Croydon celebrates on initiative

A Business Improvement District (or ‘BID’, for short) is a business-led initiative within a defined commercial area. Businesses in an area are invited to come together to decide how to improve the trading environment for themselves and their employees, customers and clients. Through consultation, a range of projects and services are agreed, which are then put to a democratic vote involving all the eligible businesses in the area.

The BID will start formally operating on 1 April after a majority of businesses gave their support in a ballot that took place during February. The BID will raise over £1m per year, through the introduction of a 1 percent levy on the rateable value of each eligible business unit. This funding will support a range of new services based on priorities identified by business in the area.

In order for a BID ballot to be deemed successful, a simple majority of businesses must vote for it, both in number and proportion of rateable value. The Croydon town centre BID has 576 eligible levy payers, 255 of which voted in the ballot giving a 44 percent turnout. Of those that voted, 63 percent voted in favour by number and 69.5 percent voted in favour by rateable value. There are now 42 BIDs operating around the country, and Scotland has six pilot BIDs in the pipeline, due to go for ballot within the next year. The longest running BID is Kingston First, which has been operating for just over two years. In addition, businesses in the Heart of London BID (in the Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus area of central London) have just voted to renew the BID for a second term, proving that BIDs can make a real difference.

Croydon BID will generate ring-fenced funding for the BID area alone, and businesses will have a direct say on how this funding is re-invested back into the area, in the form of security, marketing and cleansing, initiative, in addition to the activities already carried out under town centre management.

The BID will aim to
- Ensure that visitors, customers and employees feel safer and business premises are more secure
- Improve the perception and image of Croydon as an area in which to invest, work and liveMake the working environment cleaner and more attractive for visitors, whether they are shoppers, employees or office clientsImprove accessibility by promoting awareness of good transport access to the BID area and making the area easier to navigate- – Establish one ‘port of call’, which would act as a facilitator and a collective voice to identify issues and solutions for businesses and to represent them to Croydon council and other organisations

Georgina Dawkins, Project Manager of the Croydon BID, says “We have listened carefully to businesses’ concerns about the town centre and are confident that the projects we are planning will help address these. We intend that businesses should start seeing some improvements before long and will encourage and welcome feedback on our efforts.”