Business Rate Supplements Bill
12:00 pm
John Healey: For these reasons, I think. The BRS is unlike business improvement districts, for which there is a ballot in all cases; we can explore that in a moment. Unlike a BID, a BRS is designed to apply across a wider area, bringing wider benefit, often for longer-term projects, which may be beyond the immediate self-interest of the businesses that contribute towards BID-style funding. As with Crossrail, in any potential BRS-supported project we can expect to see different funding elements reflecting the wider interests that may benefit; therefore council tax payers may play a part, as may the national taxpayer through Government grant—just as in Crossrail—because of those wider benefits.
If the case is to be made for a ballot in all circumstances, the principal question must be, is it right that business should have a vote and a veto in all cases, when the funding comes from other sources as well as a BRS, the benefits are much wider and there is a will to see that funding and development go ahead? Is it right to enable business to block projects to which its funding contribution may account for a quarter, a tenth, or even a negligible proportion of the total? Through the conduct of a ballot, business potentially has the vote and the veto over such projects going ahead.
We have taken the view that that is not right. The all-party Conservative-led LGA, as you will know, takes the view that there should be no requirement to ballot—that it should be left to the discretion of local authorities. We have taken the concerns of business very seriously and believe there should be some safeguards, which is why we are proposing in the Bill that where the BRS forms more than a third of the funding of any project, and in those circumstances alone, business should have a vote and should, therefore, potentially be in a position to block not just the introduction of a BRS, but the whole project.