Essential Edinburgh Annual Review 2022-2023

Annual Review Year 15: April 2022 - March 2023

Contents 4

Team & Board

6 Introduction 8 Promoting 26

Enhancing

32

Protecting

38

Engaging

44

Renewal Ballot

46

Accounts

48

Get in Touch

©ESSENTIAL EDINBURGH 2023 The reproduction or publication of any part of this document is strictly prohibited.

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

Our hard-working board and dedicated staff, though small in number, continue to deliver an amazing amount.

Team & Board The Team

Directors

Louise Maclean, Signature Group

Emily Campbell Johnston Senior Manager, Marketing & Communications Gillian James Business Engagement Manager Grant Roberts Business Engagement Manager Grant Stewart Senior Manager, Projects Mark Farvis Digital Media Manager Roddy Smith Chief Executive & Director

Alan Thomlinson, Johnnie Walker Princes Street

Lynzi Leroy, Scottish Design Exchange

Barry Blamire, The John Lewis Partnership

Nick Peel, St James Quarter Edinburgh (resigned June 2023)

David Stewart, Abrdn

Richard Morris, Harvey Nichols

Essential Clean Team James Reilly, Contract Manager, Mitie (sub-contracted)

David Stewart, DM Stewart Denzil Skinner, Chair Derek Brownlee, Royal Bank of Scotland

David Lindgren, Company Secretary

Councillor Jane Meagher, Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work Convener, The City of Edinburgh Council Kieran Quinn, Kimpton Charlotte Square ESSENTIAL EDINBURGH Annual Review April 2022 to March 2023 | 4

The city centre is a magnificent place to operate, but we cannot take this for granted.

Thank you to our levy-payers and city-wide partners for their support during the year, as well as our board and staff team.

INTRODUCTION It is our pleasure to detail Essential Edinburgh’s achievements in our annual review for the year to March 2023, the final year of our third term as your Business Improvement District.

In another exceptionally busy year for the organisation, we have continued to support footfall driving activities throughout the year as well as ensuring we work hard to keep our city streets clean and safe.

The pace of change in Edinburgh

has continued unabated this year.

We have welcomed many new businesses to our community as well as supporting new developments throughout the city centre.

continue to deliver for you.

In March, our levy-payers gave a ringing endorsement of our work by granting us a fourth term, with a large mandate.

This report highlights some fantastic events, initiatives and developments throughout the year. Enjoy the read!

Everyone at Essential Edinburgh is very grateful for our ongoing support from the business community we serve, and we will strive in the next five years to

Roddy Smith, CEO Denzil Skinner, Chair

Thank you to our levy-payers and city-wide partners for their support during the year, as well as our board and staff team.

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Working together, supporting new initiatives and placing business growth at the forefront of decision making, we can all look forward to a bright future.

A vibrant city centre encourages people to visit it, spend time in it, want to work in it and return to it.

PROMOTING Spend: £482,884 - 49% of Total Project Spend Sales Monitor Project

increases compared to 2021.

August retail sales were up 29% Average Edinburgh retail sales and hospitality up 87%, and were up 10.5% for this operational in December retail increased year, showing significant progress annually by 26% and hospitality compared to the previous year. by 59%.

Hospitality sales saw an average annual increase of 46.4%.

Footfall Scottish retail sales also increased with an annual average of 4.2%, with average UK retail sales up 2.5% over the same period.

In August and December – Edinburgh’s two annual footfall peaks – retail and hospitality businesses saw huge sales

Edinburgh’s bounce-back continues to gather steam, with Princes Street footfall tracking only 7.4% behind 2019 and up significantly by 19.7% compared to the previous year.

UK and Scottish High Street Indexes show a slower recovery; the UK is -15.3% and Scotland

-17.7% compared to 2019.

Princes Street footfall, compared to 2019, was ahead of the UK by 7.9% and up a whopping 10.3% on Scotland.

August was the busiest month of the year, seeing almost 1.6 million people pass our Princes Street counter. December came a close second with 1.5 million, and then April with 1.37 million.

Every month of the reporting year saw over 1 million counted, with January as the quietest month of the year, with just over 1.04 million.

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Hospitality sales for March rose annually by 35%, footfall on Princes Street was up by 2%.

Eat Out Edinburgh Running for the second year to support our hospitality businesses, Eat Out Edinburgh celebrated our city centre’s incredible food, drink and hospitality scene.

Promoted to locals, residents and commuters through PR, social, digital and print, we encouraged our audience to visit more frequently, eat out in their lunch breaks, and stay longer to enjoy our vibrant hospitality scene.

There were over 41,000 users to the dedicated website – up 37% on 2022 – with over 176,000

unique page views – up 54% on 2022 – and averaging 4.2 page views per session.

Of the top ten website pages viewed, nine were for set menus cementing this as the most popular offering.

Set menus racked up over 20,000 page views – up 58% on 2022 – followed by almost 11,000 views of the exclusive city centre employee offers – up 40% on 2022.

Facebook and Instagram reached over 294,000 people – up 19% on 2022 – with 847,000 paid impressions, up an 120% on 2022.

Our total audience reach across our Google Ads was 117,000 with 12,700 interactions, an 11% interaction rate. Our Google Search ads had an exceptional click-through rate of 18.2% with 21,500 impressions.

To highlight the success, Edinburgh City Centre hospitality sales for March rose annually by 35% and footfall on Princes Street was up 2% on 2022, 6% higher than the UK High Street Index.

Eat Out Edinburgh will be taking place again in March 2024, please get in touch if you are interested in participating.

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77% of the audience went on to shop, eat and drink in the city centre, spending on average £63 each

Film Fest in the City This was the final year of our partnership with Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) for our outdoor cinema event Film Fest In The City.

Over three days in August 2022, and launching the EIFF’s 10 days of activity, we saw almost 6,500 attendees enjoy free movies in St Andrew Square Garden.

77% of the audience went on to shop, eat and drink in the city centre, with an average spend of just under £63 each. The return on our investment was 1,564%.

As in all previous years our levy-paying businesses were given the opportunity to place a free advert on the giant screen between films. 144 levy-paying businesses’ adverts were shown across the weekend.

The overall enjoyment of the event was rated very good or excellent by 97% of attendees.

68% of the audience live in Edinburgh or the Lothians, and 42% travelled into the city centre especially for the event.

Footfall on Princes Street over the weekend of Film Fest in the City was up 7% on the same weekend in 2019.

Free Fringe in St Andrew Square Garden Working in partnership with Unique Events and the Festival Fringe Society, we brought the Free Fringe into St Andrew Square Garden for August 2022.

Sponsored by TikTok, the performances were streamed live on their platform.

Across eighteen days of programming there were more than 300 free performances, providing over 100 hours of entertainment, all nestled beautifully under the trees.

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There were over 13,000 miles covered by trail-goers, taking almost 30 million steps.

Giraffe About Town Essential Edinburgh became a partner in the Giraffe About Town trail which ran from 1st July until 28th August 2022.

As the sponsor of the schools programme we had 23 Wee Herd giraffes, designed by Edinburgh school children, displayed within our BID businesses and forming part of the full giraffe trail.

There were over 13,000 miles covered by trail-goers, taking almost 30 million steps. 30% of trail-goers were from outside of Edinburgh and 85% spent money in food and beverage businesses.

Whilst on the search for giraffes 66% spent money in shops and 10% spent money on overnight accommodation.

Giraffe About Town resulted in a gross economic impact of £4.5 million.

Edinburgh Fringe Festival August is the busiest month of the year in Edinburgh, and it is essential to ensure we have anchoring activity within the BID to draw footfall across from the Old Town and historic fringe festival locations.

This reporting year, in addition to supporting Assembly Festival on George Street and The Rose Street Theatre, we also supported St James Quarter to bring the BBC and Just the Tonic Spiegeltent into the BID area.

Through these partnerships we not only attracted footfall into the BID, we also ensured there was activity taking place across the district to encourage circulation.

We were also able to provide levy-payers with free and discounted tickets to some of the best shows in town.

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We work hard as a team to share important and interesting information, helping you to stay engaged and updated.

Social and Digital Through our Edinburgh City Centre consumer channels we provide our businesses with a platform to directly engage their local audience. On Instagram and Facebook our content reached over 551,000 people.

Our followers across all platforms increased annually by 5%.

Business Engagement Managers Our Business Engagement Managers, Gillian and Grant, are a key communication conduit.

They are there to support your business and help you to maximise your benefit from the BID.

We promoted 525 business offers through our website, socials and weekly e-newsletter.

In this reporting year they were able to engage with 614 individual businesses with over 1,160 interactions.

We continued to keep our communications with levy-payers pertinent and engaging, keeping our weekly e-newsletter open rate almost 10% ahead of the industry standard.

They made 930 visits, had email correspondence with 338 businesses, had 57 phone conversations and held 45 meetings.

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“The Essential Edinburgh team are very good at communicating, we get regular updates of what’s happening in the city centre but also what’s happening in local government as well. It’s essential for us to receive those updates.” Lynzi Leroy, Scottish Design Exchange Grant Roberts and Gillian James, Business Engagement Managers

Over 134,600 combined followers with almost 346,958,000 content views to March 2023.

China Ready Programme As a founding member, partner and investor in the China Ready programme, our city centre has been continually promoted across Edinburgh’s official Weibo, WeChat and RED channels towards the Chinese audience.

These channels are valuable assets for local businesses.

As of 31 March 2023, Edinburgh’s Chinese Social Media Campaign has generated over 134,600 combined followers - up 24,000.

There were almost 346,958,000

Edinburgh Cocktail Week content views - a staggering increase of 39,775,000 views.

Key content for this reporting year included Eat Out Edinburgh, Born Free Forever exhibition, Film Fest in the City, Edinburgh’s Christmas, as well as food, drink and retail offers and recommendations.

Essential Edinburgh continued to support Edinburgh Cocktail Week (ECW) in October 2022.

It is a much-anticipated event in Edinburgh’s calendar, highlighted by the 5% annual growth and 24,000 wristband-holders.

From the data supplied by bars in the Essential Edinburgh BID, and A new RED account was launched despite rail strikes taking place in May 2022 to ensure Edinburgh during the event, businesses stays at the forefront of the key benefited with over £388,000 of China market. sales from their ECW signature cocktails.

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

Over 66,500 ice rink tickets were sold, with 150 complimentary tickets given out to our levy-paying businesses.

Christmas in St Andrew Square Garden With giant ‘Instagrammable’ installations and illuminated trees we created enhanced lighting to help elevate the garden by night.

We created such a beautiful space that the Garden became a uniquely romantic spot for winter wedding proposals.

With lighting in both Rose and George Street, the visual effect of the festive displays helped pull people through the area in both directions, creating a magical and truly festive feel across the BID.

Edinburgh’s Christmas Edinburgh’s Christmas activities are vital for bringing residents and visitors in to our fantastic and vibrant city centre during the festive season.

By creating a destination activity to the west of the city centre, we helped to balance the activity in St Andrew Square Garden and the east side of the BID.

In 2022 Essential Edinburgh became a major funding partner of Edinburgh’s Christmas.

For those living outside the city, 3 in 4 people said Edinburgh’s Christmas was key to their decision to visit the city centre.

Our funds ensured the hugely successful George Street Ice Rink returned. Over 66,500 ice rink tickets were sold, with 150 complimentary tickets given out to our levy-paying businesses.

On average attendees spent £315 during their visit, with Edinburgh’s Christmas, bringing over £59.7million into the city’s economy.

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Edinburgh’s Hogmanay brought over £48.4 million into the city’s economy; attendees’ average spend was £896 during their visit.

Festival of Kindness

Edinburgh’s Winter Festival

For the third time, we supported Social Bite to deliver the ‘Festival of Kindness’ in St Andrew Square Garden.

Essential Edinburgh became a funding partner of the Winter Festival, Hogmanay programme for the first time in this reporting year.

They collected donations to help provide Christmas meals, gifts, and essential items to homeless and vulnerable people.

They had 113,572 gifts donated, 317,000 meals funded and raised over £1.7 million across the five participating cities.

The Hogmanay street party returned for the first time post-COVID, along with a full programme of activities including a first footing trail through the BID.

Hogmanay city centre footfall was up 61% on 2019 – peaking from 11am to 6pm – showing the draw of not just the street party but everything the city centre has to offer.

Edinburgh’s Hogmanay brought over £48.4 million into the city’s economy; attendees’ average spend was £896 during their visit.

The three-day festival had an estimated audience of 65,000.

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Edinburgh.org pages were viewed 6.3 million times, with social media delivering 24 million impressions and 600,000 video views.

Forever Edinburgh We continued to support Forever Edinburgh – The Official Guide to Edinburgh (edinburgh.org) – on the marketing and promotion of Edinburgh to inbound leisure visitors and residents.

Ends’, which targeted domestic overnight visitors smashed its KPIs; delivering 85 million online impressions, 10.5 million people reached, 3.8 million campaign video views, and 1.6 billion readers of seasonal online content.

will enter the local market this year. Businesses interested in growing their local customers can join this free programme.

In this reporting year the edinburgh.org website pages were viewed 6.3 million times with social media delivering 24 million impressions and 600,000 video views in the 2022 calendar year. A new TikTok channel Visit_Edinburgh - was launched by the team in December 2022.

Looking closer to home, the Resident Rewards campaign, aimed at engaging City of Edinburgh residents with local cultural and leisure offerings, has grown from strength to strength with a full pipeline of partners signed up to participate in the monthly Star Reward until 2024.

Van Gogh Alive

Edinburgh’s Covid-19 recovery campaign ‘The Story Never

Contact residentrewards@ edinburgh.gov.uk for more information.

The Van Gogh Alive exhibition visited Edinburgh from March to July 2022.

Through our partnership we were able to promote the city centre to their 141.4K visitors, and offer levy-paying businesses tickets Building on its success, an to use as prizes for their own expanded programme of Rewards promotional competitions.

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Forever Edinburgh

Our Clean Team removed 31,630 bags of waste for recycling – an increase of 34% on the previous year.

ENHANCING

Spend: £303,693 - 31% of Total Project Spend

We all want an atmospheric, clean and attractive year-round destination for all to enjoy. Our continued investment ensures our district remains head and shoulders above other areas of the city.

Clean Team Our amazing Clean Team have continued to deliver an unrivalled additional cleansing service for our levy-payers. All their services are above and beyond the statutory responsibility of Edinburgh Council.

They have delivered an

exceptional rapid response, gumbusting, and basement cleaning service, on top of their daily rounds.

we disposed of through our own trade waste service.

During the significant disruption caused by the industrial action of the Edinburgh Council waste team in August 2022, our Clean Team heroically cleared 8 tonnes of on-street rubbish by hand that’s over 1,400 bags - which

In total the team dealt with 122 instances of environmental and hazardous waste, which includes the disposal and clean-up of drug paraphernalia, a significant decrease of 63% compared to last year.

There was an increase in graffiti instances across this reporting year, up by 11%, while flyposting From April 2022 to March 2023 remained fairly level with just a the Clean Team removed 31,630 2% increase on last year. There bags of waste for recycling – an were 315 rapid response call-outs, increase of 34% on the previous and basement cleaning remained year – and cleaned gum from 1,750m2 of our city centre streets. level at 1,650 requests.

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CLEAN TEAM

Comparisons are like-for-like to last year

The cleanliness audit, conducted at the end of this reporting period, shows a cleanliness score of 98%

Clean Team Audit Each year Mitie conduct an audit of all BID area streets, based on a nationally recognised rating system.

The cleanliness audit, conducted at the end of this reporting period, shows a cleanliness score of 98%, up 2% compared to last year, and 5% on the year before.

St Andrew Square Garden We have managed St Andrew Square Garden on behalf of its owners since we helped open it to the public in 2008. To ensure the garden is kept in pristine condition all year round we have

planned maintenance and superb landscape gardeners to help maintain and improve the busy and vibrant thoroughfare.

During this reporting year we hosted free-to-attend exhibitions including Born Free Forever, our own Film Fest in the City and Free Fringe activity during August, and we supported multiple charitable causes including Armed Forces Day, Poppy Scotland and Social Bite’s Festival of Kindness.

For Christmas 2022 we ensured the garden was attractive and safe with enhanced path and tree lighting.

Extended Outdoor Seating Following the huge success of our outdoor seating terraces in 2021 we lobbied Edinburgh Council to again allow our hospitality businesses to increase their outdoor spaces into the first carriageway, where possible, for summer 2022.

We engaged with our city centre councillors and council officers and presented a compelling case for the continuation of the summer outdoor terraces. Our successful negotiations ensured permission for levy-payers to operate their additional tables and chairs for five months.

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Born Free Forever Exhibition, Oct 22 - Jan 23, St Andrew Square Garden

For this reporting period 476.2 tonnes of carbon was diverted from landfill - benefitting both individual levy-payers and the environment.

Change Waste Recycling

Seasonal Decorations

fitting festive display during this crucial trading period. We A quarter of all BID businesses Seasonal decorations enhance also invested in new Rose Street benefit from our favourable the city centre atmosphere, projectors to decorate and group-buying rate with Change encouraging repeat footfall and illuminate the gable-ends during Waste Recycling, and the more influencing people to linger the darker months. Our Rose businesses that sign up, the lower longer, increasing their spend.

Street canopy lights add warmth costs become for everyone. and also provide much needed We create this year-round additional lighting in an otherwise Their team come into your ambience by investing in seasonal under-lit street. business to collect your waste, so floral displays in our George no more unsightly bags of refuse Street planters, maintaining the We also installed additional on the pavement! trees in Rose Street, and ensuring lighting in St Andrew Square Garden to create a festive and St Andrew Square Garden In total, they collected 2032.6 beautiful backdrop for shoppers. continues to be the jewel in our tonnes of waste with a recycling crown. rate of 62%. A total of 476.2 All these elements help us to tonnes of carbon was diverted create a warm welcome, and an For many years we have solely from landfill - up annualy by 60% attractive environment for trading funded the LED Christmas Trees - benefitting both individual and working in. on George Street, to ensure a levy-payers and the environment.

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

Partnership working is essential to help deliver a safer and more welcoming city centre for everyone.

Protecting

Spend: £87,216 – 9% of Total Project Spend

For our city centre to thrive, and reach its potential, it is of vital importance for our businesses, staff and customers to feel safe and protected.

We continue to operate multiple channels to tackle and minimise crime within the BID.

more welcoming city centre for everyone.

By working with Police Scotland and Cyrenians, and by delivering our security initiatives and business engagement, we are helping to deliver real change and tangible results.

In this reporting year our Check Out and Check In communication systems linked over 150 retailers and over 120 accommodation providers with the police and each other.

BID Cop - PC Ehssan Sanii

Partnership working is essential to help deliver a safer and

PC Sanii is an active support for our businesses, providing a

Our partnership with Police Scotland provides an enhanced police presence within the district.

single point of contact with law enforcement, readily available to support and advise for a more secure and resilient city centre.

PC Sanii provides us with vital alerts and security updates from Police Scotland. He also regularly visits businesses to offer advice, support and training. He made 1,174 visits to levy-payers and supported 307 different businesses during this reporting year.

If you would like to arrange for PC Sanii to provide your business with advice, support or training, please get in touch with us.

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PC Ehssan Sanii Police Scotland BID Cop

“For city centre policing and in the battle against shop lifting, Check Out is one of the most important resources, used daily by Police Scotland, in the identification and apprehension of offenders.”

We continue to operate multiple channels to tackle and minimise crime within the BID.

Check Out

Check In

Our innovative approach to tackling retail crime has been operational since November 2009.

Our accommodation providers, directly linked with Police Scotland, have a central point to alert others to concerns and criminality, helping to share their information across the city centre network.

By collating, coordinating and sharing information with Police Scotland and over 150 signedup retailers, we are helping to identify individuals and increase the detection rate for shoplifting.

In this reporting year we shared 1,027 incidents with our partners.

That is more than three times the number of circulations in the previous reporting period and more than double that of 20192020, echoing the increases seen in the annual crime statistics.

We facilitated the distribution of 52 circulations to 130 subscribers in this reporting period.

Crime Statistics Total recorded crimes and offences for April 2022 - March 2023 were up 13% compared to last year, but down 13% compared to the five-year average.

Total detected crimes and offences were up 8% on last year, but down slightly at 5% on the five-year average.

All but one reported category is up on the year before, with only housebreaking to a business with no change on the previous year.

Recorded occurrences of theft by shoplifting have risen dramatically by 60% on last year, with an equally high detection rate of 56%.

Both robbery and fraud are also significantly up on last year, 33% and 21% respectively, although detection rates have also increased year-on-year by almost equal amounts.

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Crime Statistics April 2022 - March 2023 Source: Police Scotland

Please note: Recorded crime is all crime reported to Police.

Detected crime is the number of crimes solved.

Crime figures reported by Police Scotland are for the reporting year 1st April 2022 to 31st March 2023 and are for the Edinburgh City Centre area.

The 5-year average does not include current year data.

Robbery includes assault with intent to rob.

1

Recorded Crime

Detected Crime

Total crimes and offences 13% on previous year -13% on 5-year average

Total crimes and offences 8% on previous year -5% on 5-year average

Serious assault 13% on previous year 19% on 5-year average

Serious assault 12% on previous year -2% on 5-year average

Housebreaking to a business No change on previous year -55% on 5-year average

Housebreaking to a business No change on previous year -38% on 5-year average

Robbery1 33% on previous year 35% on 5-year average

Robbery1 25% on previous year 27% on 5-year average

Vandalism 2% on previous year -5% on 5-year average

Vandalism -1% on previous year 6% on 5-year average

Common assault 13% on previous year 18% on 5-year average

Common assault 20% on previous year 21% on 5-year average

Theft by shoplifting 60% on previous year 22% on 5-year average

Theft by shoplifting 56% on previous year -11% on 5-year average

Fraud 21% on previous year 31% on 5-year average

Fraud 37% on previous year -10% on 5-year average

We’re proud to partner with Cyrenians, supporting their amazing work caring for the homeless community in our city.

Cyrenians Navigator Project touch support to a further 21.

This marks the fifth year of our partnership with Cyrenians, funding two Outreach Workers as They helped 4 people maintain their permanent accommodation part of the ‘Navigator Project’. and offered help and advice to They work on a one-to-one 43 people, including signposting basis with rough sleepers and the Bethany Welcome Centre. provide support by developing relationships, responding to each Our collaboration with Cyrenians is also award winning, individual’s specific priorities, having been recognised at the and supporting them to address annual Edinburgh Chamber of these.

Commerce business awards in In this reporting period the March 2023, winning the Navigator Project supported 72 Inspiring Partnerships category individuals and provided light in a highly competitive field.

“Our partnership with Essential Edinburgh has gone from strength to strength over the past 5 years. It’s a real example of business and charities together creating real, positive change for the people facing tough realities in central Edinburgh.

It is a shining example of the power we have when we come together to create a safer, more welcoming city for all.”

Ewan Aitken, CEO, Cyrenians

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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.

• If you or someone you know is at immediate risk of homelessness, call 0800 032 5968.

Mark Diver & Nick Harrold Navigator Outreach Workers, Cyrenians

Want to support Cyrenians wider work?

To find out how, visit www.cyrenians.scot

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

Engaging

Spend: £30,000 - 3% of Total Project Spend

Transforming the City Centre Essential Edinburgh has continued to support and promote new developments and planning permissions in the city centre as it continues to evolve.

We have worked closely with property owners, developers and Edinburgh Council to support applications and proposals.

We help to co-ordinate the sharing of information, sit on city wide groups, comment on planning applications and traffic

orders, and liaise with Edinburgh Council officials and other organisations, representing the interests of our businesses at every opportunity.

Although the macro economic conditions are making large scale developments problematic, it is pleasing to see more applications coming forward for change of uses on George and Princes Streets, as well as new potential large scale developments on and around St Andrew Square.

We have continued to engage

with Edinburgh Council regarding the George Street redevelopment.

This included presenting to the Transport and Environment Committee on the proposals, as well as raising issues on behalf of levy payers.

It is hoped that final decisions will be made during 2023/2024, timescales agreed and traffic orders issued.

We have pressed for a workable operational plan, taxi access at all times and compensation for business interruption.

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If you are recruiting, or want training for your staff, please get in touch with the FUSE team - it is free for levy-payers.

FUSE

St Andrew Square Tour Buses

Wayfinding

FUSE was set up to support citywide recruitment and training. It delivers high-quality recruitment and training for retail, leisure and hospitality sectors. Through our investment we can offer our levypayers training opportunities for all their staff, and support their recruitment needs at no cost.

The City of Edinburgh Council and bus operators moved their key tour bus operations to Waterloo Place on a trial basis, thus easing the congestion and large bus movements around St Andrew Square.

Essential Edinburgh funded eight new wayfinding totems, as part of the city-wide wayfinding project.

In this reporting year the final six map totems, were installed.

Our partnership with FUSE is already supporting employment opportunities and recruitment for levy-payers within the BID area, they have advertised 660 vacancies for 207 employers in St James Quarter and 112 employers in the wider BID area.

The lack of waiting buses, idling engines, noise and pavement congestion has significantly improved the ambiance around the north side of St Andrew Square. We are working with all parties during the trial to monitor its success as we seek the new long-term solution.

This much-needed directional signage is already well used to orientate visitors to our city centre, and help spread footfall around our district.

Our Rose Street directories, at the ends of each block, remain the only physical business directory in the city, which are refreshed annually at the start of the summer.

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We play an active role on many city-wide working groups supporting and influencing the future of our city centre.

Engaging in Conversation We lobby local and national government, amplifying your voices, views and needs.

We play an active role on numerous city-wide working groups, supporting and influencing the future of our city centre. These include the Economic Advisory Forum, Edinburgh Business Resilience Group, Strategic Implementation Group for Tourism, and the Forever Edinburgh City Marketing Steering Group.

Alongside the Association of International Retail (AIR) and

the New West End BID company, we continue to lobby the Westminster Government for the reintroduction of international tax-free shopping, which has impacted tourist numbers and spend in Edinburgh and the UK. In January we welcomed Angus Robertson, MSP for Edinburgh Central, for a BID business briefing, discussing the issues facing city centres and our business community in particular.

We remain chair of the partnership group for St Andrew Square Garden, discussing the key issues needed to maintain it as a high-quality open space

in the city centre. We also have representation at Board level with ETAG, Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, and AIR.

City Centre Monitoring Project We monitor the health of the city centre by gathering vacancy rates, footfall data, retail and hospitality sales. These key indicators are reported on our digital ‘stats dashboard’ on our website, and within our Friday email updates.

If you would like to participate in either our retail or hospitality sales monitors, to enrich the data we gather, please get in touch.

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

We will deliver on the business plan, as we have done over the past fifteen years

Renewal Ballot 2023 You have once again given overwhelming backing to investing in the future of the city centre Business Improvement District. Collectively you will invest around £5 million over the next 5 years in a whole variety of services and projects that will enhance the city centre – from cleanliness to crowd-pleasing events.

We are delighted to have received a thumping 92% vote in favour of continuing the BID for the next five years. Your high level of support is a ringing endorsement of the work to date of Essential

Edinburgh, and also of the business plan we put to you. The city centre is recovering strongly post-pandemic and we look forward to working proactively and in partnership with you to support change, progress and economic growth.

We will deliver on the business plan, as we have done over the past fifteen years, and ensure the £1 million a year you collectively invest in the city centre is spent wisely, innovatively and on exciting projects and services that make the city centre the best in Britain.

“The key is in the name. The BID is nothing short of essential for city centre businesses, their customers, and visitors alike. Each year the footprint grows, with more and more people reaping the benefits of initiatives curated and fostered by the Essential Edinburgh team.

Safety, collective marketing, sanitation, innovation, and public care are difficult to fault. We are delighted to congratulate Essential Edinburgh on securing another term. Long may the good work continue.”

Lachlan Rooney, Managing Director of The Voodoo Rooms

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“The key is in the name. The BID is nothing short of essential for city centre businesses, their customers, and visitors alike.” Lachlan Rooney, Managing Director of The Voodoo Rooms

Accounts 1st April 2022 to 31st March 2023

ESSENTIAL EDINBURGH Annual Review April 2022 to March 2023 | 46

Budget 1st April 2023 to 31st March 2024

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

@EssentialEdin

Change Waste Recycling: wwylie@changewasterecycling.co.uk Cyrenians: www.cyrenians.scot FUSE: hello@edinburghfuse.com

@EdinCityCentre

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www.EssentialEdinburgh.co.uk | www.EdinburghCityCentre.co.uk ©ESSENTIAL EDINBURGH 2023 | The reproductionESSENTIAL or publication of any partAnnual of this Review document is 2022 strictly EDINBURGH April toprohibited.

March 2023 | 48