Clause 43 - Arrangements with respect to business improvement districts
Local Government Bill
3:45 pm
Mr Christopher Leslie (Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office; Shipley, Labour)
I agree that there are a series of possible cascading benefits to come from the creation of a BID. My hon. Friend should know: with his experience in town centre management, he is more qualified than most in this Room on the matter and his arguments are cogent. The amendments would not only provide for a new tax on property ownership, but allow the BID proposals to have discretion on whether that tax would apply to property owners or simply to business ratepayers. That would be not only unfair to ratepayers, who would be obliged to contribute to the BID levy should a majority vote in favour of the scheme, but extremely costly and difficult to administer. That is the point I made earlier.
New clause 5 would oblige a local authority participating in a BID to help to identify the ownership of land. That would mean that it could have to seek out the details of every owner of every piece of property, many of whom are likely to live outside the local authority area and some of whom might live abroad. That point was raised by the hon. Member for
Kingston and Surbiton. Those owners might be unaware of the proposed bid scheme, and all that would cost a great deal of time and money.