Haringey Business Alliance

HBA is the key umbrella organisation that represents all business groups and associations in Haringey borough.

The town centre represented:

• Tottenham Trader Partnership (TTP)

• Crouch End Trader Group (CETA)

• Wood Green Business Improvement District (WGBID)

• Muswell Hill Trader Group (MHTG)

• Green Lanes Trader Association (GLTA)

• Turnpike Lane Trader Association (TPLTA)

• Myddleton Road Trader Group (MRTG)

• Stroud Green/Finsbury Park Trader Group (SGTG)

Each one of the local organisations have been established for several years. They have locally elected committees charged with promoting the business sector. They work in close coordination with their community representatives including churches and mosque leaders, resident’s associations and, crucially local ward councillors.

The HBA has an excellent and mutually supportive working relationship with the Leader and Chief Executive. The HBA meets with the Council Leaders and Cabinet to work in partnership to tackle ways and means in which the business sector can be actively promoted to the benefit of businesses and the community.

One aspect which is widely regarded by businesses is that the Council give the local Trader groups as well as the HBA officers access to all of the Council’s key services. This is a unique feature in the broad span of the country’s local authority and business sector interchange and is one of which the HBA has been extremely proud of.

HBA Founded in 2015

HBA was founded by Roger Ward CBE and Rob Tao. Roger was Chair of the Muswell Hill Trader Group (2006-2018), and Rob still represents Green Lanes Traders. Both groups were successful in their respective bid for funding with both rounds of the Mayor of London’s Outer London Fund in 2011 and 2012. Both delivered major events for their communities.

Roger has lived in Haringey for over two decades, was a Trade Unionist and Civil Servant before opening his first restaurant in Muswell Hill. He received a CBE for his work in improving access to education when polytechnics became Universities.

Rob has lived and work in Green Lanes since 1988, and has represented the traders there since 1992 along side Shefik Mehmet. Rob was the lead for the Green Lanes OLF public realm and shop front regeneration project along side the Green Lanes Strategy Group.

Roger was the lead for the Everyman Cinema public realm regeneration in Muswell Hill. Both decided to combined their efforts by setting up the Business Alliance, to assist existing trader groups within the borough, to share knowledge, experience and to help identify opportunities for new ones, like they did for Turnpike Lane.

In 2015, the Haringey Business Alliance began with Roger as the Chair, and Rob, Vice-chair. They invited the Chairs and representatives of existing trader groups and associations to the panel.

HBA & the High Street Network

In 2016, HBA agreed with Chief Exec to hold quarterly meetings with the Haringey SLT, and the inaugural meeting took place early February 2016 at River Park House.

In 2017, Wood Green successfully became a Business Improvement District (BID). In the same year, the HBA assisted in the preparation of the new trader group to represent Turnpike Lane.

In 2018, HBA met with the representatives of Myddleton Road, and the Stroud Green/Finsbury Park trader group was identified.

In 2018 local elections brought a new administration, with the new chief exec the year earlier. It was in 2019, HBA and the Council leader agreed the ‘Business Pledge’, which is a joint working partnership with the Council to deliver key promises for the business sector. A soft launch was held in Wood Green in June that year, and the main launch and signing of the Pledge was organised in March 2020, a week before the national shutdown due to Covid19.

During the Covid period, the HBA panel members engaged with the Council’s Regen team, and assisted with the Support grants. The Panel was consulted on the ‘High Street Recovery Action Plan’. A Govt initiative designed to bring the footfall back to the high street post Covid.

The High Street Network meet approximately every 6-8 weeks.