Property owners should be compelled to pay for Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), a Commons committee has said.
A report published this week by the select committee on transport, local government & the regions welcomes the government’s plan to unroll BIDs across the UK.
But the report also echoes the British Property Federation (BPF), the CBI and the British Retail Consortium (BRC) in saying that landlords, and not just occupiers, should be required to fund BIDs.
The Local Government Bill proposes that councils should be allowed to raise a levy – at a level agreed with local businesses – alongside business rates, to pay for BIDs.
In the US, property owners provide most of the funding for BIDs, but in the UK, property owners’ contribution to BIDs is voluntary.
The report said: “We recommend that the government works with the BPF and other business organisations to find the best way of involving property owners as contributors to BIDs, if necessary amending primary legislation and certainly covering this point in regulations and guidance.”
It also recommended that the minimum proportion of local business ratepayers that must approve a BID should be two thirds, compared to the half stipulated in the bill.
EGi News 24/07/02
