Baron Taylor Street Visualisation

Inglis Street Visualisation

A Business Improvement District (BID) is a co-operative of local business ratepayers and a business-led initiative that gives businesses the power to manage their own operating environment so that it directly benefits their business, their employees and their clients and customers.

Together, businesses identify projects and services that they think are needed to add value to existing services and agree, through a formal ballot process, to a level of investment to ensure their delivery.

Business ratepayers within a BID decide what they want to do to improve a precisely defined geographical area, and if they vote for a BID, the activity they want is funded via a small supplement to the business rate, which in turn can attract "matched" funding from other sources.

Funding raised by the Inverness BID also has the potential to be matched by grant-giving organisations and will only be used to finance additional services, and ones that are not already provided by The Highland Council or other public services (TEC).

Inverness is one of only six cities in the country that are part of the BID pilot programme and is therefore pioneering this approach, potentially for others to follow.

This new opportunity for the nation's cities, a Business Improvement District (BID) enables businesses to join together in funding projects that address specific common problems. BIDs are fair in that if the ballot is in favour, then every business has to pay a levy. All businesses that benefit from the improved services contribute to the cost.