Clause 50 - Administration of BID levy etc
Local Government Bill
9:15 am
Mr Edward Davey (Kingston and Surbiton, Liberal Democrat)
The hon. Gentleman can only imagine my relief. I wait in anticipation of the return of the said document. It is possible that this issue is clarified in the guidance, which is why I had intended to refer to that. The point is important because people who want to set up BIDs will want to understand whether they will be funding the commencement, foundation and preparatory work from their own pocket or whether that will eventually come out of the proceeds of the BID levy. If the Under-Secretary replies that the BID levy cannot be used to recompense people for start-up costs, that is a concern. That could be a barrier to setting up BIDs because, although costs may not be huge, it is possible that in some areas, especially where there are small businesses and no large businesses prepared to stump up the money to get the project off the ground, there will be no one to lead the way in providing the necessary seed corn for start-up. If the Under-Secretary says that the BID levy cannot be used for that purpose, we might wish to divide the Committee on the amendment, although I intended it primarily as a probing amendment.
To make it clear to the Committee that there will be potentially significant start-up costs, bodies that have tried to pilot BIDs before this legislation reaches the statute book, such as the Circle initiative, have released documents to explain their experience of what is involved. The Circle initiative, in its document ''One year on'', shows that in the first stages—its step one, which it called ''building the partnership''—costs can be up to £20,000.