We believe a thriving local economy helps create opportunity and space for a community to flourish.

We work to encourage new businesses onto the the market and into the shops, reducing vacancy rates, creating opportunities for new jobs, and strengthening the offer of the high street for both local residents and destination shoppers.

From festival stall to shop

Roman Road lost its cycle repair shop a few years ago when an industrial estate was bought by property developers and turned into a housing development. At our Roman Road public consultation, we asked residents what they thought would most improve Roman Road. The overwhelming response was the lack of key shops including a cycle repair shop. We decided to entice a cycle repair shop to the road by asking likely candidates to host a cycle-repair surgery at our ‘local hero’ Roman Road Festival.

We spotted Paradise Cycles while scanning Twitter. It was a travelling pop-up cycle repair service set up by two recent graduates of nearby Queen Mary University. We asked them if they’d like to run the cycle surgery at the festival. They turned up with their smart pop-up gazebo and smiles to the festival, and did a storming trade. Six months later they approached us seeking advice about finding a shop on Roman Road. We were able to offer advice and they have now opened their first ever cycle repair shop on Roman Road.