Chester votes for a BID (Business Improvement District)
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A BID has been mentioned and explored to a degree for Wrexham – Chester today has voted for one Chester businesses say ?Yes? to BID – News & Events | CH1 Chester BID
60% of businesses in the proposed area voted.
40% therefore did not partake in the vote.75% of those who voted were for the idea.
“the ‘Yes’ votes also represented 67% of the total rateable value of all the properties that voted”
The interesting thing on that vote is 33% of the rateable value did not vote or were not in favour of the BID , yet now may have extra tax to pay.
Those with a rateable value of over £18k will pay an extra 1% to collect a pot of £2.5m to spend in the area over the next five years.
The full business plan is on http://cdn.frontburnr.co.uk/uploads/files/ch1/Chester_BID_Busi_Plan_LOW-RES_-_FINAL_for_website.pdf – with an interesting unspecified £230,000 ‘operating cost’ base over those five years.
Would something similar work in Wrexham?
Unfortunately when a meeting was convened by the Council to look at a BID only about 4 retailers attended making it dead in the water before it even started. Retailers need to have total confidence in their own business and the town as a whole for this type of idea to progress.
With the much needed rates revaluation being put back to 2017 by the Government, I really can’t see any Wrexham business voting for what is essentially a rate increase.
@KidA 13764 wrote:
With the much needed rates revaluation being put back to 2017 by the Government, I really can’t see any Wrexham business voting for what is essentially a rate increase.
Talking to a few people around town there is very little appetite for this – however one did suggest a trust model so less official in terms of tax collecting but perhaps that could be its downfall.
Mixed feelings on this.
Business Rates do need to fall in Wrexham, that is for sure. They were set at the peak of rents and before Eagles Meadow opened. I couldn’t actually believe it when, a month ago, the Wrexham Rates Assessment Office re-rated my shop upwards.
The BID in Chester is triggered at £18,000 which would exclude most of Wrexham’s peripheral Indies. I wonder if the vote was supported by the excluded who will gain a benefit from the pot but won’t pay? Anyone know?
I would have to see the specific detail on the table and the mechanism to spend the pot. I’m sure that there could be some formula developed to do a comparable
The biggest difference between Chester and Wrexham is that their empty shop rate is far below Wrexham with almost 92% across the city.
In a buoyant retail environment businesses will invest in such a scheme as they see this as an added incentive.
The key driver is confidence in your business and the future of the area- unfortunately many business owners in Wrexham don’t have that level of confidence.
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