New campaign to celebrate and showcase ‘everything that’s great’ in Luton town centre
28th March 2022
A high-profile campaign involving inspiring community changemakers and business leaders is set to celebrate the very best that Luton town centre has to offer.
Luton Business Improvement District (BID) will officially launch the ‘Enjoy Luton’ Guide and #thereismoretoLuton marketing campaign at the end of March to showcase town centre businesses and profile Luton’s diverse arts, culture, leisure, and heritage.
Enjoy Luton is part of the wider ‘Welcome Back Fund’ – provided by the European Regional Development Fund to revitalise high streets – with the BID appointed as a delivery partner by Luton Council and supplementing the project with additional funding.
The Guide and campaign will focus on local nightlife, music, theatre, shopping, food and drink and more, and will also include stories from businesses, history experts, and talented creatives such as vintage record shop owner Andy Chesham, writer and theatre maker Lizzy Fretwell, creative producer Aimee Gomez, artist Haleema Ali and illustrator Karl Brown. The free 20-page guide will be mailed out to households in Luton throughout April and May.
Luton BID Manager, Julia Horsman said: “Our town really does have so much to offer with a diverse range of culture and activities to enjoy. There are some brilliant food and drink venues celebrating tastes from around the world too, and we’ve managed to pull all of that together in a way we have never done before, enabling us to celebrate our wonderful businesses, and of course the inspirational people that live and work in Luton.
“We will also share blogs and news features each week, and create masses of social media activity on our Luton BID Facebook, Twitter, Instagram channels, as well as our brand-new TikTok too, so we’re encouraging businesses to get in touch and get involved with us. We’ve been busy creating and filming, and a promo video is being launched at the same time as the Guide.
“We have always been proud of our town, but this guide and the marketing campaign we have planned really does encapsulate the most exciting and vibrant elements and gives everyone a chance to get involved. We are thrilled to have made it a real collaborative effort to promote the town centre.”
Cllr Sian Goding, portfolio holder for Regeneration and Inclusive Growth at Luton Council said, “Enjoy Luton is a great way to showcase all that is on offer in Luton and we are delighted that the Welcome Back Fund is contributing to this campaign. We’ve already announced a whole range of events and activities coming back to the town which is very much welcomed after the last few years, and this guide and the showcasing of local businesses will be a useful for residents to see what’s happening in the town all year round.
“This campaign will help to get people back into the town by highlighting the nightlife, music, theatre, shopping, food and drink offer and this is a vital part to the town’s economic recovery from COVID-19”.
Enjoy Luton is also being made available online in four different languages at www.lutontowncentre.org/enjoy-luton.
The BID’s ‘Enjoy Luton Summer Draw’ will also begin in April and run until the end of June, giving shoppers the chance of winning over £1,300 worth of prizes, which includes a donation by The Mall.
Entry tickets can be found in the guide and must be hand-posted into one of the special Enjoy Luton post boxes located at The Mall, The Galaxy, Hat Factory, Tokko Youth Centre and Luton Library. Tickets can also be downloaded online at www.lutontowncentre.org/enjoy-luton and posted to Luton BID, Studio 3, West Wing Studios, Unit 166, The Mall, Luton, Bedfordshire, LU1 2TL.
To get involved follow @LutonBID, or for more information on ‘Enjoy Luton’, #thereismoretoLuton, and the prize draw, visit www.lutontowncentre.org/enjoy-luton
The project is part funded from £264,000 Welcome Back Fund received by Luton Council from the England European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (and in London the intermediate body Greater London Authority) is the Managing Authority for European Regional Development Fund. Established by the European Union, the European Regional Development Fund helps local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support innovation, businesses, create jobs and local community regenerations. For more information visit https://www.gov.uk/european-growth-funding.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/welcome-back-fund
-Ends-
Luton Business Improvement District (BID)
Luton BID was officially launched in 2014 following a vote by local businesses to make Luton town centre a designated Business Improvement District. After a successful ballet in 2019, Luton BID’s second term runs until 31st December 2024.
A BID is a defined area where the rate-paying businesses decide on improvements to their area, they then vote on the plans and agree to invest in the delivery of activities which directly impact upon their business turnover and profit. This money is then ring-fenced to provide the improvements agreed through the BID plan and can be used to generate other revenue to boost the pot of money available to deliver the plan.
Business representatives in Luton have developed a five-year action plan around the key objectives of promoting the area. These objectives are to ensure the town centre is accessible and appealing, to provide a safe and attractive environment for businesses and visitors, to support and promote business growth and to develop and invest in a sense of community.
Luton BID is project managed by Partnerships for Better Business Ltd (pfbb uk). pfbb UK is a specialist BID Project Management company which develops and manages a wide range of Business Improvement Districts across the UK including town centres and industrial estates.