Clause 43 - Arrangements with respect to business improvement districts
Local Government Bill
2:30 pm
Mr Edward Davey (Kingston and Surbiton, Liberal Democrat)
Before the break, I had just begun what may be quite a long debate on business improvement districts and the amendments. I spoke briefly to amendments Nos. 94 and 95 and proceeded to other amendments relating to the role of property owners. Under the Bill, property owners will be outside the formal statutory framework for those who would be consulted, who would be asked to pay and who would formally have to be within a BID. I said that I disagreed with that for four major reasons.
The first reason is economic. Improving the value of the property is the logical consequence of a BID, which benefits property owners. The second reason relates to business. The associations and institutes that represent property owners are in favour of owners being introduced into the statutory framework. Thirdly, there is a political argument in favour of that. It seems rather odd that new Labour wants to exclude property owners from a tax, albeit a voluntary tax—