Clause 51 - BID proposals
Local Government Bill
10:00 am
Mr Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Cotswold, Conservative)
I had not anticipated such a long debate this morning on the administrative matters affecting BIDs and I shall therefore move new clause 6 fairly quickly. It builds on what we have already discussed.
The new clause is pretty straightforward and would impose a pre-ballot requirement on those who draw up the BID proposals. After all, there would be no point in drawing up proposals and going to the trouble of a ballot unless one took the maximum trouble to ensure that it succeeded; that would be a complete waste of time and money. The new clause is intended to ensure that every non-domestic ratepayer eligible to vote in a ballot would receive the relevant information about the BID proposal
''and such information as will facilitate, each non-domestic ratepayer being able readily to calculate the amount''.
Those last few words are the important ones. I do not think that the Minister really understood what I was trying to say about this issue earlier, or that he has tried to calculate the amount of non-domestic rate payable. It is horrifically complicated, particularly where transitional arrangements are involved.
Many BID proposals will involve small businesses with very limited resources, time and personnel for calculating what they are likely to have to pay.