Leading the BID industry
Leading the BID industry
The death of the Queen last week was terrible news, and many will be feeling saddened and shaken by this tragic event. For most of us, Her Majesty had always been part of our lives, and it is very difficult to process the news that she has passed away. She led an exemplary life of duty to this country, and it was a very happy and fulfilled life. We all mourn her loss, and are so grateful for her service and humbled by it. King Charles III was proclaimed King by the Privy Council following the death of his mother.
At the same time, we welcome a new Prime Minister and a new Cabinet. Simon Clarke returns to the Department of Levelling Up and Community where he was previously Minister for Regional Growth and Local Government, and Jacob Rees-Mogg takes over at Business, Economy and Innovation. There is much for them to do and it needs to be done quickly.
BIDs and levy payers are facing a major series of problems: enormously increasing energy costs, the highest inflation levels for over a decade, supply chain issues as well as staffing issues. For many this is an imperfect storm, and tragically many small businesses are already announcing closures. A campaign #BusinessSOS, led by Croydon BID and supported by British BIDs, the ATCM and The BID Foundation and representing over 150,000 retail, leisure, hospitality and tourism businesses warns that the harm caused by the spiralling energy crisis is superseding the pandemic, with the potential to cause irreversible damage to UK high streets and the economy. The campaign asks that the government reduces VAT, gives Business Rates Relief and an Energy Rate Relief. There has been some limited response from government thus far. This will clearly be a defining issue for business and BIDs over the next year.
Despite all the work by BIDs and Local Authorities, it is nonetheless truly amazing that more than £1bn of the 2021-22 COVID-19 Additional Relief Fund (CARF) had not been paid out by the end of June, the latest figures from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) have shown. According to the data, less than a third of the £1.5bn fund has been distributed. The full details are available here and you can see the detailed data by both local authority and constituency. Amazingly, only 419,351,072 (28%) has been allocated, to 82,573 hereditaments. This unused money is desperately needed and could be diverted elsewhere.
As ever, BID ballots continue and we welcome a new BID in Wilmslow, and the continuation into its fourth term of Blackburn EDZ. Visit Lincs Coast Destination BID was unsuccessful for its second term.
There has been an increasing amount of research published on BIDS and their services. As the world economies change and shift, with the current neo-liberal discourse being increasingly critiqued, a review of BIDs as part of that neo-liberalism is timely. Fifty years of Business Improvement Districts: A reappraisal of the dominant perspectives and debates by Daniel Kudla is available here and does just that, by adding research heft from around the world. He concludes that the process of legitimisation, as well as of contestation, needs to be analysed to highlight the specific ways that the merits of BIDs and their organisational agendas are constructed as appropriate, right, good and so on.
Those keen on continued research on BIDs might also be interested in a fantastic overview paper Science Mapping the Academic Knowledge on Business Improvement Districts by Diogo Gaspar Silva, Herculano Cachinho, and Kevin Ward that can be downloaded here. The paper maps and examines the state-of-the-art of academic knowledge on BIDs published between 1979 and 2021. The authors suggest that (i) scientific production has increased since the early 2000s, has crossed US borders but remains highly Anglo-Saxon-centered; (ii) academic knowledge on BIDs is multidisciplinary and has been published in high-impact journals; (iii) influential documents on BIDs have centred on three issues: urban governance/politics, policy mobilities–mutation, and impact assessment and criticisms; (iv) while author collaboration networks exist, the interaction between them is limited; (v) the conceptualization of BIDs has changed over time, both in thematic and geographical focus. These results constitute the first science mapping on the academic literature on BIDs, and they argue they should inform future scientific debates about the studying of this form of local governance. For those interested in the academic research around BIDs this is an excellent analysis of what to read next.
Crime is a key part of many BIDs activities, and The National Business Crime Centre (NBCC) has released a research report and recommendations on the work of Business Crime Reduction Partnerships (BCRPs). The survey was commissioned by the NBCC working with Professor Emmeline Taylor, City, University of London, to better understand the role of BCRPs and other crime reduction initiatives, how to promote their value-add to business, the police and community, and how to increase levels of BCRP accreditation. The report has produced ten recommendations relating to, the national governance structure of BCRPs, the relationship between Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) and BCRPs, and how the accreditation process might be developed so that it is more appealing and valued.
One of the main focusses of the survey was to understand why some BCRPs choose not to go for national accreditation awarded by the Police Crime Prevention Initiatives (PCPI). The survey revealed that some of the reasons included the amount of time and resource it would take, feeling intimidated by the process and worried about not meeting the criteria, and that there wasn’t enough guidance readily available to research the process before applying. Professor Taylor suggests that “Bringing businesses together in partnership with the police to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour issues can be very effective. The research findings presented in this report show a strong appetite for business crime reduction partnerships to continue their excellent work, but as the recommendations reflect, with an updated set of standards and refreshed branding to raise their profile.” The NBCC will now work with key stakeholders to review the recommendations and consider the next steps to enhance the work of BCRPs moving forwards. The full report and recommendations can be found on the website here.
British BIDs continues to plan its 2022 National BIDs Conference which will be taking place on Thursday 3rd November at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Our first two speakers announced are Helen Dickinson, who leads the team and sets the strategic direction of the British Retail Consortium, and Stephen Toal, head of property management research at Savills. If you would like to join us and celebrate Business Improvement Districts and all that they bring to our places, book your ticket today: https://britishbids.info/events/national-bids-conference-2022
Professor Christopher Turner, Chief Executive, British BIDs
