In a bid to explain: Why I think BIDs are a positive step
Local independent businesses — we hear a lot about them in Kent, they have a powerful voice in the community, trusted and familiar to residents and visitors. I’m a fan of business and enterprise, from washing cars as a kid to today with many fruitful ventures and relationships in the city — the desire to work for myself has always been there. Like most people in business, I’ve had ups and downs, success and failure. I’ve learnt powerful lessons, including one on Canterbury high street itself — a baguette shop that didn’t survive the credit crunch of 2008, but still one of the most enjoyable times of my life.
One thing I learnt, is that to win in the game of high street, you have to band together and play to your strengths. Shopping centres and out of town locations have parking — but they don’t have charm and history. They have chain restaurants, but not cute cafes. Shopping centres act as magnets because of their presence, branding, events — so independent shops need to compete with that visibility.
A ‘business improvement district’ or BID is the excellent solution with an awful name. We have one in Canterbury, it’s called Canterbury Connected, some like it, some don’t, and I used to be on the board that ran it. Incase it’s needed, to jog your memory, it’s responsible for the medieval pageant, street cleaning, welcome & information people, supporting Pride and City Sound Project, the Christmas lights & switch on, hanging baskets, and interactive story-telling games that bring huge new footfall to a part of town that needed a boost, networking events and plenty more local solutions to local business issues. But apart from that, what has the BID ever done for us? Just ask a business owner who has used it and engaged with it.
Like the NHS, you’ve got to use it to experience it. Unlike the NHS, it’s not painful to do so — it’s quite engaging, actually. Until 2017 I was on the board of the BID in Canterbury — a role I throughly enjoyed as I represented the night time economy’s interests as part of my job at events company Republic Events. Between organising student nights and family music festivals, I was able to get involved with learning how to scrutinise company accounts with some of the highest regarded accountants in the city, and retail bosses well above my pay grade. You get out what you put in to life. We pay for the NHS with our tax — if we don’t have to use it, that doesn’t mean we should try to. But with a BID, as a business owner you pay into it, and can actively seek the benefits — so why wouldn’t you?
Unlike a tax — you can vote if you want to pay it. That’s what makes it so great compared to a tax we never asked to pay for something we never wanted. Every 4 years or so, business owners get asked if they still want the BID. I don’t remember us being asked if we wanted to pay 20% VAT ‘yes or no’. In fact, if you aren’t a fan of tax, it does seem to set a precedent in your favour if that’s what we are doing with our taxes now!
I once heard Mark Steel make a joke about a new type of lamp post. You put 5p in a slot and it lights up, walk to the next one, put in another 5p and then walk on … you never have to pay for someone else’s lighting or share a pavement! Sometimes it feels like there are people in the local business community who would rather these were installed rather than those fancy LED eco friendly lights, but luckily there are also plenty of shining stars who make it an amazing community that I’m proud to be a part of.
