LeedsBID reveal 2025-2030 vision

LeedsBID has revealed ambitious plans for the city for the next five years.

Transcript

00:00We're here at the Queen's Hotel to launch our business plan. The Leeds Business Improvement

00:04District has been around for 10 years and it's one of 343 business improvement districts

00:09across the country that invest over the last 20 years a billion pounds into our town and

00:14city centres. Business improvement districts are all about doing things in addition, additionality

00:19and doing things that other people can't do or won't be able to do and it's about bringing

00:23businesses together to collaborate but beyond that it's about bringing vibrancy and it's

00:27about putting the place first. It's about putting Leeds first and Leeds Bid being the

00:33enabler to connect people and make new things happen whether that's monopoly over the summer

00:37that we've just seen happen in the city centre to our Leeds International Festival of Ideas

00:41that's happening in the autumn to the Christmas projection that's going to take place on this

00:45hotel. Looking ahead it's just more excitement, more energy, more opportunity. I think probably

00:50the key point in our business plan for the third chapter we're going to expand the size

00:55of the bid operation so we're going to go across the river taking in areas like the

00:59Armouries and Ayr Park around the Tetley and I think the excitement I have is the opportunity

01:04that we've got to expand our work into new parts of the city centre. If someone hasn't

01:09been into Leeds for a while they sort of think wow it's changing particularly our high street

01:13brigate. We've seen Zara open over the summer, we've seen House of Fraser nearly completed

01:19with the Manor storehouse and we're seeing Flannels flagship store opening so unlike

01:24some cities where they're still grappling with some of those gaps and those challenges

01:29Leeds has been ahead of the curve and that's because of its collaborative nature. Leeds

01:32is definitely on the up, recovering on the high street much better than other cities,

01:37students continuing to want to come to this place because it's exciting and it's vibrant

01:41and obviously it has very strong unis and the third thing is literally the amount of

01:45major investment in property builds. Last time we had a 61% turnout and 93% of businesses

01:51voted in favour and we're just encouraging businesses to engage to make sure we address

01:55their priorities and that they know what's going to go on in the next five years in Leeds

01:59city centre.