Peter Williams, principal of The Means, has written a new article that appears on the website citymayors.com - a useful and interesting site. You can find it here:

www.citymayors.com/development/business-improvement-districts.html

The article shares two key pieces of analysis that The Means has used in recent BIDs studies.The first is its long-established matrix of criteria by which BID feasibility can be tested - Sustainability, Viability, Marketability, Do-ability and Social Responsibility. (In our recent Middlesbrough study, we have added a further criterion - Deliverability.)

The second is a possible model for smaller BIDs within, say, one city, one borough, one county or within a large industrial area. We put forward this idea in our Southwark report. We suggest three possible approaches:

• Light BID - here the BID would be managed by existing traders on a voluntary or modest fee basis
• Cluster BID - one that would operate over a number of centres. It would have one executive team, and would procure services across all the centres
• Satellite BIDs - here an existing (probably larger) BID would agree to extend its services, and its 'back house' functions, to a new, adjacent BID