Coventry Best 4 Business

 Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) allow companies in a defined local area to work together to decide what are the common issues facing their trading environment, what measures need to be put in place to counteract these issues and how much they wish to pay for these measures.

Improvements that different BIDs around the UK (including one in the Coventry City Centre) have brought about include: crime reduction measures, environmental improvements, extra cleansing, business support, image enhancements, marketing and PR, transport measures and greater advocacy on key local issues.

BIDs are generally run by not-for-profit private companies whose Boards are primarily made up of business representatives.

A recent Home Office survey found that although domestic crime is decreasing, business crime is increasing and each business crime costs far more than each domestic crime. The same survey also discovered that co-operative actions reduce business crime by more than 50 per cent but individual company actions have little effect.

The main concern of such partnership working has been the ‘free rider’ syndrome, where it is difficult to get businesses to join if others in the area refuse to contribute but still get the benefit. BIDs provide a fair way forward, giving confidence that everyone will play their part and all will gain.

A BID vote is open to all tenants and if a majority - both by number and rateable value - approve the proposal (in the form of a formal business plan) all ratepayers will contribute a small amount equitably through their business rates.