Vote YES for campaigns & activities that drive and circulate footfall and spend:

• Promoting the city centre to a domestic and international audience in partnership with a new Destination Management and Marketing Organisation for Edinburgh
• Sectoral promotions and events spread across the year
• Annual programme of events delivered in partnership
• Maximising summer and winter festival activity in the BID area

Our track record 2018 – 2023:

• Film Fest in the City drove £1.5m of spend in city centre shops, bars and restaurants
  5.3m people saw Sign of a Great Time marketing campaign
• Retail sales were up 1.9% and hospitality sales up 6.1% when Sign of a Great Time was active
• Since 2018 Princes Street footfall has increased by 1.2m people versus the preceding 4-year period.
• The George Street ice rink increased footfall by 260k

“As an independent family business, we’ve really valued the support of Essential Edinburgh, particularly during the pandemic. The commercial activities provide many added services and vitality to our community; the BID has helped raise our voice. Our outside terrace was a lifeline for our business while we had restrictions in place.”
Carina Contini, Contini’s George Street

Vote YES for the cleanest, most attractive destination in Scotland’s Capital:

• 94% of businesses support the on-going activity of the Essential Edinburgh Clean Team
• We will invest in upgraded gum busting and graffiti removal equipment to further enhance the Clean Team’s efforts.
• Our partnership with Changeworks recycling will continue to provide levy-payers with a group buying discount for waste removal and recycling, offering substantial savings for these essential services.
• We will make enhancements to paths and lighting as we continue our stewardship of St Andrew Square Garden.
• We will complement the vitality and ambiance of the city centre with tasteful floral displays, seasonal planting and new city dressing.

A greener city

• We will support and advocate for our levy-payers as the City Centre Transformation and Low Emission Zone projects become reality.
• We will work toward a business plan that offers enhanced communication, lobbying and parallel initiatives which support both our businesses and wider environmental goals.

Our track record 2018 – 2023:

• 628100kgs of litter collected by the Clean Team
• 30214m² of gum blasted – that’s over 4x the size of Murrayfield
• 1485 instances of environmental and hazardous waste removal
• 900 tonnes CO2 saved from landfill disposal
• £505,000 spent on Edinburgh city centre’s Christmas

“Thank you, Essential Edinburgh, for all your hard work. You deliver a brilliant service as usual. A particularly massive thank you to your superb Clean Team, they always arrive to us quickly and do an amazing job.”
Martina Hlinkova, The Royal Society of Edinburgh

Vote YES to ensure the city centre is a safe place to work, visit & enjoy:

• Build on our successful partnership with homeless charity Cyrenians
• Provide an enhanced police presence through “BID Cop”
• Support our night-time economy, partnering with local organisations like Street Assist
• Continue Check Out and Check In, our ground-breaking retail and accommodation security partnerships.

Our track record 2018 – 2023:

• Cyrenians partnership helped 179 homeless people find accommodation and engaged with over 636 people to provide 1-2-1 support, direct interventions or help to establish permanent tenancy arrangements.
• BID COP engaged with levy-payers 614 times, and delivered 21 Hard Target retail crime talks
• Recorded crime DOWN 66% in the city centre this term
 – based on most recent average figures supplied by Police Scotland excluding 2020-21
• 1217 Check Out circulations, providing key data to police and retail partners to inhibit shoplifting

“The Check In initiative allows us to operate in a safer environment and helps prevent loss of revenue through fraud. It creates links between city centre hotels to share important information with police. This could not be achieved without Essential Edinburgh.”
Iain Davidson, The Balmoral Hotel

Vote YES for us to champion the interests of our businesses and provide a collective voice that can always be heard:

• Lobby with national and local government on important issues including rates reform, the redevelopment of premises and an increased provision of public waste bins.
• Monitoring and reporting key indicators for the city centre, including sales and footfall.
• Investment in FUSE to provide free recruitment and training support for levy-paying retail and hospitality businesses.
• Proactively work with landlords and developers for the ongoing regeneration of Princes Street.
• Support during George Street Re-design and lobbying local and national government.
• Continue to seek out group-buying discounts, cost-cutting initiatives and exclusive staff benefits for all our member businesses.

Our track record 2018 – 2023:

• Funded new wayfinding totems at key points, to circulate customers around the BID
• Representing your views as the George Street redesign project progresses
• Dedicated comms team, keeping you in the loop and supporting levy-payers to amplify messaging – supporting promotional activity, sharing successes and lobbying tirelessly
• Funding of FUSE, providing retail and hospitality levy-payers high quality recruitment and training support at no cost
• Lobbying for and supporting the redevelopment of Princes Street buildings, including Debenhams, BHS and Jenners.

“The team at Essential Edinburgh provided invaluable support to us directly throughout the planning and development of Johnnie Walker Princes Street and since we opened our doors in September 2021. They have also done a great job supporting Edinburgh businesses throughout the difficult past couple of years and their on-going efforts will be hugely important to the recovery of the city centre from the COVID pandemic.”
Alan Thomlinson, Johnnie Walker, Princes Street

…CHRISTMAS CHEER

• Leading on Christmas activation for the city centre – installations and activities like the George Street Ice Rink.
• Fresh new festive lighting, including illumination of St Andrew Square Garden.

…FOR OUR OFFICES

• Implement a support package for the office sector, including cost-saving initiatives which use our collective purchasing power to reduce key operational costs.
• With commercial partners, obtain exclusive offers and discounts for all staff of levy-paying businesses, and free access to some of the hottest tickets in town.

“Essential Edinburgh has played an integral part within the city centre as we have navigated the last few years – including the pandemic. Several initiatives have been delivered or supported which have positively impacted trading and the development of our business.”
Louise Masson, General Manager, Harvey Nichols