Leading the BID industry
Leading the BID industry
There is a real sense that spring is in the air, with the economy on track for a slow return to growth as sales in Great Britain rise. Official figures showed a better-than-expected boost for retail sales in Great Britain in February, as shoppers turned to discount department stores and second-hand shops and chose to dine in more and cut back on eating and drinking in pubs and restaurants. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said retail sales increased by 1.2% last month compared with January, well ahead of economists’ forecasts of a 0.2% rise, bouncing back to pre-pandemic levels despite the cost-of-living crisis. This is clearly good news for BIDs and our levy payers, although the data are still fairly regionally disparate.
It’s also been a busy time for BID ballots, with nine successful outcomes in the last four weeks. We congratulate Penrith, Acton, Edinburgh, Inverness, Leamington, Weymouth, Clacksfirst, Kings Heath, Liverpool Retail and Leisure for their successful ballots.
Many of us have our levies collected by outsourced providers and it has been a worry to read of the failed IT systems at Capita, who collect many BID levies on behalf of local authorities. Apparently, computer systems abruptly stopped working at the outsourcing group, knocking out council phone lines and triggering fears that the company could be under cyber-attack. Capita staff are understood to have been unable to access IT systems and an early investigation has yet to establish the cause. The outage exposes the vulnerability of critical public services to cyber incidents – and the increasing role of outsourcing companies in delivering those services. Capita is one of the government’s biggest suppliers, with £6.5bn of public sector contracts spanning London’s congestion charge system to recruiting soldiers for the army.
The move back to smaller high street bricks and mortar continues. Majestic has opened the doors to its new small store concept in Harpenden as it trials new ways of expanding its brick-and-mortar presence. The UK’s largest specialist wine retailer‘s new store is less than half the size of the average Majestic unit at 1,800 sq. ft, allowing the business to test a fresh approach to reaching communities in key target areas of the UK.
At British BIDs we have been talking for a very long time about the iniquitous comparison between private council tax rates, last reviewed in 1991, and business rates, revised now every three years. This results in the businesses bearing an increasing proportion of local property taxes. It’s interesting to see others now raising the issue, suggesting a proportional levy on property values and also in the national press here.
There is always much interest in the BID community in new trends in relation to the 2004 BID regulations. They are now nearly 20 years old, and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is always interested in how they are being made use of, and we speak to them regularly on them. Two recent developments are interesting. Firstly, the Accommodation BID in Manchester has used a levy model based on occupancy rates rather than rateable values, and this has excited much interest in other local authorities. It mirrors some of the local tourist payments in European holiday destinations and was well received at the ballot. Visitors staying in a Manchester city centre hotel or holiday apartment are now required to pay a £1 per night City Visitor Charge. An estimated £3m worth of annual revenue will be dedicated to tourism-related and cultural projects, as well as necessities such as street cleaning. The second development is around the issue of BID areas and boundaries. At British BIDs we are of the view that the regulations make very clear that a BID is a single geographical area with a boundary; and we continue to believe that there is a major ethical and philosophical view that a business community needs to be rational, contiguous, clear and coherent. On the other hand, the regulations do allow, under Schedule 1.1.d, variation in whether all non-domestic ratepayers in the geographical area or a specified class of them are to be liable for the BID Levy. We have all used this to vary the levy being imposed on hereditaments of a different size via a threshold or on different types of business. There is now a new suggestion that the “specified class” could be described in a different way, such as hereditaments falling within a particular geographical zone. This might allow a large BID boundary to have within it a smaller collection of geographically distinct areas, separate but all within the same BID. Of course, any such plans would still have to be within the regulation forbidding the manipulation of the geographical area of the BID. It will be interesting to see how such a BID fares at ballot.
On the matter of sustainability into the future it is clear that London’s mayor faces high court challenge over ultra-low emission zone (ULEZ) expansion. The ULEZ, which is aimed at reducing air pollution by charging drivers of older vehicles, will be expanded from inner boroughs to the whole of Greater London in August, and is clearly being mirrored in other cities.
Theft remains a widespread and expensive problem in the retail industry, and most BIDs are involved by way of Crime Reduction Partnerships. The Association of Convenience Stores is suggesting that the ongoing cost-of-living crisis is further exacerbating the problem and causing shoplifting rates to rise. The latest British Retail Consortium Annual Crime Survey for 2022 highlights the scale of the problem. The report reveals that 60% of retailers said theft poses the most significant threat to their businesses over the next two years. The Report shows that on average, each store in the convenience sector spent over £5,000 on crime prevention measures including security staff, CCTV and intruder alarms. Findings from the report reveal that over £246m was invested in crime prevention across the sector over the last year. This investment is targeted at tackling the 970,000 incidents of theft, 800,000 incidents of verbal abuse and over 9,000 robberies that occurred over the last year, as well as other threats like fraud and cyber-crime that can financially devastate businesses. The impact of these crimes is not just felt by retailers and their colleagues, as the 2022 Crime Report shows that together, the cost of crime and investing in tackling crime results in a 9p ‘crime tax’ on every transaction made in stores.
Hosted alongside the BID in Nottingham, the British BIDs Professional Development Day is your opportunity to connect with others in the industry and explore how BIDs and other business communities are working to solve similar problems and develop their areas. We will be looking at a broad range of topics this year, with a host of speakers from different sectors looking at the case for greater collaboration and working together more effectively. There will be lots of time for networking and discussion on other topics throughout the day. For further details do please look at our website for all Bb Online Academy with 10 courses coming up in May, the Diploma in BID Leadership starts at the beginning of May and the second cohort in the Certificate in BID Management starts at the end of May. Do please join us by booking a place online or contacting shayni.langhelt@britshbids.info or 07971 0071921.
Professor Christopher Turner, Chief Executive, British BIDs
