MD2805 High Streets Data Service and Partnership – Pilot Programme

1.1 London’s 600 local high streets and 200 town centres in all their variety and diversity, together with their stock of flexible and often low threshold entry and available floorspace, will play an important part in London’s recovery over the coming months and years. Access to data on the economic health and performance of high streets and town centres, at all times of day and night, will be important in supporting their re-opening, recovery, and renewal. Good data and data insights will underpin a more thorough understanding of the effectiveness of investment and policy decisions and, as such, is central to the delivery of the London Recovery Board’s High Streets for All (HSfA) mission - ‘To deliver enhanced public spaces and exciting new uses for underused high street buildings in every London Borough’.

1.2 However, this data can be expensive to buy or collect and often only offers a snapshot that is soon out of date. This is particularly challenging given the pace of change in our high streets and the need to react quickly. In addition, the purchase of the same data individually by multiple boroughs is inefficient and duplicative (both in cost and the time taken to clean and analyse the data); does not allow for a comparison across London; and is prohibitively expensive to sustain long-term.

1.3 In 2020, the GLA funded the purchase of footfall and mobility data from O2/Telefonica and spend data from Mastercard to better understand the impacts of the pandemic on London’s ‘busyness’ (see MD2674 High Street Data Purchase). Following cleaning and analysis, the GLA has provided this free to boroughs for a time limited period through a data hub on the London Datastore (see https://data.london.gov.uk/busyness-data/). Analysis of this data has also been used by London’s Strategic Co-ordination Group and Transport for London to help direct our response to the pandemic.

1.4 A significant level of engagement has been undertaken to promote the available data sets to Boroughs. Over 150 officers from 29 boroughs have accessed this data to date. During weekly ‘data surgeries’ and several workshops, borough officers have expressed enthusiasm for the data provided and have been supportive of future collaboration on data purchase and analysis. They also see value in a more comprehensive ‘High Street Data Service’ enabling cross-borough partnership and collaboration – allowing borough officers to learn from other high streets initiatives and interventions, data analysis techniques, and policy development and monitoring.

1.5 The GLA is now seeking to expand this one-off purchase of data and establish a year-long pilot High Street Data Service – with a view to extending beyond this period, subject to an interim review and sufficient future financial commitment from subscribing partners. The High Streets Data Service will allow boroughs to access data they cannot access on their own, enable comparisons across geographies, and support cross-borough collaboration. This will provide up to date, dynamic, and localised data to boroughs, plus analysis, insights, and evidence to support London’s economic recovery via a data hub on the London Datastore.

1.6 Those subscribing to the High Streets Data service will become de facto members of the High Street Data Partnership, which will include teams and units within the GLA, the London boroughs, Business Improvement Districts and ex officio partners such as the London Office of Technology and Innovation (LOTI), and industry representatives. This partnership will jointly fund and act as client to the High Street Data Service via a subscription model with the HSfA Mission budget providing initial cashflow for the service.

1.7 The Data Service will be developed and provided by the GLA’s City Intelligence Unit (CIU) in accordance with the Partnerships specification. Additional capacity is required within CIU to be initially provided by consultants and in the longer term through the creation of an externally-funded Grade 8 post (subject to the approval of the Chief Officer in accordance with the Head of Paid Service Staffing Protocol). The data partnership will be administered jointly by the GLA CIU Smart Cities team and the GLA Regeneration Unit’s project management office (PMO) – resourcing will be held under review.

1.8 These proposals have been developed by an internal officer group drawing together GLA’s Regeneration, Planning, Culture, Economic Development, Smart Cites, City Intelligence Teams and the London Data Store. Further development has taken place as part of HSfA Mission Action Planning and in liaison with London Councils, the London boroughs and LOTI and with a number of Business Improvement Districts.

1.9 These efforts have been underpinned by an independent feasibility study prepared by PRD consultants, which in turn followed universally positive feedback to the recommendation in the Good Growth by Design High Streets & Town Centres Adaptive Strategies report to promote data sharing and data-driven planning via the establishment of a London High Street Data partnership. It also supports the aims of the beta version of the Night Time Observatory, which was launched in 2021, and builds on the success of the Busyness Project and GLA Planning’s Town Centre Health Check. The service and partnership seek to draw these high street related economic data insights tools and initiatives together into one single point of access for boroughs and others to enable real time examination of economic, social, and environmental information at the high street scale.

1.10 This collaborative working is a key objective of the HSfA Mission which has placed Data Insights at the heart of its action plan. These proposals therefore underpin the Mission’s aim of promoting strong, resilient, accessible and inclusive town centres with a diverse range of uses that meet the needs of Londoners at all times of day and night, and recognises the important role that high streets play in providing local economic and social infrastructure, employment opportunities and promoting community and cultural exchange.

1.11 Following a series of discussions and data requests from London Councils, London boroughs, and others the appetite for this proposed data service has been made clear. Subsequently the Deputy Mayor for Business has written to all London Borough Chief Executives (3 March) to highlight the merits of the data service and to request their commitment in the form of participation in the partnership and confirming their willingness to subscribe to the service at a cost of £20k per annum. There have already been a number of positive responses and GLA Staff are preparing to take receipt of borough funds – some of which must be received before June 2021 due to central government restrictions (some boroughs have indicated that they wish to utilise recent government discretionary grants such as the Reopening High Streets Safely Fund).

1.12 The GLA will make an initial financial contribution of £150k allocated within the HSfA Mission budget and will draw together the annual subscription fees of £20k per partner. If following review Data partners wish to continue the service beyond the pilot stage the Teams and Units across the GLA will seek authority to extend the service and to participate as an ongoing paying subscriber via the partnership.

1.13 It should be noted that the GLA commits to reviewing the cost of the subscription to boroughs in subsequent years with an aspiration to achieve economies of scale and to reduce ongoing subscriptions.

2.1 The objective of the project is to provide better, ongoing data, analysis, and insights, to evidence the effectiveness of policy and investment decisions and support change in high streets and town centres via a data hub on the London Datastore. All of which will support delivery of the High Streets for All Recovery Mission and help implement the London Plan. In particular the robust evidence base provided by the service will underpin town centre recovery plans and the development of longer-term town centre strategies for renewal (including night time strategies) following an enhanced understanding of activity levels at all times of night and day.

2.2 The Data Service will be valuable for the GLA and London Boroughs for the following reasons:

• Direct savings: Central coordination and analysis of data will exploit London government’s collective purchasing power, help to lower data purchase and consultancy costs for boroughs and provide considerable savings for London as a whole.

• Shared data standards: Create a shared minimum standard in high street data collection, providing the basis for better policy and measurement of success.

• Coordination and efficiency: Better curation of data and evidence can enable more effective collective understanding and shared strategy between places. This will support better pan-London policy and action. In addition to creating new outputs, we will provide a more coherent access to existing resources including the Cultural Infrastructure Map, Town Centre Health Check, and air quality data.

• Increased collaboration: Collective data approaches can allow better comparisons between high streets and town centres to identify common challenges and successes, identify common issues, and facilitate collaboration on addressing these shared issues.

• Better policy making and monitoring: Policy development, initiatives, and the assessments that underpin them need to be informed by robust and timely evidence. We know data and insight can be made available, but there will need to be some support to interpret this and make it policy-ready and support effective monitoring.

• World-leading: The plans for the data partnership and evidence base are potentially world-leading. However, the insights and implications need to be shared for this to happen.

2.3 The Data Service will meet the requirements of the following (not exclusive list) use cases set out in Table 1.

Table 1: Use cases for the High Streets Data Service

2.4 Subscription to the Data Service by boroughs and others will entitle them to the following for Financial Year 21/22:

• access to key data sets:

 footfall information at a High Street level is the key metric, as it captures the wider social, community and cultural uses of High Streets, in addition to retail activity;

 spend data (particularly spend by sector) is the key metric for High Street-based businesses;

 GOAD / Experian - name & unit size of retailers in each location, vacancy levels;

 Land Registry / land ownership to identify opportunities and barriers to physical regeneration;

• influence over priority areas of analysis and tools for sharing insights;

• influence over additional data purchases (dependent on level of funding available);

• establishment of a beneficial service with reduced start-up costs and risks;

• tailored training, guides and support to borough planning and economic development officers to increase their capacity to make use of the data; and

• periodic insight reports.

Hiring, procurement and financial considerations

2.5 There are two distinct but interconnected workstreams as part of the development of the pilot High Streets Data Service – each with proposed resourcing arrangements. This additional capacity will serve to lead on data management, analysis, and support for borough officers. These are:

• The Data Partnership. Primarily stakeholder engagement, working with partnership members to collect feedback on the service, source new data, develop training for officers, and promote the service. In the first instance existing GLA staff will fulfil the Data Partnership Manager function utilising 0.2 FTE of the Smart Cities Policy Lead in the CIU and an equivalent amount of time provided by the Senior Programme Officer, Regeneration and Economic Development. Resourcing will be kept under review.

• The Data Service. Primarily data gathering, integration, analysis and the creation of visualisations/tools for the end users – purchasing data; managing the creation of a data model; establishing data sharing agreements; investigating how to include specific data formats and the value of doing so; and investigating additional data sources beyond the core datasets. Existing GLA staff are currently fulfilling this role; however the pilot High Streets Data Service will require additional capacity to be provided by consultants in the first instance and, following an interim review and an examination of value for money to be provided by one fixed-term Grade 8 member of staff to undertake analysis and liaise with subscribing partners and to be responsible to the Senior Manager – City Data, CIU who will manage the service. This additional capacity will be recruited in accordance with GLA procurement and or recruitment protocols. If approved the post would be created separately by the Chief Officer in accordance with the Head of Paid Service Staffing Protocol.

Budget

2.6 The project will be cash-flowed with £150k which has been allocated within the HSfA Mission budget and the drawing together of annual subscription fees of £20k per partner including the GLA.

2.7 Whilst the appetite for borough and BID subscriptions has been tested via London Councils and others, HSfA funds are being made available due to the partial unpredictability of the level of eventual subscriptions. Data purchase is scale-able with a Minimum Viable Product Data Service achievable even with modest subscriber take up. Alternatively, if all boroughs subscribe, then the development of the service can be accelerated and ambitions in terms of data purchase, analysis and platform construction can be extended. Under this scenario a reduced amount of HSfA funds would be drawn down. Income and expenditure are therefore both predicted to be less than the maximum approval envelope sought here of up to £860,000 for the 12-month pilot period. Economies of scale will also be sought through pursuing joint purchasing opportunities with ONS High Street analysis teams. The GLA will seek to reduce borough subscriptions on an ongoing basis.

2.8 The partnership and service teams procurement strategy will need to be correspondingly flexible with scenarios ranging from a minimum viable, a more likely scenario based around a cautious estimate of income and related expenditure and an ambitious scenario which whilst unlikely in this first pilot year is being planned for in order to boost resilience and outline future ambition. Detailed quotations will be obtained ahead of expenditure, however, estimated costs for the proposed expenditure are provided below and in Table 2 (based on work by GLA in 2020):

• up to £54k – Data Service Consultant support / Grade 8 post equivalent inclusive of on costs;

• up to £25k – Mastercard data purchase;

• up to £350k – O2 data purchase or alternative source of origin and destination data;

• up to £50k – training and develop the analytical capacity of data partnership;

• up to £160k – additional data purchase (subject to partner preferences);

• up to £100k – funding to digitise Town Centre Health Check;

• up to £100k – consultant support to develop dashboard / data hub and platforms; and

• up to £21k – additional partnership management resourcing.

Table 2 - Income and expenditure scenarios

Project governance

2.9 The project will be overseen corporately by a project sponsors group comprised of the Head of Regeneration, the Chief Digital Officer and the Assistant Director for Strategy, Intelligence and Analysis.

2.10 Officers as part of a partnership working group (meets weekly) will regularly update sponsors and service the Partnership Board and other key stakeholders.

2.11 All subscribers to the service are de facto partnership members and can nominate a representative to the Partnership Board. The Board will:

• meet quarterly to identify new data sources, assign responsibility for their collection, review functionality of the data service, and develop engagement/dissemination strategies;

• consider recommendations for commissioning of research to fill gaps in delivery;

• consider recommendations for opportunities for the bulk purchasing of data;

• help develop and disseminate training/knowledge sharing opportunities (potentially starting through/tapping into LOTI’s digital officer network);

• survey users for feedback e.g. on usability, most-wanted data sources;

• share examples of where the data service has been used;

• consider issues of data rights and privacy;

• agree the service specification and resourcing on an annual basis; and

• participate in regular review of the service and partnership functions including an interim evaluation to determine the extension or otherwise of the data service.

2.12 The Partnership Board will be co-chaired (revolving chair) by the Head of Regeneration, the AD Strategy Intelligence and Analysis, and a London Councils/LOTI nominee. The Partnership Board will be made up of GLA, Borough & Sub Regional Partnerships, London Councils, Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), third sector and wider industry representation and will meet quarterly to oversee the broader evolution of the service and the partnership.

2.13 The GLA Regeneration PMO and GLA Smart Cities will jointly service and provide secretariat to the Partnership Board and wider partnership on behalf of GLA and partners. Nominated officers from these two service areas will provide primary liaison with the boroughs and take receipt of and manage subscription funds. Each user to the service will enter into a Service Level Agreement with the GLA which will outline the period of the agreement and the cost of subscription, as well as providing detail on the services provided, including detailed descriptions of the various data sources.

Long-term ambitions

2.14 The long-term ambition is to expand the service and partnership to include other organisations interested in our High Streets and Town Centres, with the following benefits:

• Retailer: The new data service and partnership will democratise finer grain spending and movement data which is usually only available to large retailers in major centres. It will help smaller shops and services tailor their offer and better respond to local demand and need.

• Developer/Investor: Developers and investors will have information which will allow them to make more informed decisions about spending and have more open and equal discussion with boroughs and local people about their proposals and the need for them.

• Civil society/voluntary organisation: More democratically available and easily accessible data will empower local civil society organisations to play a more active role in the evolution of their local centres. They will become more active participants in the evolution of the High Streets for All agenda, being more responsive to the needs of local communities as identified within the data.

• Local resident/representative: Accessible and understandable data should mean that any individual should be able to become more informed about their places and how they operate. This should lead to a strong conversation about the evolution of places and more informed public consultation in the future.

2.15 The expanded service will over time introduce the following four ‘platforms’:

• Provocation and Insights: Space for publishing citywide reflection and insight on high streets, discussing the implications of the data, and providing space for the London conversation on progress towards ‘High Streets for All’. Briefings and analysis would be provided regularly (e.g. monthly) by GLA Regeneration and GLA Economics.

• Digital Town Centre Health Check: A new digital version of the town centre health check, providing searchable data on specific town centres in a user-friendly format. This would allow comparison between town centres. This would be owned by GLA Planning.

• High Streets Data Map: A hub for any mappable information, allowing users to visualise information about high street composition and functionality at a local scale. This will be built on the initial mapping prepared for the Busyness Project but should also include relevant data from the Town Centre Health Check, Cultural Infrastructure Map, and infrastructure maps amongst others (detailed further below). It could be overlaid with information such as sectors (Companies House), vacancy (Local Data Company) and land ownership (GLA (public) and Land Registry). The work will be led by the GLA City Intelligence Unit.

• Reflection and Local Sentiment: This will be the most local element to the service. It will provide a repository for local insights including findings of local research, strategy, and evaluations of other local sentiment. It is envisaged that this would be semi-open source, with local organisations able to upload information alongside that collated by boroughs, BIDs and the GLA themselves. Managed by GLA Regeneration, this will provide a searchable library of information and ideas for each town centre in London.

3.1 The public-sector equality duty (PSED) under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 requires the identification and evaluation of the likely potential impacts, both positive and negative, of this decision on those with relevant protected characteristics. The Mayor is required to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, and victimisation, as well as to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not. This may involve, in particular, removing or minimising any disadvantage suffered by those who share a relevant protected characteristic, and taking steps to meet the needs of such people. In certain circumstances compliance with the Act may involve treating people with a protected characteristic more favourably than those without it.

3.2 The GLA will take appropriate steps to identify any potential negative impacts expected on those with relevant protected characteristics.

3.3 The proposed data service will enable a better understanding of how disadvantaged and minority groups and communities use our high streets and town centres and will underpin order strategies to meet their needs.

3.4 The data service will support the HSfA Mission’s aim to build the capacity for local communities to participate in area-based regeneration – particularly the most disadvantaged. All partner boroughs and High Street partnerships will be supported to identify community need through analysis of data. Furthermore, the data service will underpin the development of new planning / licensing tools and support borough efforts to work with others to acquire and manage assets, experiment and seed new uses to shape town centres and support London’s diverse communities.

3.5 Recruitment of the Grade 8 post (if approved) will follow the GLA’s equalities, diversity, and inclusion in recruitment policy.

Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

4.1 The below table 3 captures links to Mayoral Strategies and Roadmaps:

Table 3: Links to Mayoral strategies

Key risks and issues

4.2 The following key risks have been identified in Table 4:

Table 4: Risk Register

4.3 There are no conflicts of interest and no mitigations required with regarding any of the parties referred to in this report and involved in its preparation.

5.1 The GLA is seeking to establish a year-long pilot high street data service with a view to extending beyond this period subject to an interim review and financial commitment from participating subscription partners. This will allow partners access to data they cannot purchase on their own and cross-working collaboration. Approval is being sought for the receipt of up to £860,000 of funding for the subscription of High Street Data Service. The funding will come from subscription partners (£20,000 per partner) of the data service including London boroughs, Business Improvement Districts and Transport for London.

5.2 It should be noted that there is an allocation of £150,000 in the GLA’s Regeneration & Economic Development Units budget for 2021-22 (High Streets for All Mission) that would support this programme. The level of drawdown on these funds is dependent upon the level of take up as detailed within table 2 of this report. In the best-case maximum take up scenario, there will would no requirement to draw down on the GLA funds beyond a basic £20,000 subscription, whereas the minimum take up would require full draw-down of these funds. The position will be monitored in year in line with the Authority’s budget and performance monitoring regime with the GLA contribution if applicable being capped at £150,000.

5.3 The income received will be used to purchase the data and, if scenario two income levels are achieved, to create a new, externally-funded fixed term Grade 8 post, costed at £54,000 per annum including pension, tax and national insurance for the 12-month period. A decision to establish the post will follow an interim review. Consultancy support costs will also be procured through a competitive tender, as explained in Table 2. The indicative profile of expenditure is expected to be split equally over the four quarters in the 2021-22 financial year, with the programme expected to be completed by 31 March 2022.

6.1 The foregoing sections of this report indicate that the decisions requested of the Mayor fall within the statutory powers of the Authority to promote and/or to do anything which is facilitative of or conducive or incidental to economic development and wealth creation within Greater London and in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought officers have complied with the Authority’s related statutory duties to:

(a) pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people;

(b) consider how the proposals will promote the improvement of health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom; and

(c) consult with appropriate bodies.

6.2 In taking the decisions requested of him, the Mayor must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty; namely the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010, and to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment) and persons who do not share it and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the Mayor should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.

Income from Subscriptions to the High Streets Data Service

6.3 Decision 1 above requests approval for the seeking and receipt of income by way of subscriptions to the High Streets Data Service. Pursuant to section 93 of the Local Government Act 2003, the Authority has the power to charge for discretionary services. However, the officers should note that this power is subject to a duty to ensure that, taking one financial year with another, the income from the charges (in this case the subscriptions paid by the subscribers to the High Streets Data Service) must not exceed the costs associated with the provision of the services.

Procurement

6.4 The officers are reminded to ensure that any external services or supplies required for the High Streets Data Service be procured in accordance with the requirements of the Authority’s Contracts and Funding Code and with the assistance of Transport for London’s commercial team. Furthermore, the officers must ensure that appropriate contract be put in place between the Authority and the relevant contractors, before the relevant services commence.

Data Analyst post

6.5 The proposed new Data Analyst post will need to be created by the Chief Officer in accordance with the Head of Paid Service Staffing Protocol.