BID Achievements
What has Kings Heath BID achieved so far?
Since 2008, Kings Heath BID has brought about a wide range of positive changes and vital improvements to the area, led by a board of local business owners and the Town Centre Manager.
Approximately £120,000 a year, raised from the annual BID business levy, has been pumped back into the area to make Kings Heath a more enjoyable and safer place to live, work and visit.
From day to day improvements such as employing street wardens to reduce retail crime rates and implementing clean and green schemes, to curating regular events, such as the Kings Heath Street Festival, to bring the community together and increase footfall in the area.
Local community events and initiatives programmed by the Kings Heath BID:
– The Kings Heath Street Festival – One of the highlights on the community calendar, draws thousands from across Birmingham to discover and celebrate everything that Kings Heath has to offer. The day includes two stages of live music curated by local venues, street food cooked by Kings Heath’s finest restaurants, market stalls showcasing our independent retailers, and plenty of children’s entertainment – all for free!
Summer of Silliness
Don’t say we didn’t put a smile on your face with a Summer of Silliness! We were paid a visit by an array of colourful characters, who brought us interactive street theatre, pantomime and free goodies.
Queens Heath Parade 2021
After being officially named a “Gayborhood”, which recognises Kings Heath as a residential area of exceptional gay sanctuary, we were very excited to host our very own Pride, Queens Heath! The event in September included a Pride march, free live music, face painting and more to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community here on our doorstep.
The Big Kind Snowman Trail
During the 2021 festive season, the Kings Heath BID coordinated the Big Kinds Snowman Trail. It was designed to increase footfall, activity and engagement in the area throughout the festive season. We also send some submissions to local care homes to spread festive cheer to the wider community!
Festive Frivolity
We love shopping local all year round, but we wanted to show some extra love for the businesses around Kings Heath during the 2021 holiday season. Late night shopping Thursdays saw exclusive deals freebies from our favourite stores, along with street performers and buskers to mark the occasion!
We also produced a “Festivities in Kings Heath” magazine, which was distributed to thousands of homes, and businesses across Kings Heath, to celebrate the best of our area during the festive period!
The Great Kings Heath Easter Egg Hunt
A free activity for the family over the Easter half term. The Great Kings Heath Easter Eggs are created by local schools and children in the area, the Hunt is a hugely popular activity which increases footfall and encourages families to get out there and discover new businesses over Easter.
Christmas Lights
Kings Heath BID sponsors the stunning festive lights which decorate retail areas during the Christmas period, bring festive cheer to the town and create a positive shopping experience for both customers and businesses, working with local organisations to coordinate switch-on celebrations.
Capture Kings Heath
A seasonal photography competition coordinated by Kings Heath BID, which encourages budding photographers to explore Kings Heath and submit their best shots of the area to be in with a chance of winning prizes donated by the BID and local businesses.
The Kings Heath BID was a proud sponsor of The BIG HOOT 2015! The Big Hoot captured the imagination of everyone in Birmingham and beyond in the summer of 2016, with hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets with their Big Hoot Trail maps to explore the colourful invasion of individually designed owls. Kings Heath were lucky enough to secure three owls for the area, which attracted many to the area to take part in the trail.
Support the community and offer services:
Clean and Green
Kings Heath BID provide services which uphold and maintain high levels of cleanliness in all public areas, including physical improvements such as floral planters and the commission of public murals like the iconic ‘Welcome to Kings Heath’ mural.
Enjoy Kings Heath website
A newly launched digital hub for residents, visitors, businesses and employees alike, including an extensive business listing directory, what’s on calendar, and blog, giving BID businesses the opportunities to share their events, information and news to consumers at the click of a button.
Enjoy Kings Heath magazine
Over 15,000 copies of the first edition of the free bi-annual Enjoy Kings Heath magazine were distributed to local residents, businesses and community centres in November 2016. The second edition of the Enjoy Kings Heath magazine, which will feature all of the latest local news, events and promotions, will be published in Spring/Summer 2017.
Safety and Security
The employment of a security warden working daily to make Kings Heath a safer place to live, work, and shop, by liaising with businesses regularly, providing a strong presence on our High Street, and cracking down on issues such as antisocial behaviour, shoplifters and beggars, as well as offering the latest in business security opportunities.
PR and Marketing
An external PR and Marketing agency market Kings Heath as a destination, and develop the Enjoy Kings Heath brand both on and offline, generate press coverage for BID businesses, and create and execute innovative marketing campaigns throughout the year.
It’s been a triumph on our digital platforms! We reached over 900,000 people through posts on the Enjoy Kings Heath social channels in 2021. This includes over 210,000 on Instagram, 239,000 on Twitter and 461,000 on Facebook!
Our community newsletter has an open rate of over 36% higher than the industry standard. This means our community audience is over 36% more engaged with local news, business offerings and other goings-on than other local areas! They are also nearly 12% more likely to click through and view the news or business that they are reading about.
Enjoy Kings Heath social media continues to prove its effectiveness in reaching our target audience, bringing people to the area and providing support for businesses.
2021 was a strong year for the Kings Heath BID!
We welcomed a new full-time manager, Matt Powell, and strengthened the BID board, achieving a full complement of directors following the BID’s AGM in March.
Other notable achievements of the BID include:
Funding and Investment – this year the BID has grown your BID levy by over 25%.
Christmas lights – we funded the Christmas lights along the High Street.
Newsletter – we sent a fortnightly newsletter via email to BID businesses, and produced a hard copy which was hand delivered to every BID business.
Schools – we met with all the primary, secondary and special schools in the BID area to begin ensuring that they, like all other businesses, are receiving value for money from the BID.
Expanded warden team – we increased the warden team to supplement the daytime hours, and introduced night-time patrols at weekends.
Planters – we replaced the planters at the Parade and maintained all of the BID’s planters across the BID area.
Travel map – we designed and produced a travel map of Kings Heath, which shows car and bike parking, bus stops and modal filters.
Planning apps – we responded to planning applications which had a potential impact on the BID area.
Cost reduction – we introduced to Kings Heath businesses a costs reduction scheme allowing them to trim overheads.
Committees – we re-introduced the BID’s working groups which oversee the delivery of projects and initiatives across the BID’s workstreams.
Kings Heath Business Association – we re-joined the KHBA, strengthening links between the area’s two main business support groups.
Business Rates – we worked with BCC’s Business Rates team to ensure that records of commercial properties with a rateable value in the BID area are up to date and accurate.
Kier – we established regular walkabouts with BCC’s highways maintenance contractor, Kier, to ensure that we begin to address some of the physical infrastructure defects across the BID area.
PSPO – we worked with BCC and other partners to see the re-introduction of the Public Space Protection Order for Kings Heath and Moseley.
AGM – we held the BID’s Annual General Meeting, which had been delayed from October 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Businesses – we waved a sad goodbye to 13 businesses but welcomed 15 new businesses to our high street.
Board – we have strengthened the BID Board, achieving a full complement of Directors following the BID’s AGM in March.
Job Centre – we created closer links with the Job Centre in Kings Heath, facilitating greater opportunities for job creation and support for businesses in Kings Heath.
Accessibility – we began working with third-party groups to better understand a wider range of accessibility issues in the area, from disabled access to how older people use our high street.
Students – we supported students at BCU with media production and journalism projects, highlighting the great offer that Kings Heath has.
COVID-19 – we continued to support businesses throughout the year with many COVID-related issues, from closures and reopenings, to access to finance and support, ensuring messages from the Council and Government are being received by our business community, and distributing free lateral flow test kits.
Trident Reach – we worked with Trident Reach, BCC’s rough sleeper outreach team, and other partners, to support beggars, rough sleepers and the homeless into accommodation.
The police – we held bi-monthly meetings with the local police sergeant, focusing on a range of issues affecting businesses in KH, from crime and anti-social behaviour to understanding and communicating how policing works; jointly dealing with high-profile offenders and targeting drug production and misuse in the BID area.
We held meetings with the Assistant Police and Crime Commissioner for the West Midlands to begin dealing with the strategic issues that affect businesses in the area, from initiatives to work with persistent drug users and offenders, to programmes designed to reduce crime against the business community.
Cleaning – we have arranged a deep clean of the BID area in spring 2022, which will be carried out by Ramora.
Kings Heath and Brandwood Litter Pickers, and Plastic Free KH and Moseley – we applaud these groups’ efforts to create a greener, tidier and more sustainable area, so we supported them in their successful fundraising bids.
Phone boxes – we established a dialogue with BT with respect to the public phone boxes in the area. One has been removed already, two more are due for removal, another should be gone by spring and the remainder are set to be cleaned and better maintained.