“Establishing a BID requires a ballot of all the properties which come under the defined geographic footprint of the proposed BID. If the property occupiers vote for the ballot, they pay a defined proportion of the rateable value of their properties(typically around 1.5 per cent): this provides a guaranteed source of income for the next five years until the ballot is repeated. The income then allows the BID to invest in the area, with improvements targeted at enhancing the operating environment for business occupiers.
“The CID model was initially suggested as a remedy to these issues(lack of community influence). Its institutional design would be similar to a Business Improvement District in that it would be:
• Established through a local ballot, with renewal every five years.
• Operating within a defined geographic area.
• Able to raise a levy on council taxpayers.
• Focused on specific issues, agreed at the time of establishment, with expenditure limited to these issues.
A table - copied below - shows different ways in which CIDs might be developed.
A business improvement district(BID) is a defined area within which businesses are required to pay an additional tax(or levy) in order to fund projects within the district's boundaries. The BID is often funded primarily through the levy but can also draw on other public and private funding streams.
This 2019 state-of-the-art review, commissioned by The BID Foundation and conducted by the Institute of Place Management, reports findings from an in-depth study into Business Improvement Districts(BIDs) in the UK.
Dr Claudio De Magalhães Bartlett School of Planning – UCL 2014. The paper discusses whether and to what extent English BIDs constitute private government of urban areas, and the attendant issues of accountability and spatial inequalities in the distribution of public services and investment.
To cut costs, struggling councils have allowed business groups to take partial control of services, policing, and public space. 2021 article in East London Lines quotes professor and urbanist Anna Minton in her book Ground Control. “The problem is that creating companies, funded by business, to run our cities is linked to a new culture of authoritarianism and control.”
2016 report by Future of London and Rocket Science.
Since their introduction in 2005, London BIDs have evolved to generate project funding in the millions; explore new service, regeneration and Neighbourhood Planning opportunities; and thanks to Greater London Authority and London Enterprise Panel grants, become a cohort of 50 organisations stepping up in an increasingly self
About Business Improvement Districts
London BIDs