What is a Business Improvement District (BID)? Here’s a good explainer.

BIDs in towns, cities and districts across the UK are normally proposed by a handful of self appointed individuals, often with no previous experience or qualifications, who decide on which businesses to include in a ballot averaging 300-400 votes per BID.

BIDs are allowed to creep in via undemocratic ballots, endorsed by central government and local authorities which give financial backing to “vote YES to BID” campaigns only, whilst ignoring and/or undermining any attempt at a “vote NO” campaign. There is no minimum ballot turnout required (apart from 25% in Scotland) and despite the BID businesses being told the BID is for them and so it is they who will decide if it is voted in, councils are given multiple votes for their “businesses” including toilets and car parks in a BID area. Given the total number of council votes and the high Rateable Value (RV) of their properties, this leads to voting bias against the real businsses whom BID’s are meant to be for.

Although manipulated statistics and press releases imply otherwise, the vast majority of businesses do not vote in BIDs, with most not casting their vote mainly due to lack of knowledge via inadequate consultation. This means many BID’s exist on a yes vote of 20%-30% of all businesses forced to pay the levy.  Many businesses have little or no idea about BID’s or the implications to them personally until it’s too late to do anything about it.

Once voted into power the annual BID levy is mandatory for all businesses for 5 years. Every 5 years another undemocratic re-ballot takes place with funding only for a YES campaign, with blackmail tactics regularly in place threatening the withdrawal of perceived essential services unless the vote is YES. 

The levy pot of money is given to a private limited company to spend how the few running the BID company wish to do so, including for their own self business interests, and on Council services that have ceased to exist because the council realises that there are budgets to be saved by the BID taking on more responsibility for services using the levy payers money.

BID’s are not subject to the governance of local authorities, nor the Freedom of Information Act, or local government Ombudsmen, there’s not even an obligation to post full audited accounts. The Department of Communities and Local Government BID regulations are woefully inadequate and have allowed a culture of lack of BID accountability and transparency to run rife throughout the UK with no independent regulator to oversee this growing power base of privatisation of services to our communities, made possible via a fast expanding industry of unregulated BID consultation / management companies whom are paid vast sums of public money to force through undemocratic ballot campaigns.