After a decade of delivering successful projects and services to improve Blackburn town centre and support businesses, Blackburn BID is looking forward to the next five years.
Your YES vote means a further £1.5 million will be invested in Blackburn town centre, which will compliment and strengthen Blackburn with Darwen’s Council’s transformational investment plans for the town centre.
The vote took place via postal ballot and the results were announced on Monday 6 November 2023.
All defined businesses ratepayers with a rateable value of over £10,000 in the BID area were given the opportunity to vote during the formal ballot period.
Each ratepayer was entitled to one vote per hereditament (levy paying premises) on which a BID levy would be paid. It was possible to appoint a proxy to vote on your behalf and information on how to do so was included with the ballot information sent to you. The ballot was a confidential postal ballot managed by Civica Election Services.
In our recent town centre surveys of Blackburn town centre businesses, you told us which of our projects and services you value the most and which initiatives should be priorities over the next five year term.
We have used this information to develop our four key objectives for the 2024-2028 Blackburn BID term:
There are 336 hereditaments (levy paying premises) within the Blackburn BID area for the third term. This includes the former Thwaites site which will be redeveloped as part of Blackburn with Darwen Council’s Town Centre Masterplan, and the wider Grimshaw Retail Park.
As has been the case for the first two terms of Blackburn BID, only thouse businesses with a rateable value of over £10,000 will be charged a BID levy.
The BID levy will be set at 1.5% of your rateable value for non-domestic (business) rates. This is a slight increase from the 2019-2023 BID term because the 2023 Business Rates Revaluation has led to a reduction in the annual income for the BID, which means if there is no change to the BID levy, the projects and services the BID is able to deliver would be reduced.
A small business with rateable value of £10.250 would pay £153.75 per year, less than the cost of a weekly takeaway coffee.
A bigger business with a rateable value of £29,250 would pay £438.75 per year, or about three takeaway coffees a week.
The average levy will be around £923 per year, which is about £17.75 per week, or about five takeaway coffees. Just over 76% of businesses will pay less than this.
The new five year term will commence on 1st January 2024 and the occupier (or owner if the property is empty) will be the liable party for the BID levy.
Invoices will be sent out at the beginning of February each year. If the responsibility for business rates changes during the year, no pro-rata refunds will be given and the new occupier will only be liable from the next year of the term.
To check if you are included in the Blackburn BID area 2024-2028, to find out the amount of levy you will pay, or if you have any questions about Blackburn BID of the third term ballot, please contact the Blackburn BID Manager, Catherine Price at catherine.price@newground.co.uk or call 07860 952 352.
