Harrow BID’s five-year term began on 1st April 2014 after a successful ballot of local businesses. With 204 current members, the purpose of the BID is to invest in the future of the town centre and to champion the interests of its businesses by giving them a stronger, collective voice.
A Business Improvement Area (BID) is a defined geographical area in which local businesses have voted to make a collective investment in improving the environment. Business-led and funded by a mandatory levy on all eligible business rate-payers, BIDs operate for a term of five years and provide additional or enhanced services as requested by their members.
The Harrow BID works closely with community groups, residents and the local authority to deliver on the key themes that were identified by our members and set out in our business plan.
The Harrow BID’s programme is being delivered by a small team led by a BID Manager, who is accountable to the Company Chairman.
Louise helped develop the BID after moving on from roles at Groundwork UK and the Employment Team at Harrow Council. She is a strong networker who is responsible for establishing and maintaining working relationships with anyone who is likely to influence the experience you get when you visit the town centre.
Laura joined the BID in November 2016. She quickly made this new role her own and with her PA background the office was soon running smoothly under her control. Her varied role includes managing all the invoices and book keeping, organising and attending meetings to take minutes, maintaining the database, and liaising with Harrow Council regarding BID levy queries.
Karen is an experienced marketeer who has a strong track record working with BID’s and was also involved in the successful reballot for the Liverpool BID. She is responsible for the annual marketing strategy for Harrow Town Centre BID, which includes, PR, events, social media and marketing campaigns, as well as incorporating the BID members marketing messages where possible.
Bhavini visits the businesses on a regular basis, providing information on planned events and taking feedback from businesses if they have an issue. She takes photos for social media which we share on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. She also meets business owners and updates them with BID initiatives and gives information on how the BID can help them.
Lauren joined the team in March 2018 with a specific remit to cover the street environment and the Business Crime Partnership. She works closely with Harrow Council and the Metropolitan police and is helping businesses to reduce crime and ASB in the town centre.
Darren Harman (Chair) – St George’s Shopping Centre
David Robinson (Vice Chair) – St Anns Shopping Centre
Kurt Jansen – McDonalds
Jay Patel – The Chocolate Room
Harlen Holding – Wilko
Stephen Spence – The Junction
Rajinder Nangla – Next
Maggie Staniek Fernando – Nando’s
Working closely with the public authorities and acting as an authoritative voice representing the interests of the business community, our aim is to ensure that issues affecting the town centre are addressed and dealt with promptly.
Our priorities are ensuring the maintenance of a quality trading environment; helping to sustain progress, development and investment; promoting and managing change and securing a timely response to market changes.
Three main executive sub-groups, composed of BID members and relevant members of the staff team, focus on specific aspects of the BID’s work and help the Board to make informed decisions on the direction of our work programmes.
The three groups are Marketing; Operations; and Harrow Business Against Crime. The frequency of their meetings is agreed by each group, some every quarter while others meet every month. If you are interested in joining one of the groups, or attending one of their meetings, please contact Laura Lyons on 020 8863 9933 or laura.lyons@ha1bid.co.uk.
An additional group provides an overview of the BID’s Finances & Governance.
Finance and Governance group purpose:
Oversees budget setting, financial monitoring and staff matters
Operations Group Purpose:
Helps to ensure the area is safe and attractive by monitoring cleansing in the BID area and enables issues of concern to be raised with the BID team and council officers. Delivers seasonal flowers and other initiatives to enhance the presentation of the BID area. Currently also delivering a pigeon control program, footfall counts, and festive lighting.
Marketing Group Purpose:
Creates a marketing strategy covering events, advertising and media that reinforces Harrow as a destination to internal and external customers. Maintains a website, provides visitor information and markets our key assets, commissions market research, develops the BID brand, and oversees member communications.
Aims to reduce and prevent criminality and anti-social behaviour by reducing the opportunity to commit crime by the legitimate and lawful gathering, collation, exchange and management of all relevant information.
Governance is discussed on a regular basis in meetings, and we work with a consultant who is well versed on BID protocols.
The Harrow BID Development Group was the proposer for the BID in Harrow Town Centre and with the successful vote to establish the BID, the Harrow Town Centre BID Company Ltd is the legal entity that runs its activities.
A Board of Directors, of between 8 and 12 members, is nominated and elected from/by the businesses which form the constituents of the district. The Board guides the work of the BID company with the support of four executive sub-groups.
London Borough of Harrow is the billing authority in respect of the streets and property in the BID area. Two important legal agreements exist between the BID Company and the Council. An Operating Agreement provides the basis on which to collect the BID levy from the business constituents. A Baseline Agreement sets out the specification for town centre council services, allowing us to monitor these and ensure our own work is purely additional.
Our work programme is evaluated by the following criteria and the findings are published in our annual report:
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The membership comprises BID levy payers and voluntary members.
Business occupiers liable to pay the Business Improvement District levy are admitted to membership in accordance with the BID Company’s Articles of Association.
Other businesses can be admitted as members, subject to BID Board approval, normally by making a financial (or in-kind) contribution or being of strategic importance to the delivery of the BID’s business objectives. Key groups include property owners and the Council. We encourage property owners as members, in order to promote a medium to longer term strategic focus for the BID’s work, complementary to our day-to-day, more tactically focused, activity.
The Harrow BID represents approximately 220 local business. For a complete list, click here.