Is the Taunton BID proposal right for our new Council to back?
Business Improvement Districts (BID’s) are partnerships between local authorities and local businesses, with local authorities having important roles and responsibilities in the development, management and termination of BID’s, so whether they like it or not, councils have a legislated role to perform as a BID partner. In addition, it’s only natural for Local Authorities to get caught up in the positive hype of BID’s, after all BID’s meet their corporate aims for economic development by having hundreds of thousands of pounds of private money being ‘invested’ into their areas. However, even council’s sometimes need to stop and consider the implications of having a BID in one of their towns, be absolutely sure it’s the best suited place management scheme and have considered potential downsides and risks of BID for themselves. For a council, a BID ‘in their own back yard’ may not be as good as it first seems, and even without a BID in Taunton, we have a manifesto commitment from the new Liberal Democrat (LibDem) led council administration to develop vibrant and economically secure Town Centres.
During a time of change for our new District Council are they absolutely sure BID meets their long-term strategy for Taunton?
We’ve had the fallout and teething problems of two councils merging to form Somerset West & Taunton Council (SWTC), the appointment of a new Chief Executive who is already showing great leadership picking the council up and taking it forwards, and fresh new energy from the new LibDem administration; all of which has amounted to an enormous amount of change to our local authority in a very short space of time. The new council administration appear to still be getting their “feet under the table”, and the development of Taunton BID is moving along after having inherited it from the previous Conservative administration, but we do wonder whether the new council administration should be given time to consider their economic development plans for Taunton as a whole, and then see if and how BID fits. If appropriate, perhaps Taunton BID could consider pausing development of the BID until the new council has conducted a review of their holistic economic strategy and re-affirmed their commitment to the BID.
Is a BID the best place management solution for the Taunton town centre business community?
When a BID is voted in, it’s for a 5 year term, so the new council needs to be absolutely sure BID is the most appropriate place management solution for Taunton, because if voted for in 2020 there is no turning back. We wonder what the view of the new LibDem administration is on the management of town centres, perhaps they might even think that the promotion and management of towns should be done at local authority level, as their own Economic Portfolio Holder is once quoted as saying (before his current post). Given Taunton’s poor BID history perhaps BID is just not suited to the town, even the UK BID industry body said in an April 2019 report that a BID just might not be right for all towns. Perhaps a council facilitated Town Centre Partnership might be a more appropriate and flexible solution for Taunton at this time, as a first step to developing a town management structure for Taunton.
are the new council happy that half of town centre businesses are being excluded from BID investment?
Is the proposed BID area too limited in nature to effect real change for Taunton as a whole? Rather than look at the bigger picture, demonstrate the value of BID to all town centre businesses and then give them the chance to vote, the BID proposers are literally drawing up a map of their own choosing to give themselves the best chance of getting a limited BID area voted in. Let’s remember that retail businesses on most of Bridge Street, Station Road and East Reach have all been excluded at the discretion of the self-appointed BID proposers without consultation, creating the potential of investment divisions within the town for the next 5 years. On 8th October 2019, the SWTC Councillor for Station Road raised concerns that she was worried for her constituent businesses not receiving any investment because they are not included in the BID area (although there’s nothing stopping them if they consulted with Taunton BID). We explore further the proposed BID map in our article The Taunton BID map is biased and unfair. So the question is, are SWTC unreservedly happy with the BID map and the limited nature of BID excluding a very large proportion of businesses in Taunton (c3-400 businesses), and accepting this situation for the next 5 years? And after 5 years there is no guarantee that the BID will get voted back in, so there’s also the risk that it’s too much of a short term solution. An alternative place management scheme such as a Town Centre Partnership could be longer term and have much more of an inclusive reach to benefit twice as many businesses in the town centre community.
Does Taunton BID meet future high street trends and the community inclusive values of a LibDem administration?
In a parliamentary report in early 2019, MPs said that BIDs don’t really fit the evolution of the high street and town centres, and so it was suggested BIDs should be replaced with wider community inclusive schemes instead of BIDs, which by definition are a narrow vehicle for businesses, and with a 5 year life are too short term in nature. The previous paragraph highlights’ the fact that half the Taunton town centre business community will miss out on BID investment by not being in the BID area, and given the anticipated evolution of town centres in order to survive, it appears there’s a real danger that BID as a place management vehicle is not community wide and inclusive enough, and even MP’s agree with this.
“High streets and town centres need urgently to adapt, transform and find new focus in order to survive.”
“We firmly believe that our high streets and town centres can have a better and more balanced future ahead of them if our recommendation are followed. This will require a shift from the retail focused activities of high streets and town centres today to new uses and purposes which foster greater social interaction, community spirit and local identity and characteristics. With a properly planned strategic intervention led by the local authority, with the backing of local stakeholders and the wider community, we can redefine our high streets and town centres and ensure their long-term sustainability for future generations to come.”
“attracted by the idea that BIDs should be replaced with community improvement districts.”
House of Commons Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee. 2019.
there will be more town bureaucracy for the council to contend with.
BID creates another layer of bureaucracy in Taunton for SWTC to deal with because a BID company is legislated with a lot of power and control over what happens in their BID area. Lobbying as they feel fit, BID will only ever be looking after the interests of its’ voting levy payers rather than looking outside the BID area at the bigger Taunton picture or in the interests of business outside the BID area as well. The BID company with its’ yet to be appointed Board of Director’s will be an ‘unknown quantity’ to deal with as the council strives to do it’s best to implement their Garden Town vision for Taunton. Let’s also remember there are also plans for Taunton to have its’ own Town Council within the next couple of years, so we’ll be adding two layers of bureaucracy to Taunton in a relatively short amount of time.
IS THE COUNCIL SURE LESSONS HAVE BEEN LEARNT FROM THE PAST FAILED BID EXPERIENCE 2007-2012
Partnering with BID proposers is a big step for a Council to take, and unfortunately Taunton “has been there and done it before” with a failed BID experience. Lessons should have been learnt and risks mitigated if we are to do BID again, but unfortunately this doesn’t appear the case as we show in our article There's not much evidence Taunton BID have learnt lessons from the past. Taunton BID seem to have blanked out history and that doesn’t bide well for another BID, particularly when you consider the transparency and real engagement needed to bring businesses on a new BID journey. The map has been subjectively manipulated by a couple people to suit their aims, they’ve not been transparent when asked questions or voluntarily shared information they should, it’s easy to see there’s been a lack of real engagement with businesses, and consequently the business plan is ill-conceived and lacks substance if it is to be successfully voted in. Taunton BID say they’ve collected X surveys but thats not proper engagement and we’ve heard people have filled them in on request without knowing anything about BID, and interestingly BID meetings for businesses have been poorly advertised and attended. The Council has given time through meetings to listen to what is a very glossy pitch and probably a nice vision by Taunton BID, but Council members only have to dig deeper to see it’s not all it seems. The Taunton BID proposers “engineering” a YES mandate at ballot without the true majority of town centre business buying into the BID vision, could be a dangerous strategy for the Council to support.
There are significant reputation risks for councils at different stages of BID development and management.
Councils have their legislated role to help enable BIDs, but with close association comes reputational risks, one of which is too much voting influence for the outcome of the ballot given all their BID area properties i.e. car parks. For Taunton, if SWT Council, Somerset County Council and the Government owned DWP building vote and given an average BID ballot turnout of 46.42%, our figures show that the public authority votes would equate to:
7.28% of the total number of votes, and
17.68% of the cumulative RV votes.
This is significant voting influence that could have serious ramifications on the ballot result, especially as councils / public authorities tend to vote YES because BID’s meet their corporate aims for economic development. Based on the past two Taunton BID ballot results which were quite close, the councils need to remember that a council YES or NO vote, is a vote against half of Taunton’s town centre businesses. For a scheme that’s legislated for as being business led, it really doesn’t seem appropriate that a council if they voted YES, would choose to vote against and alienate so many town centre businesses in order to help force in a levy legislated as a business rate. Hence we feel that abstaining from voting really is the most diplomatic and appropriate way for councils to appease all businesses on both sides of the argument, and not invite any reputational risks in the event that the BID ballot result is seen to have been decided by council votes. This is particularly true for Taunton given it’s poor BID history, making BID a very contentious and divisive topic for Taunton businesses, in addition to the growing number of BID’s undergoing scrutiny and Secretary of State appeal due to inappropriate BID development behaviour (including the actions of Councils helping ‘force’ in BID’s). Read the case to abstain we put to the council here.
One of the other reputational risks is from the operation of BID should it be voted in. SWTC will be a business partner of the BID, represented on the BID Company Board, and have responsibilities under BID regulations for management of the BID. But if the BID company with its power but very little accountability goes awry, as happened with the failed Taunton BID of 2007-12, then by association there are serious reputational risks for SWTC arising from any negative press of the BID.
“Develop vibrant and economically secure Town Centres”
summary
Ultimately managing and promoting towns should be done at the local authority level, rather than giving too much power to a BID company, and there are other place management vehicles that allow business community representation in partnership with local authorities, without the need to put a mandatory business rate on all BID businesses whether they want it or not. We trust the new council will conduct a detailed assessment of the Taunton BID proposal to ensure it meets their own values, economic strategy and vision for the whole of the Taunton town centre business community. Interestingly, for the right reasons SWTC do have the opportunity to veto the BID proposal before it goes to ballot. Just because there’s a team of private individuals pushing BID in a limited way as a funding vehicle to force an additional business rate on some businesses whether they want it or not, it doesn’t necessarily mean BID is the right solution for Taunton, particularly considering our poor BID history. There’s also the need to consider increased layers of bureaucracy in Taunton, and the potential for reputational risks arising from development and management of the BID. But more than anything, if we do BID again it's just so important it's done right this time, and so the Council needs to be sure that there really is an overwhelming number of businesses in Taunton truly embracing BID, otherwise it’s doomed for failure again.
Whilst appreciating that current place management thinking is that the future success of high streets and town centres is best served by wider community inclusive initiatives and not BID, it would be nice to hear that the new LibDem SWTC administration have considered all options, and are absolutely sure they feel BID best helps meet their objectives for the long term future health and prosperity of Taunton town centre.
