CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OF SUCCESS FOR BID TOWNS

By Ian Davison Porter, Director, Business Improvement Districts Scotland

THE number of business improvement districts, or BIDs as they are commonly known, continue to grow across Scotland.

All of them are being developed by local people who believe that collaboration and partnership working is the best way forward for their area.

A BID gives local people a structure and a recognised model to work with, a model not just recognised by other bodies and the Scottish Government, but one that is recognised over the world.

BIDs are a partnership between the private, public and third sectors and with their local community: it’s that strength of partnership at a local level that allows improvements to be made that will bring a return on investment and reduced costs for local businesses, grow an inclusive economy, feed in to community development and deliver on the wider ambitions of the local residential community.

A BID partnership is built from the bottom up and are as individual as the area they serve, addressing issues that have been identified locally with a local solution, whilst having access to help and advice from not only BIDs Scotland and the local BIDs network across Scotland but also the many organisations, agencies and bodies that we all work with. So what do BIDs do? Well, many of the BIDs are in town and city centres in Scotland and their main areas of work in the past involved access to the town or city, safety, cleanliness, events and lobbying, but BIDs in Scotland have evolved as the landscape across the public sector has changed and as the public-private partnerships have developed at both a local and national level.

Many BIDs are now working with their local schools and in some cases universities, whilst others are involved in youth employment, the employment agenda, climate change and health.

What they don’t do is substitute or replicate statutory services. There are no restrictions on what a BID can deliver or the ambitions of local partnerships.

So far there have been 12 renewal ballots in Scotland and all have been successful, so why are BIDs successful?

Much of the credit has to go to the local boards of directors who give their time voluntarily to make things happen, but there are two other critical factors, dedicated staff to make sure that the agreed business plan is delivered and sustainable finance, a critically important element of BIDs in the face of continuing public sector financial pressures and a scarcer grant funding landscape.

In 2013, the BIDs were leveraging in another pound for every pound of levy, something that would not have happened without the BID partnership being in place, with a standout example being Queensferry Ambition which managed to raise £256,000 for a levy investment of £12,500 in 2014.

So where do we go next? In Scotland, BIDs are not restricted to towns and cities, so we have seen the development of the East Lothian Food and Drink BID, the Visit Inverness and Loch Ness Tourism BID, the development of Canal BIDs and future opportunities along the Borders Railway aligning the significant capital investment with longer term revenue investment, to the benefit of the local communities and the local economy.

The recent Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act has opened up further opportunities for the BID partnerships.

As we celebrate 10 years of Business Improvement District legislation in Scotland, there are now 29 examples of town and city centre business improvement districts, we look forward to working with other local groups who want to “do it for themselves”.

The BIDs were leveraging in another pound for every pound of levy, something that would not have happened without the BID

For further information about BIDs in Scotland see www.bidsscotland.com