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Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) and Town Teams

BIDs are business-led partnerships focused on improving and enhancing commercial areas including town and city centres, commercial locations and industrial estates. There are now over 200 BIDs in operation around the UK and they mainly exist in town and city centres.

Town Teams are informal town centre partnerships that were set up as a result of the Government’s Portas Review. They are local partnerships that exist to promote the town centre and enhance shopping areas for local consumers.

Click here for case studies and to see how to get involved.

Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and Growth Hubs

A LEP is a voluntary partnership between local authorities and businesses to determine local economic priorities for investment in infrastructure and job growth in an area. LEPs were established to bring together business and civic leaders across a functional economic area to prioritise investment to where it will most effectively drive growth; and to bring a strong business voice to local decision-making to drive sustainable private sector-led growth and job creation.

A growth hub is a local public/private sector partnership led by the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP). Growth hubs bring together public and private sector partners to promote, co-ordinate and deliver business support. They provide a mechanism for integrating national and local business support so it is easy for businesses to access and to support them to start-up, scale-up and thrive.

Click here for case studies and to see how to get involved.