What legislation underpins BIDs in Scotland?
The legislation in relation to the development of a BID is very flexible and is able to be used in a number of diverse ways by businesses to help bring about strong local partnerships with the common objective to deliver local positive change and improvement contributing to sustainable economic growth. The Scottish Executive consultation of 2003 identified that BIDs should not be restricted to town and city centres to allow more innovative and entrepreneurial BIDs to be developed such as in agriculture, rural areas, business parks, tourism and visitor areas or single business sectors such as food, drink and textiles. The Scottish legislation allows for the inclusion of property owners as well as occupiers and is not restricted by local authority boundaries.
BIDs in Scotland sit within the following legal framework:
The Planning etc (Scotland) Act 2006
The Planning etc. (Scotland) Act 2006 (Business Improvement Districts Levy) Order 2007
The Business Improvement Districts (Scotland) Regulations 2007
The Business Improvement Districts (Ballot Arrangements) (Scotland) Regulations 2007
The Business Improvement Districts (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2007 No 510
The Business Improvement Districts (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2008 No 359
To read more about the Scottish Government’s current information on Improvement Districts, visit this web page.
Find out more about the BID model in our FAQ document and access all our guides, including our Guide for Local Authorities here.