The
BID scheme was imported directly from the States and was a good idea when the
economy was booming in the 2000's but it is now being sold to the unsuspecting
shopkeepers in Blyth town centre as a panacea for the ill's of a Tory economy
that is strangling smaller and larger traders alike where shops are closing
primarily due to the undeniable challenge from on-line trading, where even the
big boys and girls are feeling the pinch.
So
what is the BID scheme in Blyth and why was it such a disaster in Hexham?
The
introduction of Business Improvement Schemes in small coastal towns with empty
shops can be an opportunity for Local Development Trusts who usually openly
volunteer to organise BID schemes, building them up as being the solution to
difficult trading conditions and aiding redevelopment in the town. An
allegation levelled against BID schemes is that they are 'autocratic,
non-responsive and secretive' (which maybe describes the leader of the BID scheme
in Blyth, Cllr Richard Wearmouth of Morpeth). These allegations were certainly
levelled against the scheme in Hexham and were a major part of its
downfall.
Another
charge is that the proportion of cash which is raised/taxed from local
businesses ends up paying wages and very little else to deliver the plan
they sell the introduction of a scheme on.
In
the South and West of the Country where the majority of BID schemes took off
early we see ever more discontent as Councils who bankrolled the improvement
scheme plans can no longer manage to do so due to austerity cuts and the lack
of prudential borrowing power from Government. There is also major discontent
in Parish areas from Councillors who feel the BID schemes are competing with
the principle of the precept, local service delivery and in some cases,
duplication.
In
the North-East of England where its estimated that the on-line pinch is the
greatest and of course cash to spend on the High Street is the lowest in the UK
we have seen a scheme fail in the Town of Hexham before the end of its first
tranche date. Hexham an abbey town of great antiquity is thought of as one of
the ‘more affluent’ towns in the North-East and the BID failure was dramatic
with business owners prepared to go to jail rather than pay the levy, the
Council a Tory led Unitary County was forced to abandon the scheme. That
Council has had a further embarrassment when a BID scheme promoted by
Arch Chair Richard Wearmouth, failed to get a yes vote in the town of Morpeth
where the Unitary County Council is based and he is a councillor.
BID
schemes in big cities are a different offer and one of the largest and most
successful is also in the North-East, NE1 based in Newcastle upon Tyne where
over 30% of the companies are licensed premises. It is a very wealthy scheme
that funded an Ed Sheeran Concert to bring in outside trade at one of the
City’s most quiet periods. But even it has its critics from the small business
sector as large schemes expect and get higher percentage levy’s, something
small towns and their schemes can’t harvest and with proposed rises in business
rates the question must be put, ‘Is it just another Tax'?
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