Publishing How Councils Vote in BID Ballots

How the ballot works

A BID ballot is a postal vote of eligible business ratepayers. To pass, it needs a majority of the votes cast, and a majority of the rateable value of the properties that voted. Each eligible property has one vote.

Councils often own or occupy several properties within a BID area, so they are often one of the largest voters by rateable value. In a close ballot with a modest turnout, the council's votes can make a real difference.

The council is also the body that runs the ballot, collects the levy, holds the agreement with the BID company, and usually charges a small fee for collecting the levy. It has a genuine interest in the outcome, which is entirely proper, and which is also a good reason for its vote to be visible.

What is published now

The Business Improvement Districts (England) Regulations 2004 require the ballot to be held and the result to be published. The published result gives totals: the number of votes for and against, the rateable value on each side, and the turnout.

There is no requirement for the council to publish how it voted for its own properties. In most places, it does not. A levy payer can see that a ballot passed, but not how the body that administers their levy voted.

A simple change

The change needed is small. Alongside the ballot result, a council could publish how it voted for each of its eligible properties. The information already exists in the council's own records. It would need no new primary legislation: the 2004 Regulations can be amended by statutory instrument, and any council can choose to publish now.

Where a BID is already in place, a council can simply confirm its vote when asked. The principle is easy to state: where a public body's vote helped create a compulsory levy, that vote belongs on the public record.

What levy payers can ask

If your business pays a BID levy, you can ask your council under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 how it voted in the most recent ballot, for each of its eligible properties.

If the council says the information is published elsewhere, it is worth checking whether the published result shows the council's own vote, or only the totals. If it shows only the totals, you can ask for an internal review on that basis, and after that the Information Commissioner's Office can consider the request.

Sources: Business Improvement Districts (England) Regulations 2004; Freedom of Information Act 2000.