EC Partnership Bid

Those of us involved in the future shape of the City embrace the changes we are seeing, seizing new opportunities and ensuring we create a stronger, more resilient City.

Investor confidence is strong and the EC Partnership BID (Business Improvement District) is developing exciting plans to support the renaissance of the Square Mile. The City has always been a place for pioneers and new thinking. It has been through this agility and ingenuity that, over the centuries, the Square Mile has evolved to be a global economic powerhouse.

Following this long tradition of businesses across the EC area pioneering and innovating, we are excited about what can be achieved when we coalesce around shared goals, with an emphasis on advancing the crucial ESG agenda. Our aim is to create a more sustainable, agile City with a greater sense of social purpose.

Judith is on the ECP’s Culture, Leisure and Tourism Committee and shares the information with Philip and Alex. We believe from the BID’s extensive research that there is an ever-stronger appetite for stakeholders to come together to find new solutions and opportunities for the future growth and recovery of the City.

We need to focus on this at a pivotal time. We are of course still grappling with the pandemic, Brexit and the climate emergency. If successful at the ballot in February, over £20 million could be invested by the private sector to fund transformational projects in the EC area over the next five years.

A core part of our work will be focused on supporting the vital eco-system across the City – the shops, restaurants, cafés and bars that support the army of workers and visitors that will return – but perhaps not immediately. These businesses are crucial to the character of the City, helping to make it a more attractive place to work, to visit and in which to invest. We will help them through this challenging period, providing a powerful voice for local businesses, enhancing the physical environment, injecting new energy into the area, and creating a safer, greener and cleaner destination for all who live, work or visit this area.

Our mandate is focused around embedding an ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) proposition at the core of our proposals. Each element will shape our programme of activity, to ensure we measure and demonstrate high quality delivery by the BID. The EC Partnership BID area is the densest part of the Square Mile and home to over 82,000 jobs, of which 43% are within the financial and insurance sectors. Since 2015 the EC area has seen an 18% increase in employment and the Eastern City economy is set to benefit from a number of technology-led interventions in the coming years, as well as the drive to a Net Zero economy – which will have both environmental and commercial benefits.

We need to make our areas as attractive as possible in the war on talent that we face. The physical environment has a vital role to play. The BID will champion the creation of public squares and green spaces, provide a more enhanced pedestrian experience and work with the City Corporation on reducing traffic across the BID footprint.

We will develop a more sustainable and vibrant district, supporting our eco-system and enhancing our cultural offer, with more creative ways to use spaces through animation and activation, supporting our future growth as a 24/7 destination.

The views of our business community underpin all activities proposed within the plan across four strategic themes, aligned with the guiding principles of our ESG agenda. We will value sustainability and sustainable development, recognising the huge potential the EC district has to grow further. The role the EC Partnership can have in promoting this unique part of London, in collaboration with the City of London Corporation and key stakeholders such as TfL, will be of great importance as the area navigates the coming months and years.