BIDs operate successfully across Scotland, supporting town centres and business areas to become more vibrant, visible, and commercially resilient. They provide a proven framework for collaboration, enabling businesses to take a coordinated approach to shared challenges and opportunities.
To learn more about how BIDs operate nationally, visit Scotland’s Improvement Districts, the organisation that supports and represents BIDs across the country.
There is no standard model for a BID. Each one reflects the priorities of the businesses within it and focuses on the areas they agree will deliver the greatest benefit locally.
In some towns, businesses prioritise marketing, events, and promotion to increase footfall. In others, the focus may be on improving the town centre environment, supporting safer and more welcoming streets, developing business skills, or strengthening engagement with public bodies. Many BIDs combine several of these strands, adapting over time as business needs change.
What defines a BID is not the type of projects it delivers, but who decides. Projects are shaped, agreed upon, and reviewed by local businesses, ensuring activities remain practical, relevant, and focused on delivering value to those who fund and participate in them.
Across Scotland, BIDs have demonstrated clear benefits for businesses and town centres.
Falkirk Delivers has been operating since 2008, making it one of Scotland’s longest-running BIDs, with more than 13 years of business-led investment. Falkirk’s BID has driven town centre improvements, events, and business support, helping boost local businesses’ visibility and create a more welcoming environment for customers.
BID – Falkirk Delivers
Galashiels’ BID is relatively new but has already supported town centre events and marketing, helping raise the town’s profile, increase footfall, and create a more positive environment for local businesses.
HOME | Bid For Galashiels
Independent research shows the positive impact of the Essential Edinburgh BID, with 78% of visitors saying the BID area felt cleaner than the rest of the city. In addition, 80% found it more welcoming, 87% felt it was safer, and 89% believed the quality of shops was better — demonstrating how coordinated, business-led investment can significantly improve the town centre experience.
Essential Edinburgh | Edinburgh City Centre Business Improvement District
This BID champions the region’s food and drink producers, hospitality businesses, and makers. It focuses on collaboration, promotion, and skills development, helping local businesses grow while strengthening East Lothian’s reputation as a high-quality food and drink destination.
East Lothian Food and Drink – Scotland’s food and drink county
Go Tweed Valley is a tourism-focused Business Improvement District that brings businesses together to promote the Tweed Valley as a destination. It concentrates on marketing, collaboration, and visitor experience, helping local businesses benefit from increased profile, footfall, and coordinated promotion.
Go Tweed Valley, Scotland – developing a world-class activity destination for all
Fort William’s BID is strongly tourism-focused, supporting businesses by promoting the town as a year-round destination and improving the visitor experience linked to outdoor activities and seasonal trade.
Home – BID Fort William
These towns show how business-led investment can deliver real, measurable improvements.
Frequently Ask Questions About BIDs
Dalkeith Means Business (DMB) is exploring whether a BID could be right for Dalkeith.
A Dalkeith BID could help:
As Dalkeith explores whether a BID could be right for the town, the key question is simple: what should a Dalkeith BID look like? What would your priorities be, and what changes would make the biggest difference to your business and the town centre? Your views will help shape what comes next.
Importantly, no BID can happen without businesses voting for it. Exploring a BID is about understanding local appetite, sharing information, and shaping ideas together.
DMB exists to support and represent Dalkeith’s business community. By learning from successful BID towns and sharing clear, honest information, DMB aims to ensure local businesses are fully informed and involved in decisions that affect the future of Dalkeith.