Too much power for a few people, with a lack of financial transparency & accountability.
BID levy funds are spent by an incorporated not-for-profit private Limited Company, controlled by a Board of Directors who are a few willing volunteers from the voting businesses. For day-to-day running BID companies normally employ a BID Manager.
This all sounds great in practice, but this is where the problems with running BIDs really start (and end). Voting a BID in might be the easy part, but making sure the company can deliver on it’s promises is a totally different story. This is where levy paying businesses really are throwing the dice, a handful of people with the delegated power of several hundred business, with the freedom to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds over 5 years, that isn’t 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 intention of a Business Improvement District was for local businesses to improve their situation together. Not for a small minority to make unilateral decisions affecting hundreds of others.”
Ultimately the running of a BID will only be as good as the people running the BID company, it’s the same for any company, as business people we all recognise this. Which is why like anything in life and business there is good and bad, and we see that demonstrated by BIDs across the UK. BID companies will promise voters they have full control of how their money is spent and that their BID company is fully accountable to them, but unfortunatley this has been show not to be true time and time again across the UK. BID proposers will say whatever they can get away with saying in an attempt to attract YES voters.
Click on image to read the Independent article.
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. In many BID towns, on average 6-10 BID Directors are given carte-blanche powers to run the BID company as want, spending hundred of thousands of pounds as they alone feel fit, with no legal or other official re-course, perhaps just an AGM where voter opinions can be heard, but even then they don’t have to be acted upon. The BID Directors really can do what ever they want.
Ultimately an unaccountable private limited BID company ran by a few people makes all the BID spending decisions, not all the businesses! As the above Independent article and the following articles demonstrate, given the lack of financial accountability BID companies get away with, things can easily go wrong and there’s very little that can de done about it!
Lack of financial transparency was one of the reasons why Chippenham BID was voted out by it’s levy payers in October 2019, just like other BIDs have been.
The failed Taunton BID 2007-12 experienced a lack of financial transparency, and this is what Taunton Deane Borough Council reported in 2012. Accounts aside, clearly it was also felt that the Management Board needed to be refreshed as they were’t doing a good job; governance problems!
Click on image to read the full article.
Click on image to read the full article.
Click image to read full article.
Click image to read full article.
A levy payer fails to get straight funding answers from Aberdeen Inspired (BID). Compelled by law to contribute hard earned revenues to the BID, just goes to show levy payers are seemingly not allowed to know what, where, why or how their money is being spent! Also says the BID won’t even share Board Minutes beyond the Board. Doesn’t sound very democratic or transparent does it?
Rugby BID had £500k unaccounted for over 10 years!