Ealing Broadway to be part of one of first such schemes in UK
Businesses have agreed the town centre should become a Business Improvement District (BID) – a scheme promoted by the Ealing Centre Partnership.
The decision to make Ealing Broadway a BID means business rate payers will make an annual financial contribution to it. Under the plan business rate payers will pay 1% of rateable value, but 0.7% if they are in covered shopping centres (Arcadia and Ealing Broadway Centre). Landlords in these shopping centres will make up the balance of the 1% due. Charities will get discounts consistent with their level of business rate charitable relief. Very small business ratepayers will be exempt from paying the levy. The money will go towards improving the shopping area in an attempt to attract more sales for an area which has been hard hit in recent years.
The benefits of the BID include the introduction of town centre rangers, extended street cleaning hours, anti-graffiti blitzes and new planting schemes. The council will spend £395,500 to kickstart the BID scheme, which will pay for new street lighting in time for Christmas, a blitz on litter and grime, new paving and new street bins. The council will continue to be one of the highest financial contributors to the BID scheme each year. There will also be more events and programmes to promote more trade among local businesses, a marketing campaign to encourage more shoppers to come to Ealing and better monitoring of economic conditions in the town centre.
Shelley Adams, Ealing Council’s executive director for strategy and development, said: “We now have a springboard from which Ealing and its businesses will compete with other expanding town centres and remain commercially strong. This BID is a partnership which will harness the skills and local knowledge of the private sector with the considerable effort applied by the public sector."
There was a 51.2% turnout in the BID vote and 65.5% voted in favour. A new not-for-profit company will be formed, Ealing Broadway BID Ltd, to manage the BID funds.
April 21, 2006
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