April 2023 - March 2024
PAGE 3 - INTRODUCTION
PAGE 4 - PROMOTING
PAGE 10 - PROTECTING
PAGE 16 - ENHANCING
PAGE 21 - ENGAGING
PAGE 25 - THE TEAM
PAGE 26 - FINANCIALS
PAGE 28 - GET IN TOUCH
PAGE 28 - BID BOUNDARY
INTRODUCTION
Following our successful renewal ballot in March 2023, it is our pleasure to highlight Essential Edinburgh’s achievements in a busy first year of our fourth term.
Our new business plan continues to prioritise footfall driving activities throughout the year, whilst ensuring we work hard to keep our city streets clean and safe. We have and will continue to support our members and wider city partners to grow our city’s economy, including promoting our tourism and events sectors. Edinburgh cannot be complacent, and we will do everything we can to support growth and expansion across the city.
Edinburgh’s city centre is evolving at pace; as well as constantly outperforming Scotland and UK footfall metrics, hospitality and retail sales also performed strongly year-on-year. This success does not just happen, and 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.
This report highlights some fantastic annual progress and some great initiatives and developments throughout the year. Enjoy the read!
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 - £443,175
53% of total project spend
EDINBURGH CITY CENTRE PERFORMANCE
We performed strongly against Scottish and UK comparators. Footfall continued its recovery, with hospitality and retail sales also on a positive upward curve. The city’s tourism profile is key to this, as is our attractiveness as a festival city, especially during August and December. Edinburgh remains the UK’s second most visited city, with numbers growing sustainably.
• Footfall up 3% annually on Princes Street
• Sales up 23% and 3% for hospitality & retail respectively
• 18% annual footfall increase in May on Princes Street, thanks to Murryfield concerts
SQUARE CINEMA
Following Essential Edinburgh’s renewal, we created a new brand for our outdoor cinema – Square Cinema. It took place from 23rd to 25th June 2023 in St Andrew Square Garden with LNER as the lead sponsor. City centre footfall was boosted with the weekend’s event and we saw a tangible, positive impact on the city centre economy:
• Footfall up 2% on same weekend in 2022 and up 6% on 2019
• 10,000+ people attended
• 78% visited the city centre specifically for the event
• 69% went on to spend £66 on average in city centre businesses giving an R.O.I of 796%
Square Cinema 2023 ©Unique Events
EAT OUT EDINBURGH
Working closely with hospitality businesses, we delivered the third year of our campaign aimed at attracting residents, workers and visitors to eat out across the business improvement district (BID):
• Doubled in length following business and public feedback, taking in the full month of March
• Hugely successful PR campaign securing 30 pieces of media coverage with over 11.3M views
• Over 1.6M paid impressions on Facebook & Instagram, with 468K total reach
• Over 115K website users, 1.3M webpage engagements and 400K page views
• Over 18,700 bookings made for Eat Out Edinburgh offerings
• Edinburgh hospitality sales increased year-on-year by 9.2% for March 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. As of 25th March 2024, the initiative had generated over 144,300 combined followers with over 378.9 million content views.
We promoted the city centre across Edinburgh’s official channels, gearing content towards the Chinese audience. Key content included Eat Out Edinburgh, Square Cinema, retail and food & drink offers and recommendations, Edinburgh’s Christmas and Hogmanay.
Eat Out Edinburgh 2024 Launch
EDINBURGH COCKTAIL WEEK
For the third year running Essential Edinburgh was the main sponsor for Edinburgh Cocktail Week, which ran from 6th to 15th October 2023. Our investment in this event ensures participation from any interested levy-paying bars and restaurants, making sure footfall is driven to our area:
• The event footfall was up 3.5% on 2022, over 24K attendees
• Bar sales within the BID were up on average 26% (22% on average outside the BID) year-on-year
• Average bar sales totalled over £395.5K in the BID
• The ten-day event has an estimated impact on the economy of £3.25M
FRINGE FESTIVAL
We maintained our support for Assembly Festival on George Street during August 2023, ensuring the Fringe had on-street activity within the BID. We also supported St James Quarter’s August activities in collaboration with the Fringe Society.
GUMBALL 3000 RALLY
In June 2023 Edinburgh was the Official Start Line Host of the 24th Annual Gumball 3000 Rally, a week-long 3,000 mile road trip across Europe. Thousands of spectators flocked to George Street across the weekend to see some of the world’s most impressive and iconic cars and witness the ‘Flag Drop’ start taking place.
• Footfall on Princes Street that weekend rose 10% compared to 2022 and was up 4.4% on the same days versus 2019
EDINBURGH’S CHRISTMAS & HOGMANAY
As the Christmas and Hogmanay period is crucial to our members, we partnered with Unique Assembly for the second year to support activity within the BID area, also ensuring circa £1.25M investment in the BID from Edinburgh’s Christmas.
• Edinburgh’s Christmas and Hogmanay brought a combined £200M into the city’s economy in 2023-24
• A covered ice rink was again placed on the west end of George Street with 72K skaters taking to the ice
• St Andrew Square Garden became a focal point for families with over 11K people enjoying activities such as Santa’s Stories. The Garden also hosted Social Bite’s Festival of Kindness
• Total event footfall was up 28% annually with 3.2M visitors, Princes Street also recorded a rise in annual footfall of 2%
• For the second year we supported activity over the Hogmanay period, especially geared to providing options for people on the 1st and 2nd of January to come into the city centre
ETAG / FOREVER EDINBURGH
We work closely with Edinburgh Tourism Action Group (ETAG), financially supporting the role of the Programme Manager for the Edinburgh Visitor Economy Partnership. As part of both the Operational Advisory Group on Tourism and the Strategic Implementation Group we represent members views at the key industry forums.
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.
George Street Ice Rink 2023
FOR OUR CITY CENTRE TO THRIVE IT IS VITAL FOR OUR BUSINESSES, STAFF AND CUSTOMERS TO FEEL SAFE AND PROTECTED
*All comparisons are annual and like-for-like
PROTECTING - £89,121
11% 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 deliver real change and tangible results.
BID COP - PC EHSSAN SANII
Our flagship partnership with Police Scotland to provide an enhanced police presence within the district continues to strengthen and make 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 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 270 individual levy-paying businesses, totalling 1,179 interactions
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
CRIME STATISTICS - EDINBURGH CITY CENTRE
1Robbery includes assault with intent to rob.
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 2023 to 31st March 2024 and are for the Edinburgh City Centre area.
• The 5-year average does not include current year data.
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
In April 2023 we agreed a five-year support partnership with Street Assist Edinburgh, a charity run by skilled volunteers, which offers all kinds of help and support to people enjoying the vibrant city centre nightlife.
Street Assist provide a first aid service and non-judgemental welfare to help people who may have become vulnerable during the busy night-time economy hours. In year one of our partnership, Street Assist volunteers provided:
• 11.7K hours of support
• Treated 937 patients, 66% were local residents, 21% were visitors
CHECK OUT
Our innovative approach to tackling retail crime has been operating for fiften years. In September 2023 we upgraded to a new digital platform that is operational 24/7. By collating, coordinating and sharing information with Police Scotland and subscribed retailers, we are helping to identify individuals and increase the detection rate for shoplifting.
• In the first six months up to 31st March 2024 we circulated 568 alerts to over 150 subscribed levy-paying retailers
• Engagement increased by more than 40%, and there were more than 68,000 email interactions
Street Assist Edinburgh Volunteers
CYRENIANS
For the past six years we have supported the homeless and begging community through our partnership with Cyrenians.
Our funding provides two dedicated case workers as part of the Navigator Project, enabling skilled practitioners to work with people who are living a street-based life, providing individually tailored advice and support to help them into accommodation. In this reporting year the Homeless Navigator Project has supported:
• 243 people on outreach
• 9 people received ongoing 1:1 support
• Helped 15 people gain short-term or long-term accommodation
• Worked with over 20 agencies
The success of this work is testament to the close partnership that exists between the key providers of support in the city.
CHECKIN
Checkin was conceived in 2007 as a partnership between Essential Edinburgh, The Balmoral Hotel and Police Scotland with a view to tackle all types of hotel crime in Edinburgh.
Our aim is to create a safe and secure environment for the residents, staff and visitors within our hotels and we currently have almost 130 active members helping to achieve this.
Nick Harrold & Mark Diver - Navigator Outreach Workers, Cyrenians
ENHANCING
WE ALL WANT A CLEAN, ATTRACTIVE, ATMOSPHERIC DESTINATION FOR ALL TO ENJOY, YEAR-ROUND
*All comparisons are annual and like-for-like
ENHANCING - £300,404
36% of total project spend
A warm welcome and an attractive environment enhance the city centre, encouraging repeat footfall and influencing people to linger longer. Our continued investment in projects that benefit the city centre across the year ensures 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. All their services are above and beyond the statutory responsibility of Edinburgh Council.
They work tirelessly throughout the year, offering an emergency call out service, a basement cleaning service, removing graffiti and flyposting, as well as their daily rounds.
From 6am to 8pm they deliver an excellent service to our levy payers, receiving superb feedback.
During the year the Clean Team:
• Tackled a huge 133% increase in graffiti
• Removed 21% more flyposting than last year
• Cleaned up 228% more environmental and hazardous waste
• They removed 46.2 tonnes of litter from the streets and basements, cleaning 57% more from basements than the year before
Members of The Clean Team
CHRISTMAS LIGHTING
Following our successful renewal ballot in March 2023 we were able to bring four new eight-meter light trees to join four existing five-meter trees positioned within the BID. They bring a bright focal point at ground level to enhance the ambience and festive appeal of the city centre.
We invested in new year-round light strings for Rose Street, enhanced at Christmas with around 100 icicle drop lights. The new lighting strings are in addition to our gable end projectors, used during the darker months with custom designed gobos.
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 assisted 17 restaurants and bars to install outdoor terrace seating on George Street, Castle Street and St Andrew Square. The areas provide much needed additional covers for businesses, and also help 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, maintaining the trees in Rose Street, and ensuring St Andrew Square Garden continued to be the jewel in our crown.
New Rose Street year-round lights
ST ANDREW SQUARE GARDEN
In our sixteenth year of managing St Andrew Square Garden on behalf of its owners, we continue to ensure the garden is kept in pristine condition all year round. As part of our planned maintenance programme we returfed around all the pathways and high-impact footfall areas in this reporting year, and our superb landscape gardeners continue to maintain and improve the busy and vibrant thoroughfare.
We hosted a free-to-attend exhibition by the Scotsman to celebrate 50 years of the Fringe First award, ran our own Square Cinema event and supported multiple charitable causes including Poppy Scotland and Social Bite’s Festival of Kindness. For Christmas 2023 we ensured the garden was attractive and safe with enhanced path and tree lighting.
CHANGEWASTE RECYCLING
Over a quarter of all BID businesses benefit from our favourable group-buying rate with Change Waste Recycling, and the more business that sign up, the bigger the savings for all.
Their team come into your business to collect your waste, so no more unsightly bags of refuse on the pavement, and no fines!
• In this reporting year, in total, they collected 2117.07 tonnes of waste with a recycling rate of 65%
• A total of 2,097.46 tonnes of carbon was diverted from landfill – up annually by 340%
This partnership not only benefits individual levy-payers and saves you money, but also benefits the environment too!
St Andrew Square Garden at Christmas
ENGAGING - £7,500
1% of total project spend
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.
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 and gathering your views and feedback.
• In this reporting year they were able to engage with 645 individual businesses with over 1,864 interactions
• They made 533 visits, had email correspondence with 644 businesses, and held 86 meetings
REPRESENTATION AND RASING YOUR COLLECTIVE VOICE
We play an active role on numerous city-wide working groups, influencing the future of our city centre, including the Economic Advisory Forum and Edinburgh Business Resilience Group. 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 119 opportunities to raise your collective voice on the issues that mattered most to you.
BID Engagement Managers Grant Roberts and Gillian James
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.
The challenges of this major build continue to cause us concern. Over the year, we contributed to two meetings of the Transport and Environment Committee, working in partnership with the George Street Association.
TAX-FREE SHOPPING
We continue to lobby, along with the Association of International Retail, the New West End Company, and other interested parties to reverse the Westminster decision to abolish tax-free shopping.
This has had a major detrimental impact on business across the BID area with over £20m of lost revenue. This will have a longterm impact on both tourist numbers and spend.
BUSINESS RATES REFORM
We have worked with many partners to press for business rates reform as there is a huge discrepancy between the rates payable for city centre businesses compared to out-of-town centres and smaller city centre areas.
Business rates have reached a point where it is a true barrier to potential occupants in the city centre, or is a business cost which is unsustainable in the longer term.
George Street and First New Town Project
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 highquality open space in the city centre. In this reporting year, we successfully lobbied for the removal of tour buses from the north side of the Square on behalf of the owners.
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 phase.
We continue to lobby the City of Edinburgh Council in support of change of use applications across the BID area. It is imperative that these are considered to support new entrants to the city centre as well as repurposing former retail units if needed. We support the maintenance of a balanced mix of uses but we must reflect economic realities and trends.
WAYFINDING
As part of the citywide wayfinding project, Essential Edinburgh provided the funding to install eight wayfinding totems in and around the BID area. This much-needed directional signage is very well used to help orientate visitors to our city centre, spreading 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.
St Andrew Square Garden
CITY CENTRE MONITORING PROJECT
We monitor the health of the city centre by gathering vacancy rates, footfall data, retail and hospitality sales percentages. These key indicators are reported on our digital ‘stats dashboard’ on our website, and within our Friday email updates. If you are a retail or hospitality business who is not yet participating in our sales monitor, 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 anonnomised.
If you are able to participate, please get in touch.
CITYWIDE WORKING GROUPS
We continue to play important roles on many citywide working groups supporting our members. These include Edinburgh Tourism Action Group (ETAG), Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, Edinburgh Economic Forum, Forever Edinburgh and the Strategic Implementation Group for Tourism.
FUSE
FUSE was set up to deliver high-quality recruitment and training support for retail, leisure and hospitality sectors citywide.
Through our partnership hospitality, leisure and retail levypayers can access training opportunities for all their staff, and support for their recruitment needs, at no cost.
Footfall on Princes Street
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 Edinburgh
Barry Blamire, The John Lewis Partnership
Caoimhe Duignan, Hawksmoor
David Stewart, Abrdn
David Stewart, DM Stewart
Denzil Skinner, Chair
Derek Brownlee, Royal Bank of Scotland
Mark Farvis, Digital Media Manager
Roddy Smith, Chief Executive & Director
Essential Clean Team
James Reilly, Contract Manager, Mitie (subcontracted)
Councillor Jane Meagher, Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work Convener, The City of Edinburgh Council
Kieran Quinn, Kimpton
Charlotte Square
Louise Maclean, Signature Group
Lynzi Leroy, Scottish Design Exchange
Richard Morris, Harvey Nichols
David Lindgren, Company Secretary
Essential Edinburgh Team
93% collection rate
90% collection rate
