As of this week, there are 8 Saturdays left until Christmas… Nutcracker Trails, lights, trees and markets, there’s so much in store for St Albans… Follow @StAlbansBID on Facebook to be kept up to date with what’s on locally and get in touch with the BID office to see how your business and staff can get involved.

Inevitably, though with the C word comes the other headaches … Shopping and Bills… St Albans BID is keen to support #shoplocal and the best way to do that is not leaving your planning and purchasing until the last minute… Shoppers coming into St Albans City centre now will see the beautiful displays of beanies, baubles, books and beard trimmers and can get buying too… They’ll feel organised as well as supporting the local highstreet! Small Business Saturday on 2 December (@SmallBizSatUK) will be a day for celebrating St Albans… The Cathedral Quarter will be in full festive spirit: pre-order festive feasts from local delicatessens, gifts from independent boutiques and boozey cases from local experts. Businesses that #shoplocal benefit one another: for every £1 spent with a small or medium-sized business 63p stays in the local economy, compared to 40p with a larger business.

With all this spending, there couldn’t be a better time to announce our latest project to help businesses save money. St Albans BID has agreed terms with Utilitrack to help BID levy payers reduce their utility bills where possible. They offer a free utility cost evaluation service for BID businesses and no fee is charged by Utilitrack to BID levy payers. This service is part of making St Albans a vibrant City for people to live, work and do business. There are over 500 businesses in the BID area and we want to help you survive and thrive. We’ll be sending out more information in the coming weeks to our levy payers but feel free to contact sally.merridan@stalbansbid.com to find out more in the meantime.