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Business Improvement Districts in England and the (private?) governance of urban spaces

DE MAGALHAES, CS; (2014) Business Improvement Districts in England and the (private?) governance of urban spaces. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy , 32 (5) 916 - 933. 10.1068/c12263b. Green open access

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Abstract

Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) were introduced in England just over ten years ago, and their adoption in over 180 locations all over the country owes a great deal to their potential ability to raise private funds to invest in the development of business areas. However, much of the academic literature on BIDs has been critical of what it sees as an expansion of corporate control of urban spaces and the weakening of elected local government, often on the evidence of a long-running North American debate. On the basis of ten case studies of English BIDs, in this paper I address the evolution of those organisations as private stakeholder-led instruments for the governance and management of business areas in England. I discuss whether and to what extent English BIDs constitute private government of urban areas, and the attendant issues of accountability and spatial inequalities in the distribution of public services and investment. I conclude by examining the implications of its findings for the future of urban governance.

Type: Article
Title: Business Improvement Districts in England and the (private?) governance of urban spaces
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1068/c12263b
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1068/c12263b
Language: English
Additional information: (C) Pion and its Licensors.
Keywords: Business Improvement Districts urban governance, stakeholder-led governance, privatisation, private service delivery, BIDs’ accountability
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > The Bartlett School of Planning
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1328474
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