BIDs: a ray of hope?

Some sectors of the trade are trumpeting Business Improvement Districts as the positive solution to reducing disorder. But how do they work? Nigel Huddleston reports

P erhaps it was a result of the focus on licensing reform or the speculation over which way the Government would go on smoking, but no one in the industry seemed to pay much attention when the Local Government Act of 2003 ushered in the concept of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs).

It seems the news has still to filter through to large parts of the pub trade. Several licensees contacted by the Morning Advertiser were unaware that their pubs were actually located within BIDs and already contributing financially to their operation. Yet BIDs are now being trumpeted by some in the industry as a preferable option to Alcohol Disorder Zones (ADZs).

BIDs have won support within the trade, with the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) involved in bringing BID partners together for potential schemes in Liverpool, Leeds and Nottingham. The latter has become the first BID driven exclusively by pubs and clubs, who have access to a £250,000 fund for improvements.

BBPA communications director Mark Hastings says: "We regard BIDs as very positive. We're already supporting them in certain areas of the country and putting people together to invest in new areas. BIDs are democratic - they are about investing in improvements, rather than paying for failure.

"They involve every one in a positive partnership in their area."

Wine & Spirit Trade Association chief executive Jeremy Beadles agrees, adding that the idea of ADZs carries an air of stigma and punishment.

Beadles says: "BIDs are about what they say they're about - improving business in the area. An ADZ brings all sorts of things to mind, but that doesn't include inspiring conditions for doing business."

Based on a North American model, BIDs aim to give local businesses control over improving their area to attract visitors and trade.

Businesses vote on whether to establish a BID, decide how much money they want and need to pay to make it work, and on how the money will be spent. Money is spent on a broad range of facilities and services, including street cleaning, recycling, street wardens, crime reduction, marketing and staging events such as food and drink festivals.

BIDs in Blackpool, in Lancashire, and Kingston, in Surrey, have incorporated schemes to improve night-time safety, such as providing radios for door staff and taxi-rank marshals.

The Better Bankside scheme, in the London borough of Southwark, is working with local police and Southwark Council to set up a pubwatch scheme for the BID area, including "rapid alert systems" to allow pubs to share information about potential problems in the area.

The scheme will particularly focus on ways to deter bag theft in pubs. There were 221 incidents in 11 Bankside pubs in the first five months of this year - an 86% increase on the same period in 2006.

Better Bankside rangers - the scheme's version of street wardens - are co-ordinating the initial Pubwatch meetings.

The Heart of London BID, covering the area around Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square in London's West End, ran a Christmas advertising campaign to encourage revellers to drink sensibly and travel home safely after a night out.

"The big advantage is that they're voted for by businesses who choose to contribute to it themselves," says Beadles.

This philosophy contrasts sharply with ADZs, where pubs and clubs could face a compulsory levy for policing and clean-ups.

Democratic investment

"If businesses see that investing will bring them a better return, they will invest," says Beadles. "But if an extra tax is imposed on them for something they think they've already paid for via their rates, they're likely to switch off from future partnership working."

Clearly, a key measure of the effectiveness

of the BID concept is whether it actually

improves business.

Mitchells & Butlers property director Andrew Cox points out that promotional aspects of BIDs can boost trade.

He says: "Specific seasonal promotions across the year, such as Christmas or supporting local events, lead to an uplift in trade and provide opportunities for pub managers and teams to help their communities.

"Evaluating the impact of a specific BID on individual businesses is challenging, but generally long-term benefits do result.

"We are pro-active in two BIDs - in Birmingham and Liverpool - where we have seen improvements in the local area."

Others are more cautious in their acceptance of BIDs. Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers chief executive Nick Bish says: "As an alternative to ADZs, these schemes are certainly seen as more positive than the clunking fist of government - and if they work properly they could be a force for good.

"But businesses are understandably cautious about putting money into something that might have an agenda they don't share - the agendas for an office block and a licensed retailer are often very different, for example.

"It's also important to remember that [whether to establish a BID] is a majority decision, so it can be overruled. But if a town centre has problems it's certainly a way for that area to pull itself up by the boot straps."

Effective business solution

Since BID regulations came into effect in 2004, more than 50 BIDs have been established in England and Wales, with a dozen more in the pipeline, including Edinburgh, Inverness, Northampton, Nottingham and Oxford.

The first BID was voted into existence by businesses in Kingston, Surrey, in November 2004, and championed by town-centre manager Graham McNally.

"It was attractive because it was a business solution for a business problem," he says. "We had to do something - because we had experienced 1.3 million visitors a year disappearing from our town centre.

"Our previous budget amounted to £250,000, but we needed between £750,000 and £1m to make the required step-change."

Kingston businesses each pay a 1% levy, based on their rateable value. A board of 23 stakeholders meets regularly to guide the BID operation being undertaken by McNally and his team, and streets or areas populated by independent businesses have their own representatives on the board.

All businesses have the right to attend an AGM to vote to accept or reject the BID's

annual report and ratify board selections, much like PLC shareholders.

"The difference between voting for a BID and a local authority supplying services is that businesses don't have a vote in local elections - so there's no incentive for local authorities to meet their expectations," says McNally.

"The first thing they do when the squeeze comes is to concentrate on things that are important to the residential community, such as education and social services."

Raising awareness

McNally says that businesses involved in the night-time leisure economy contribute about £48,000 to the annual budget of £1m for Kingston First, the BID's operational name.

Although the original aim of the BID concept was to attract and retain day-time

visitors, the scheme has increasingly embraced night-time issues.

"Day-time businesses recognise that it is in their interests to help their night-time colleagues succeed," says McNally, a former live-music promoter.

He adds that the BID aimed to increase night-bus services, instigate a taxi-rank marshalling scheme, establish a kiosk-franchise system for minicabs, and pay for CCTV and radio links between clubs and police.

Lack of awareness of all these issues is one of the key problems the BID partners face.

"People don't realise the extent of the range of facilities and services the BID provides until you point them out. They probably just assume that actions such as street washing and gum removal are carried out by the council," says McNally. Operators who are unaware of the range of BID activities appear