Resilience does not begin in response, it begins in preparation, culture and building trusted collaboration.
At our recent London Business Networks for Resilience event at Team London Bridge BID, representatives from local authorities and business networks explored what local resilience looks like in practice. The discussion was framed around the newly launched Trailblazers Programme, alongside wider reflections on accountability, leadership, integration of resilience and partnership working.
A consistent message throughout the event was that businesses have a shared responsibility not just for their own resilience but as an integral part of the resilience of their community.
The Trailblazers Programme
The Trailblazers Programme is a three-year national initiative launched in 2025, focused on strengthening resilience at the local level including:
- Climate mitigation.
- Tackling misinformation.
- Breaking down silos across organisations and sectors.
Early learning from the programme has highlighted several important themes:
- Leadership and culture are crucial to success.
- Community engagement must be meaningful and ongoing.
- Accountability goes beyond governance, it requires ownership and partnership.
Accountability and shared responsibility
One of the central questions discussed was where accountability for resilience sits when responsibilities are shared across multiple organisations.
The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 provides a useful framework, outlining seven roles and responsibilities for which local authorities can be held accountable. Local authorities are designated as Category 1 responders and have clear duties in both response and recovery.
However, businesses are ultimately accountable for their own resilience.
Borough Resilience Forums (BRFs) were highlighted as valuable spaces where partners can hold one another accountable and strengthen collaboration.
The discussion reinforced that while structures exist, resilience depends on clarity of roles and proactive partnership.
The Role of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) and business networks
From a BID/business network perspective, accountability is supported in several ways:
- Strengthening financial resilience and stability, including helping businesses access funds during emergencies.
- Improving operational resilience, not only financial preparedness.
- Acting as a conduit between strategy and operational delivery.
- Communicating timely, relevant information to businesses.
Trust is central to this role. BIDs and business networks need to be recognised as trusted suppliers of information before a crisis occurs.
Leadership in response and recovery
Effective local leadership relies on preparation and relationships.
Local authorities have established command structures to respond and recover at borough and regional levels. However, cultivating relationships with stakeholders before an emergency is essential. Proactive engagement enables faster, more coordinated action when incidents occur.
Businesses can play an important role in a crisis, particularly when they understand in advance what they are able to offer. The Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Principles (JESIP) support coordinated working across emergency services and partners.
Recovery requires partnership. Businesses and local authorities must work together to restore normality. Importantly, resilience does not start during response, it starts in peacetime.
Preparedness includes:
- Having plans and contingency actions in place.
- Ensuring workforces understand what to do, in the workplace and at home.
- Identifying in advance what communities may need following an incident.
- Learning debriefs after notable incidents feed back into BRFs, ensuring continuous improvement.
Embedding resilience across local networks
Several effective approaches were discussed:
- Reaching out to communities and engaging both businesses and residents.
- Ensuring clarity around what local authorities do and do not do.
- Regular exercising and training.
- Partnership initiatives, such as a webinar series to gauge business priorities.
- Information sharing across sectors.
- Collective action and cross-collaboration.
- Policy and advocacy to ensure members understand new legislation and regulations.
- Working closely with police and emergency services.
- Recognising that workforce health and wellbeing contribute directly to resilience.
Preparedness is holistic. Communications must be tailored to different audiences, and resilience must remain people-centred, not solely focused on financial stability.
Key takeaways for businesses
- Businesses are accountable for their own resilience.
- Businesses need to think about resilience before, during and after a crisis, but also in the day-to-day, in terms of how they, and their staff, are managing.
- It’s important for businesses to understand what their BIDs and local authorities can/can’t help with in a crisis.
- Businesses and BIDs need to develop trust prior to a crisis.
- Businesses can lean into BIDs to help them forge connections with and support from other businesses (large and small) during or following a crisis, which can play a critical role in their recovery.
- Local authorities need resources to help businesses. Broader financial resilience is key.
- Businesses often appreciate outside assistance with exercise planning and when their inputs are valued and can serve to inform policy.
- Businesses can have an important role to play in a crisis, in the recovery phase.
