As one of their “selling points” Taunton BID are making a really big point to all that the BID will attract match funding, so giving the impression that for each £1 the levy payers put in they’ll somehow be able to magically get that matched from other sources, just because there’s a BID. To be fair though, they have also given more specific figures, claiming that the £1.3 million raised from taxing the businesses can be match funded taking the total fund to £2 million (only a 50% uplift rather than true match, but still a great number if it was possible).

This match funding selling point is obviously core to Taunton BID’s promotional campaign, after all:

In the County Gazette article on 29/8/19 the £2 million claim got into the opening paragraph “have access to £2 million over five years”. And it quickly continues into paragraph 3 “providing a total of £1 million over five years, which could rise to £2 million with match funding and sponsorship.”
One of just the two reason’s given to an SWT Councillor to approve a further grant of £20,000 of public money for their yes campaign was “The levy will also draw signifiant match funding into the Town Centre in Taunton.”
And on their website FAQ’s: “it will be used to encourage more funding to match it so the pot of money grows.”

With the use of match funding being thrown around so freely, surely Taunton BID knows what it means, as wikipedia describes it: “Matching funds are funds that are set to be paid in equal amount to funds available from other sources.” So how true and realistic are Taunton BID’s claims that they can build this £2+ million “pot of gold”, well evidence suggests not.

Lets start by looking at the match funding question we asked Taunton BID on 11th September 2019 (all questions can be viewed here);

No Taunton BID question: “You have stated that additional funding could take the BID “pot” of money over 5 years from £1.35mn to £2mn, what are the sources of this funding and how realistic is this?”
Taunton BID answer: “Still negotiating, most other BIDs manage this, I believe we should be able to.”

Evidence suggests that most other BIDs do not manage this so called match funding, and so it’s a very unrealistic ambition that Taunton BID have been telling everyone the past few months they should be able to achieve. Fact is, in 2018 the national average for additional BID income was only 11.41% of levy, and that’s all additional income including the likes of sponsorship and any other additional income they can raise, in addition to any grants.

Exter BID additional forecast income 2018-19. In their 5th year they forecast additional income of 6%.

Also, one only needs to look at the financials of other BIDs close to us such Exeter, to see they haven’t got even close to this national average for additional income from all sources.

The term “match funding” is being banded around too much under false pretences by Taunton BID, in an attempt to entice businesses to part with their hard-earned cash with no clear return on investment. It is clearly nothing more than vote yes propaganda as an electioneering type tactic; for those Brexit remainer readers, think £350 million written on the side of a big red bus.

But even more important than disproving their match funding claims, is to highlight that this a just one display of a lack integrity and trustworthiness in Taunton BID, reputational issues if you like, and this was a core reason for failure of the 2007-12 Taunton BID (see our post on this). Given the same negative traits being shown already, do we really want to vote them in again?

As a final note readers may be interested to hear that Taunton has heard this £2 million BID bonanza fairytale number before, you’re right - as a false promise for the 2007-12 BID! Here’s the Somerset County Gazette headline when the failed 2007 BID was voted in; “£2 million BID bonanza!”. TDBC documented how the BID would “yield approximately £220,000 per year. TTCCo would be looking to match this fund from other organisations through voluntary contributions from landlords.” They were clearing setting expectations that the BID would turn £1.1 million into £2 million, but guess what, the BID did not generate this amount of additional match funding!

Taunton BID are out there selling a vision including promises of “extra pots of gold” if businesses put their hands in their pockets by voting in a BID, but clearly their claims are nothing more than yes campaign propaganda, that in attempt to get this Council backed BID tax scheme forced on all businesses in Taunton, cannot be backed up. With additional BID levy income nationally averaging 11.41% of levy in 2018, how on earth can Taunton BID possibly claim that most other BIDs achieve the levels of match funding they claim, it’s clearly a claim which is proven to be untrue and stinks of the reputational issues which played a big part in the failure of the last Taunton BID. Can we really trust everything the Taunton Chamber of Commerce and their Taunton BID proposers are saying, in order for Taunton businesses to safely hand over and trust them to manage £1.3 million? From what they’re showing us, we think not!

£2mn match funding claims are simply Bull****!