Following the successful ballot result in March this year, the bills for the Future Wood Green BID levy were sent out in June to 350 businesses in Wood Green Town Centre.
In March 2018, Wood Green’s ballot about whether to set up a Business Improvement District (BID) delivered a resounding YES vote. Following this, the Future Wood Green BID is now running, having officially launched on 1st July. The money raised through the levy will be used to deliver projects within the three main strands of our business plan. These include:
- ‘Experience Wood Green’ – addressing safety and security as well cleanliness and greening
- ‘Imagine Wood Green’ – improving the image of Wood Green though, amongst other things, marketing, events and social media support
- ‘Stronger Wood Green’ – building the business community, championing investment and saving businesses money through joint procurement
In particular, we are already exploring an on-street dedicated Ranger team for Wood Green and improvements to the Christmas lights. Further projects will be planned by steering groups of businesses that will be meeting for the first time in October.
You can see our full plans for the five years on our website here.
The first bills will cover a 9 month period from 1st July 2018 to 31st March 2019 and reminders will be sent out in August. After this the bills will cover full year periods from April to March. The yearly amounts are calculated by applying a multiplier to a premises’ rateable value. Across the country these range from 1% up to 3% while in Wood Green the multiplier is at the lower end of this, at 1.25%. Businesses with a rateable value of £12,001 or higher will pay the levy, raising in total approximately £380,000 every year – although the smallest will pay just £150. This money will be used by the BID to deliver the business plan voted on by businesses.
If you have questions about payment, or technical questions about the levy, then you can contact the business rates team at Haringey Council, who are collecting the levy on the BID’s behalf, directly on 020 8489 1700 or by emailing business.rates@haringey.gov.uk
If you would like to discuss more about how you can get involved and what the levy will pay for then you can get in touch with the BID team directly on 020 3011 0504, or by emailing info@woodgreenbid.co.uk
