A new style of Business Improvement District (BID) to transform life in a town centre

The publication of Ipswich Central’s?‘People, Place, Purpose’?five-year strategy (2022 to 2027) introduces a new approach for English Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) business plans by emphasising the transformative potential of the model within the framework of re-shaping local communities.

During COVID, a realisation that places needed to change and that neighbourhoods really mattered again, led to a body of work emerging focussing upon the potential for ‘Community (or ‘neighbourhood’) Improvement Districts’. The relevance of the pandemic is important here as history will dictate that it rapidly accelerated (rather than caused) processes already underway within urban economies and permanently changed those places, including town centres and high streets, forever. In the new post-covid world former trusted remedies and pre-existing governance structures to counter urban decline will prove completely inadequate to respond on anything like the scale required.

Current legislation for English BIDs, drafted and adopted as recently as 2004 (which, in reality is equivalent to a lifetime ago; after all, it's before Apple gave us iPhones or Amazon making much of a profit – just think about that for a moment!) prohibits the inclusion of residents or any other non-commercial ratepayer. This has meant that our industry has, perhaps understandably, set about defining new districts demarcated solely by the boundaries of premises used for commercial purposes. We have further modified these constituencies by top-slicing businesses using rateable value (RV) thresholds or by applying other exemptions. This strategy has always carried the same risk of criticism, evident in many international BIDs, for re-engineering selected districts within places to suit the needs of larger businesses and property owners. Yet, the ‘new’ districts that have been created are often irrelevant to residents and visitors who don’t recognise or understand the artificial boundaries our industry has applied.

From 2004, most developing BIDs have been advised to produce ‘business plans’ prior to any ballot in the belief that the reference to this term within the Regulations requires a templated document involving, for example, a chairman’s opening statement, a list of successes to date, an even longer list of planned future services, and concluding with a clarion call to “Vote Yes” or risk losing everything. Whilst it is a myth that the Regulations even require such a business plan (the reference in the Act actually relates only to a financial plan, budget and cashflow), largely absent from many of the plans produced to date has been a sense of strategic, shared vision for how a place might look, feel, and be redefined, repurposed and revived by the end of any new term. So, let's start with being honest with ourselves; this is because many such plans have the sole purpose of convincing a relatively small number of businesses to vote in favour of the BID. They have been designed as a tactical tool to win, rather than a strategic plan to transform.

This process might have served us well until now but, as growth in the BID industry inevitably starts (at best) to plateau, I fear that there is a danger we could start to become victims of our former successes, with narrowing plans targeted towards one segment of the community (exclusively businesses) and only for a small proportion of that segment (those selected within a self-defined BID area, most probably with RVs over a nominated threshold). As our places search for new routes to recovery and different ways of working, self-reflective plans risk a micro-management style that is inward looking, less relevant and increasingly restrictive. That is why we are doing something really different this time in Ipswich.

'People, Place, Purpose'?rethinks the traditional BID model. It starts with defining a natural geography - a ‘connected town centre’ area - rather than a business area. Unusually, this includes high density residential locations, parks, medical centres, doctors’ surgeries, schools, churches, and other faith centres. Then, drawing upon findings from research and consultation conducted amongst over 2,000 people from every sector of the town centre community (the largest such survey ever conducted), it sets out a long-term plan to transform that whole area. And, finally, it commits to the principle that everyone must play their part via a community place-based approach rather than an exclusive reliance upon pre-selected business levy payers.?Yes, businesses will play their part and invest to deliver, but this is a plan for everyone.

This strategy aims at many more people living in and around the town centre, with developers building new homes on undeveloped sites and from unused or underused buildings. The dramatic uplift in the number of residents will, in turn, bring about new and different uses such as flexible working spaces, children’s play areas, new schools, green spaces, cycle provision, investment in digital, a celebration of our arts, culture and heritage and so much more. We must accept that our town, like every other, will rely less upon retail, meaning that it’s future definition will no longer be derived through the competition for transactions (things to buy) but via a wider range of experiential indicators (things to do). This will involve difficult decisions - particularly around the dominance of the car - alongside placing new, direct investment into the hands of an ‘Indie Ipswich’ group recruited, not because they will pay a levy (indeed we want them to retain and reinvest their earnings), but because they offer something that is local and unique to our future shared experience.

If we succeed in creating something that feels like a new ‘Community Improvement District’, we will immediately begin work to deliver real and lasting change. It will operate as part of a broad Vision partnership including Ipswich and Suffolk County Councils, the New Anglia LEP, Suffolk Chamber of Commerce, University of Suffolk, All About Ipswich (the Destination Management Organisation or DMO) and our MP, Tom Hunt. Together, partners will be ambitious and not waste a second in the pursuit of their shared goals. Work will involve multiple stakeholders including the new Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities, the team at Homes England, and a range of regeneration experts, developers, builders, and investors. Indeed, this is about everyone committing to re-shaping the town centre around the future needs of, and together with, its wider community.

To kick-start this revival plan we are required to fit the full scale of its ambition within the narrow workings of those now outdated and restrictive 2004 BID Regulations. Unsurprisingly, therefore, it is not only our plan that looks and feels very different but also our messaging to Ipswich businesses ahead of their opportunity to vote. We are not asking them to vote “Yes” for the BID – the future of Ipswich town centre is far too important for it to be all about us. Instead, we are deliberately suggesting they think beyond us and vote to take their part within the bold strategy to transform the widened town centre area. Their endorsement would then be an instruction for us to operate differently in the future and ‘open up’ their BID to all sectors of the community.

If Ipswich businesses support the plan, they will not only be voting for something that is different and significant to the BID industry; they will be deciding to simultaneously improve their own prospects alongside transforming life within the town for everyone.

The plan can be read here: 'People, Place, Purpose'