Would you BID twice the price for a two-legged stool?

Guest speaker, Simon Ainley, highlighted the good and bad things about Rugby's BID at Rugby Liberal Democrats' AGM last week.

Rugby entrepreneur Simon Ainley is one of the driving forces behind Garden Gate, the new flower shop in Regent Street - see www.gardengaterugby.co.uk .

BID stands for Business Improvement District (see below) and Rugby town centre's BID is run by Rugby First Ltd.

Simon said that Rugby's BID did two things very well. "As a result of the BID Rugby's town centre is fabulously clean" he said. "The Rangers and the CCTV also mean that we have marvellous security" he added "but what Rugby First have not done is provided a vision of how Rugby town centre can flourish in the twenty-first century and without a vision the couple of areas Rugby First have delivered on are as useful as a two-legged stool. We are at risk of having a very clean, very safe ghost town" he warned the Liberal Democrats. (You can read about Simon's own vision for Rugby town centre exclusively on the Rugby Liberal Democrat website tomorrow.)

Mr Ainley also explained that Rugby's BID was one of the most expensive in the country. The guidance for BIDs is that they should charge a premium of one to two per cent on top of "business rates" to fund the scheme but Rugby's BID charges a four per cent premium.

What are BIDs?

For at least four centuries following the reign of Good Queen Bess local councils collected business rates and used them to fund local services. This all changed in the 1980s when the Conservative Party brought in the poll tax to fund local government (The poll tax has since been replaced by the Council Tax). As part of those changes business rates were nationalised to form national non-domestic rates. They are still collected by local councils but the council has to pass all the cash it collects on to the Treasury and is no longer able to use these funds to provide local services.

In 2003 Parliament passed a law allowing local businesses in a particular area to opt to pay a premium on their national non-domestic rates to fund a Business Improvement District. Rugby First Ltd was created to run Rugby's BID. The most recent accounts for Rugby First Ltd show that it has an annual turnover of £1.1m.

Simon Ainley was a guest speaker at the Rugby Liberal Democrats AGM on 29 November 2014. The views expressed are his own. This is the fourth article in a series on the future of Rugby Town Centre the Rugby Liberal Democrat website is running this week.