A serious moment for BIDs?
The Business Improvement District (BID) industry has come in for some criticism over the years for spending too much time congratulating itself and not enough on how it might do better. The organisations that represent BIDs (and are largely funded by them) rightfully shout about how much money is invested, their ever-increasing (though slowing) numbers and exceptional ballot successes of over 90% in favour.......and so on.
I wonder if as much time will be spent on the recent rejection of a well-established BID in Bedford?
The Bedford BID was part of the original government pilot programme and was an early starter in 2004, amongst the first 10 to be created in the UK and long before Regulations extended to anywhere other than England. Having won 4 consecutive ballots, each awarding the BID a 5-year term, it failed somewhat spectacularly in 2024. After 129 votes had been cast (the turnout was not declared but would have been approximately 25%), only a third of those voting by number and size of premises were in favour of another term.
Now, I should point out that I have never had any involvement with the Bedford BID and so this article is simply a summary of research conducted on-line with the help of documentation that is freely accessible. So, what went wrong?
Firstly, ballot holders are not required to announce turnout as part of the declaration, so I had to do some digging to get to my 25%. I have long believed that there is often more to be gleaned from participation in any election than from the eventual outcome. Here, a mature BID of 20-years that was unable to convince three-quarters of its electorate to even return a piece of paper with a cross on it, is surely a sign of voter apathy or maybe something went awry during the ballot that meant more did not participate?
Secondly, there appears to have been a campaign against the BID run by a local individual. He claimed that the BID lacked transparency and accountability and did not spend its funds wisely. Local authorities do have a monitoring responsibility over BIDs, less to check up them and more to assist in improvements. In Bedford, the Company Board is rumoured to have accrued reserves equivalent to almost 2-years worth of levy and were (perhaps, unsurprisingly?) criticised for not having invested this more quickly and more wisely. Interestingly, though, the local campaign was not aimed towards the creation of a vacuum without a BID but, rather, called for a ‘betterbid4bedford’ under the leadership of a new Chair and CEO.
Thirdly, a decisive blow appears to have been dealt by Bedford Borough Council who operated the ballot (by the way, incorrectly calling it a ‘renewal’ ballot but that’s probably the subject of another article!) and exercised their own 30 votes against the BID. In an Executive Report of 11th September, they criticised the BID business plan as offering “more of the same [and] too narrow in both its geographic breadth and the depth of its involvement with the town’s vital independent business sector.” It then went on to record that, despite having a seat on the BID Board, the Directors met infrequently, the last such meeting having been held in October 2023, a full year before the ballot. In my experience, BID Directors generally become even more engaged in the lead-up to a ballot and so this is, at best, a bit odd.
Important for me to point out again that I have no first-hand knowledge of this location or its set-up and that what I have sourced could be misleading as there are always two-sides to any story. The purpose of this article has been merely to suggest that the wider industry might want to pause for a moment to reflect on how, after 20-years, a BID such as this could have imploded so spectacularly and to start mulling over the lessons that can be learned. If the information and documentation that I have sourced is to be believed, (a) the BID failed to demonstrate its maturity through an evolution of what it had previously offered; (b) the board seems to have removed its hand from the tiller at the most crucial time when, if nothing else, it should have been working hard to steer towards a business plan that satisfied the local authority’s policies and preferences; and (c) the Council’s rejection would have been less crucial if turnout and engagement had been higher, though voters may arguably have ‘stayed at home’ once they knew the local authority had lost confidence.
In its 20th year, we would be wise not to just ignore what is, regrettably, a new record for our industry - Bedford is the oldest BID in the UK to have lost a ballot. If nothing else, it reminds us that growth is fragile and that support at ballot cannot be taken for granted. Fostering relationships and having a strategic plan are as important to BIDs as they are to any other business. But, personally I think this particular result might tell us a great deal more.