SOUTHEND CIty BID
introducing southend City bid
Southend City Business Improvement District (BID) was formed in 2013 out of a very successful town centre partnership organisation – Southend Town Centre Partnership (STCP).
Over the past decade, Southend City BID has delivered a range of projects, based on the priorities of businesses, which have created a strong platform for growth. The BID has brought together businesses in the city and empowered them, giving them more of a say in the City’s development and management strategy.
The BID has also worked hard to ensure Southend is a safe and welcoming place to visit at any time through projects such as the Street Rangers, Purple Flag scheme and supporting cleanliness through anti-litter campaigns and graffiti removal.
We have listened to the priorities of businesses and our ambition for the third term is to build a better City by working with partners to capitalise on the opportunities that City status will provide.
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This website gives details about the services that businesses in Southend voted for.
Download the 2023-2028 Business Plan.
Business improvement districts
A Business Improvement District (BID) is a defined geographical area and within it businesses
opt (via a vote) to pay an additional amount so that services can be provided that they, as a group of businesses, want to have. This money is paid by businesses through a levy which is normally applied using the rateable value of their commercial premises. A BID company has a maximum of five years before they have to return to their electorate in order to ask if they want the BID to continue.
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BIDs succeed because they are focused, entrepreneurial, cost efficient and provide a powerful and fast response to business needs. They are not a replacement for local authority and police services, but provide an additional resource. There are now over 320 BIDs in operation across the UK including Newcastle, Swansea, Nottingham, Brighton, Liverpool, Edinburgh and several in London.
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With public finances under pressure, BIDs are increasingly seen as the way in which those locations fortunate enough to have one, can surge ahead. If BIDs across the UK are not sustained, current national business trends indicate a gradual, sustained decline of commercial profitability in many town centres like Southend.
