Clause 16
Business Rate Supplements Bill
6:45 pm
Nick Raynsford (Greenwich and Woolwich, Labour)
My particular interest focuses on new clause 1 and amendment 45, which stand in my name. They deal in a different way from that proposed by the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst with the problem of the potentially unhappy interface between BIDs and BRS.
We have established that the two vehicles are broadly designed to meet different needs. BIDs are focused predominantly on local measures to improve the viability, attractiveness, safety and therefore commercial success of shopping areas, business districts, town centres and so on. BRS is predominantly likely to be used for major infrastructure investments or longer-term improvements to the economic attraction of a particular area; Crossrail will definitely be used for that purpose. However, despite the differences, there could still be circumstances in which the introduction of the BRS could have an adverse impact on BIDs. We heard strong evidence from Dr. Julie Grail and others about the possible knock-on consequence for the viability of bids—particularly where they are coming up for renewal—if businesses have been required to pay a BRS levy and feel that that is enough and they cannot therefore justify continued support for BIDs. That is a genuine problem that we need to address.
The Opposition proposal, which came from the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst, is to have an automatic offset against the BRS to provide and direct financial compensation. As we heard from other witnesses, and as the hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster rightly pointed out in the evidence sessions, the problem with that is it will provide a perverse incentive for essentially bogus BIDs to be set up to provide a means of getting out of the BRS contribution. The Mayor of London has emphatically said that that would seriously risk the viability of Crossrail. I notice that the Opposition have tabled an amendment saying that that would not apply in the case of Crossrail, but those are pretty desperate measures on the part of the Opposition, who all the way through have tried to say that they support Crossrail, but that they do not like this mechanism.