Grand Union BID Proposal

The Paddington area has undergone significant change over the past 25 years, with more than 20 major development schemes completed across 80 acres. This successful transformation has attracted many of the world’s leading corporate occupiers to the district, making Paddington London’s fastest-growing business area. Although there is still much development in the pipeline, many estates are now mature and focusing on long-term sustainability and placemaking.

The Grand Union BID represents an opportunity to create a permanent, sustainable forum to optimise Paddington’s potential as both a leading business community and a destination.

The BID Proposer

The Grand Union BID is proposed by The Paddington Partnership, a voluntary membership organisation already comprising some of the biggest landowners and companies in the UK. The Partnership has, for the last 25 years, delivered a range of projects and services to regenerate, promote and connect. The success and growing demand for these programmes demonstrates the desire for expansion under a formal BID structure, which would provide the necessary resources and strategic planning to scale and enhance activity. The Paddington Partnership will essentially be replaced by the Grand Union BID.

Social value and volunteering opportunities have fostered a strong sense of community, enhancing business reputations. Public realm interventions right across Paddington have tackled severance and kickstarted a wider placemaking approach. The waterspace has been activated with leisure boats. Over 80 acres of brownfield land has been turned into a thriving new business and residential community, opening up public access to the Grand Union Canal for the first time in its 200-year history.

Shifting to a BID-based model will enable businesses to benefit from a joined-up package of improvements to support employee satisfaction and retention, attract people back to the office and ensure Paddington remains a leading business destination, equipping the district to meet evolving tenant expectations and form a successful commercial ecosystem.

The BID Area

The Grand Union BID will cover the northern part of the Paddington Opportunity Area, as defined in the Westminster City Plan and the Mayor’s London Plan, and includes Paddington Station and the Grand Union Canal to Little Venice. The BID will be coterminous with PaddingtonNow BID (established by the Paddington Partnership back in 2005) which covers the older, southern section of Paddington and Marble Arch London BID.

Regenerate

Paddington’s working environment is second to none, with a network of well-developed pedestrian canalside routes, stunning new public spaces and an idyllic waterside setting. There are however challenges resulting from the absence of a single area-wide masterplan, multiple landowners and severance caused by the railway, the canal and the Westway.

The BID will attract funding to support the delivery of a single integrated public realm vision for Paddington, promoting greater step-free movement, improved legibility and active travel – curating long-term placemaking for Paddington.

• Creating attractive well-maintained spaces that encourage people to spend time in Paddington, for work and pleasure.
• Putting active travel and pedestrians front and centre, promoting cycling and walking for people who work and live here.
• Addressing severance and multiple levels at Paddington, with improved signage and wayfinding, better connections to Paddington mainline and Elizabeth line stations, reducing confusion, promoting an accessible, navigable hub and cohesive environment.
• Delivering public realm improvements to critical walking routes to and from the Grand Union BID area including the Bays corridor, between Paddington Square, the canalside and Bishop’s Bridge.
• Championing the development and implementation of a Neighbourhood Plan for Paddington, that lays the framework for future development and meets the needs of businesses, residents and visitors in shaping a comprehensive and inclusion vision for Paddington’s future.

Connect

The Partnership’s social value work is well-established, with a respected and successful corporate volunteering programme that has been operating for 20 years. Over 9,300 volunteering hours were given from 36 Paddington companies in 2023, supporting 38 charities, schools and community groups. Under the BID framework this activity will be stepped up and extended to making connections between businesses and well as between business and community. Increasingly staff want to work for companies with strong ESG, CSR and sustainability credentials. The BID will provide help deliver in these key areas for our members

The ambition is to create meaningful partnerships which add real value to the local community, connecting to surrounding neighbourhoods where high levels of deprivation, low education outcomes and isolation are challenges.

• Supporting existing volunteering programmes and introducing new initiatives to foster greater community engagement and social value. This will help businesses meet their Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) and volunteering targets and strengthen community ties.
• Running corporate volunteer programmes in schools to help young people access work and higher education, bridging the gap between education and employment, fostering skills among the next generation and raising local outcomes through themed clubs, CV workshops and mock interviews, careers talks, workplace visits and mentoring programmes – providing local young people with vital skills and insights.
• Continuing to run our successful groups of corporate volunteers in primary schools and launching themed clubs in secondary schools supported by sector specific volunteers around life sciences, AI, digital and tech, through a new, dedicated life sciences community role.
• Bringing together teams of volunteers to undertake improvement projects at local schools, and championing the working environment protecting the valuable waterspace through our popular canal clean-ups.
• Establishing a Community Fund, to support school and charity partners via a small grants programme and working to create a community hub for social value activities as well as business showcase space.
• Fostering collaboration and creating new thematic networks between businesses, for example ESG and sustainability networks, building stronger relationships across the various Paddington estates.
• Developing a corporate wellbeing series, offering bespoke services to people who work in Paddington, promoting employee satisfaction and retention.

Across London there are more than 70 BIDs, with over ten in Westminster already and five in the City of London. BIDs vary in size and scope, being able to deliver impressive change and representing thousands of businesses. Some of the highest profile BID-led achievements in London include the pedestrianisation of Strand/Aldwych, the transformation of Hanover Square, the Camden Highline and the Bankside Lowline, the Bond Street facelift, London Bridge’s Net Zero Business District and of course the Oxford Street Christmas Lights.

Governance

The BID framework is democratic, allowing businesses to contribute to and benefit from its initiatives. BID member businesses will be able to shape the work of the BID, its priorities and oversee the proposed Community Fund through a new Occupier Board drawn from all buildings and estates in Paddington.

Grand Union BID will work closely with neighbouring BIDs Marble Arch London (to the east) and PaddingtonNow (to the south) to combine efforts on shared priorities. There is already an informal association of Westminster’s BIDs, and Grand Union BID will join these to ensure that your concerns can be amplified at a London-wide and national level.

The BID will commence mid-June 2025, subject to a successful ballot over May and June. If successful, the BID will continue before businesses are asked to vote again on a new proposal in Q1 2030.