Welcome

Business Improvement Districts (BIDs)

A Business Improvement District or BID is an arrangement under which you plan how to improve your own trading environment. Businesses identify projects or services that will add value to their business and agree how to manage it and how much they are prepared to pay. The funds collected are ring-fenced and used only to deliver a structured an guaranteed set of activities voted on by the businesses within the BID.The BID and the projects it will carry out DO NOT and CANNOT replace those services statutorily provided by the public agencies such as the Police and Bedford Borough Council. The BID can only provide projects and services over and above. It lasts for a maximum of five years.

The Opportunity
This is your chance to invest over £2.5 million over five years to keep up and improve footfall, sales and values in the town centre, reduces business costs and simply make Bedford a better place to do business. The current BedfordBID has raised at least an additional 20% each year from other contributions which means that all the BedfordBID levy is used to pay for projects and services instead of administration costs. We will continue you this for the next 5 years as well.

The Funding
BedfordBID is funded by those in the area paying a levy of 2% of the rateable value of their business. The levy is all ring fenced and spent by BedfordBID on projects and services agreed by you. It is actually nothing to do with our normal business rates which pass straight to the Government. It is simply a fair way to decide who pays what. The smallest businesses, those with a rateable value of £8,100 or less will be exempt will not have to pay at all, but still benefit from BID activity.

The Management
BedfordBID is a private and independent company run by a Board of Directors chosen from those businesses that actually pay the BID levy, including both small and large businesses.

In order for the projects and services agreed by you to happen, the BedfordBID levy will be set at 2% of the rateable value of your business. The following table gives an idea of your contribution.

Over 65% of businesses will pay less than £1 a day

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