business representatives which aims to tackle the most pressing issues facing the UK’s flagship high streets and unlock local and national growth. Meeting quarterly, the representatives from leading UK BIDs have combined forces on issues such as business rates reform, city centre security issues, and tourism including the implementation of visitor levies.
TRANSIENT VISITOR LEVY
As the introduction of the tourist levy looms closer, we engaged with hoteliers, Edinburgh Council and other tourism agencies across the year, holding stand-alone briefings for levy-payers.
We continued to work with Edinburgh Council to highlight opportunities for the effective use of the visitor levy funds to support ongoing cleansing and security issues in the BID area, as well as the delivery of larger public realm projects.
TRANSFORMING THE CITY
We remain vocal on the need for a mixed-use approach to the city centre, supporting developments as they arise and working closely and proactively with new BID area developments, both in planning and construction phases.
As many of the proposed new hotels have begun building work, we have supported developers and contractors to ease issues related to construction as well as managing engagement with other businesses affected by the builds.
High Streets UK partner meeting
ST ANDREW SQUARE GARDEN
We chair the partnership group for St Andrew Square Garden to discuss the key issues needed to maintain it as a high-quality open space in the city centre.
In this reporting year, we successfully negotiated the return of the Famous Spiegeltent for 2025, bringing more festival-goers into the city centre during August.
PARTNERSHIP WORK
Over the course of the year, we engaged with The Scottish Hospitality Group, the Association of Town Centre Managers, Association of International Retail, Scottish City BIDs, Edinburgh and Scottish Chambers of Commerce, Scottish Retail Consortium, Police Scotland, City of Edinburgh Council, Edinburgh Tourism Action Group, Edinburgh Hotel Association, the Scottish Tourism Alliance, Lothian Buses, UK Inbound, Scottish Government, Scotland’s Towns Partnership, George Street Association and many others to promote our BID area and to work together to support issues of mutual interest.
WAYFINDING
Our Rose Street directories, at the ends of each block, remain the only physical business directories in the city. They are refreshed annually and designed with a style that partners the pedestrian wayfinding totems - funded by Essential Edinburgh in 2022 - which are placed across the city centre.
St Andrew Square Garden
FUSE
FUSE was set up to deliver high-quality recruitment and training support for retail, leisure and hospitality sectors citywide.
FUSE is the official training and recruitment partner for St James Quarter and the wider Essential Edinburgh BID area, delivered in collaboration with Capital City Partnership and St James Quarter. Through our partnership, hospitality, leisure and retail levy-payers can access training opportunities for all their staff, and support for their recruitment needs, all at no cost.
TAX-FREE SHOPPING
We continue to lobby, along with High Streets UK, Association of International Retail, the New West End Company, and other interested parties, to reverse the UK Government’s decision to abolish tax-free shopping.
CITY CENTRE MONITORING PROJECT
We have been monitoring the economic health of the city centre since 2009, gathering vacancy rates, footfall data, retail and hospitality sales percentages. These key indicators are reported on our digital stats dashboard on our website, and in our Friday e-newsletter.
If you are a retail or hospitality business who is not yet participating in our sales monitors, please consider taking part to enrich our data streams. All that is required to participate is your percentage sales change on the same month the year before, and all data is anonymised. If you are able to participate, please get in touch.
The team from FUSE (L to R): Lindsay, Kaitlin, Lesley and Myles
NET ZERO BY 2030
Edinburgh has set some of the most ambitious emission reduction targets in the world, with a net zero target for 2030.
Essential Edinburgh has signed up to both the Edinburgh Climate Compact and the SME Climate Hub; we are determined to play our part and are annually auditing our scope 1-3 emissions with set reduction targets to achieve each year. In our second annual Scope 1-3 emissions report, we reduced our total emissions by just over 30% - well ahead of our annual target of 7% reduction:
• Scope 1 – direct emissions – reduced by 53%
• Scope 2 – indirect emissions – reduced by 20%
• Scope 3 – value chain emissions – reduced by 17%
B CORP ACCREDITATION
Early in 2025 we began to work with B Corp to achieve accreditation. B Corp, also known as a Benefit Corporation, is an accreditation for businesses independently verified by B Lab. It is a sign of recognition that accredited businesses are committed to social and environmental responsibility.
No other UK BID is B Corp certified and we believe it will be a great achievement and a valuable and respected kitemark for how we operate transparently, with full accountability, and for the benefit of our city centre community.
98% collection rate
95% collection rate
Though small in number, our hard-working and dedicated staff and board continue to deliver an amazing amount.
THE TEAM
Emily Campbell Johnston, Senior Manager, Marketing & Communications
Gillian James, Business Engagement Manager
Grant Roberts, Business Engagement Manager
Grant Stewart, Senior Manager, Projects
THE BOARD
Alan Thomlinson, Johnnie
Walker Princes Street
Anne Ledgerwood, St James Quarter
Barry Blamire, The John Lewis Partnership
Caoimhe Duignan, Hawksmoor
David Lindgren, Company Secretary
David A Stewart, Aberdeen
Standard Investments
David Stewart, DM Stewart
Denzil Skinner, Chair
Mark Farvis, Digital Media Manager
Roddy Smith, Chief Executive & Director
Essential Clean Team
James Reilly, Contract Manager, Mitie (subcontracted)
Councillor Lezley Marion
Cameron Convener - Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work, The City of Edinburgh Council
Louise Maclean, Signature Group
Lynzi Leroy, Scottish Design Exchange
Neil Miller, Royal Bank of Scotland
Richard Morris, Harvey Nichols
Stephen Walker, The Balmoral Hotel
The Essential Edinburgh Team (L to R): Emily, Grant S, Grant R, Roddy, Mark and Gillian
Chris Scott Photography
