The Swansea City Centre BID has approximately 725 businesses, all within a defined geographical area in the City Centre. Collectively they fund raise and manage projects that improve the local trading environment - improvements that businesses want! The main objective of the BID is to raise confidence in the City Centre, by creating a cleaner, safer, more attractive and accessible City Centre that is better promoted, more customer friendly with new and improved services and facilities over and above those provided by the public sector, in particular Swansea Council and South Wales Police. The BID will also provide a legitimate vehicle for local businesses to influence decisions regarding the City Centre, to air grievances and to campaign for continued improvements.

The projects being proposed under the scheme have been identified and prioritised by local traders themselves, as part of a comprehensive year-long programme of consultation. Each of the projects sits within the following 5 themes:

A Business Improvement District or BID for short, is basically a co-operative of local businesses that collectively funds improvements to the local trading environment. The businesses themselves are responsible for identifying the areas into which the funding is chanelled, the specific projects for tackling issues they consider important, the level of financial contribution they make to the schem and the way the BID is managed.

The establishment of a BID is determined through a formal democratic process in which every business, irrespective of size and percieved importance to the area, receives equal representation. Although BIDs have been established for some time in the United States, they are relatively new to the UK and Swansea is the first BID area in Wales.

The Swansea City Centre BID is being promoted by the Swansea City Centre Partnership working in conjuction with local businesses.