BEYOND THE CRUNCH - A VERSION OF THE BIG SOCIETY?

Am taking part in a seminar on this topic at the RSA tomorrow. This is what I'll be saying.

If we peer into the corporate future to a time when the Osborne demolition ball has stopped swinging through the current landscape of public funded bodies, what will we see? Assuming the private sector has continued its slow recovery, will the plc, the limited company and the sole trader be all that co-exist with government, local and national, rising above the debris of broken regional development bodies and the like?

Or will there be room for an upstart already claiming a place to bridge the gap between private and public sectors in the new business panorama beyond the crunch - the Business Improvement District (the BID).

The BID is a hybrid venture idea imported from across the Atlantic about seven years ago. Already we have more than 100 in the UK, 25 of them in London.

Essentially a BID is the inspiration of a group of local businessmen and/or local authority officials who perceive that there are flaws in the current social or commercial landscape.

It is funded by a levy on local businesses equivalent to 1% of all business rates in the BID’s defined area, coupled in some areas by match-funding from the local authority. The funding businesses vote in a board and a chairman and appoint a CEO for a fixed period, usually five years

If the BID proves successful it can win a mandate to serve again. If not it goes the way of all failed ventures. The outcome lies with local business and with the imagination, ingenuity and energy of the BID and its leadership. A partnership with the local authority and local residents groups as well as with the police and local media is essential.

The ambition is a lean delivery-focused body that will tackle problems from street clean-ups and eradicating drug dealing to more ambitious projects like incentivising new businesses and developing new streetscape plans for the town centre.

BIDs can engage in commercial activities to subsidise their income or provide joint procurement initiatives, for instance, to reduce energy costs for their membership.

My experience as CEO of Camden Town United, the North London based BID, has taught me that this model of local service, harnessing enlightened self-interest and in return delivering a service that people really need, may be the way forward for the austere times ahead - and beyond.

Our approach is pragmatic. Responding to people’s fears and businesses’ frustration at street drug dealing, we hired private security patrols to drive the dealers off the streets. Seeing how successful uniformed enforcement could be the local council and police were encouraged to massively increase patrols. Our role was to identify the problem, offer a temporary solution and then provide arm-twisting persuasion and communications to make sure it happened long term.

It makes sense that BIDs, funded by business, become just as interested in local social reform as they may be in street cleaning or commercial enterprise. Once a board of directors sees what can be achieved enthusiasm and commitment come easier.

Camden Town Unlimited is currently occupying a warehouse space while the owner waits for times to improve. We’ve filled it with start-up creative businesses to help them take their early commercial steps with some support. The local authority (Camden Council) has provided financial help as part of its recession work but, to its great credit, recognises that the BID can manage the space and the people in it far better than a large bureaucracy ever could.

We have developed plans for the wide area to improve the physical environment and challenge current thinking on planning and licensing. Yet a pure business head might ask what has all this got to do with my profit margins and why isn’t the council doing it?

The truth is that it has never been easy for local authorities to manage this sort incentive nor have they had the know-how when it comes to engaging businesses. And until now, no business has had a vote of any kind.

Inevitably, as we pick our way through the crunch and eventually emerge from the debris, we will see Local Government doing less, concentrating on core services. In place of generous funding settlements, central government needs to give direction to local authorities, to use the power offered by the BID model to fill the gaps that will open up.

Local government must learn to be flexible in their thinking. They must resist the temptation to control and instead learn better to facilitate the changing landscape and those still in it.

If the idea of the "Big society" means anything, it surely is a partnership responding to local demands. What we need now from local authorities is imagination, boldness and a will to seize the opportunity BIDs represent.

Lessons from New York. In the US BIDs have moved beyond the basic sanitation and security remits familiar to most UK BIDs and are increasingly being used as an economic development tool. The Furman Centre at New York University recently published the first study into the impacts of BIDs on the communities they serve. The key findings were that:

· BIDs typically increase commercial property values within the BID area by around 15%

· BIDs don't seem to have any 'spillover' impacts in surrounding neighbourhood areas - so solving crime within the BID doesn't seem to push it elsewhere locally.

· BIDs do not appear to have any long lasting impact on residential property values.