Holt BID
The Town Council were invited to attend one of the BID Workshops, hosted by Love Holt. The workshops held in May were an opportunity to find out about the proposal for Holt to become a Business Improvement District (BID).
A BID is whereby businesses in the town all put some money into a pot to spend on agreed projects. Depending on the business rates currently paid will depend on how much money a business will put in. Typically smaller businesses will fall below the threshold and not have to put in any money, where as medium to large businesses will see an increase in their rates (2.5% is proposed). The money is collected by NNDC in the same way the usual business rates are collected.
Traders will be asked to draft a Business Plan detailing the projects they want to achieve in the next 5 years in the town. The projects have to be agreed by traders and deemed important enough to warrant the rise in business rates. Typically car parking was the main area of concern in the majority of work shops attended, along with improved signposting, more town events and better connectivity from the North Norfolk Railway. It is important to note that the projects have not been decided upon, this stage is yet to come and will be controlled by the traders in the town.
Once a Business Plan has been written, traders will have the opportunity to vote whether they agree with it or not. If the majority of businesses vote to support the plan, a BID will be created. Traders will then look to recruit a Project Manager to deliver the projects. All projects will have to be delivered in 5 years, after this time traders will be expected to write a new Business Plan and the process starts all over again.
The Town Council is not involved in the BID but will be watching with interest as to what projects are chosen by traders to be included in the Business Plan. It maybe that traders feel unable to commit to any increase in costs at this time and the BID will not go ahead. It is still early stages in the process with Love Holt consulting with businesses via their ongoing programme of work shops.
