Westminster and City of London Liberal Democrats

Bayswater Lib Dems fight for small businesses in Westbourne Grove and Queensway

Following two surveys of Westbourne Grove businesses regarding the impact of extensive road closures, the opening of the Westfield shopping centre and the recession, Westminster North Liberal Democrats have put pressure on Westminster City Council over the last few years to help the area's struggling small businesses.

However, the Council has taken measures that have so far been more expensive than effective. Mark Blackburn, parliamentary candidate for Westminster North and council candidate for Bayswater ward, said:

"Earlier this year the Council set up a 'business improvement district' company for Bayswater, the idea being that this company work on behalf of the businesses in the ward."

"However, how it goes about this has not been made clear and so far it seems to have done extremely little, while putting up local business rates by an extra 2% whether they like it or not."

Anthony Williams, another Liberal Democrat council candidate for Bayswater ward, added:

"The way in which this business improvement company was put in place was highly questionable. Only 35% of the area's businesses took part in the founding meeting, of which only a slim majority were in favour. It is not clear to what extent this meeting was publicised or its importance was explained in advance."

"Westminster Council needs to recognise that this useless body has no legitimacy and either scrap it completely or hold a fresh meeting - fully publicised and where businesses are given a fairer say as to whether they favour the creation of such a body."

"The fact is that Council has done nothing to help our local businesses after the events of the last two years, and has consistently shown a lack of interest and concern for small businesses and the challenges they have faced. The business improvement company is simply adding to the financial burden on them."

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Background information:

In 2008 and 2009 Westminster Liberal Democrats carried out 2 separate Surveys into the effects of the road closure, and the severe recession immediately following it, on the small businesses of Westbourne Grove and the area around it. On 22 July 2009 Mark Blackburn, our Chairman, wrote to the Leader of the Council, urging him to give them some help (letter below). Several months later, a Business Improvement District (BID) company was set up for Bayswater, w.e.f. January 2010: this is a body, of which Westminster already has 3 others, authorized under the Local Government Act 2003. It covers the area including Westbourne Grove and Queensway, and is supposed to encourage the development of local businesses.

• A vote was held on 20 November 2009, on whether this BID should be set up, in which only 35% took part, and of these a small majority were in favour: this represents about a fifth of the total number of 445 businesses, and it is not clear how well it was publicized or how its importance was explained in advance.
• It may be that larger businesses were given a larger share of the vote, which the Council's website describes as being based on a "Majority...in terms of number and rateable value" (my italics) - scarcely a democratic process.
• Under the provisions of the Act, all businesses in the BID area are now required, whether they like it or not, to pay a levy of 2% p.a. of their rateable value (RV) to this company, which is supposed to work on their behalf in some unspecified way, but has done little or nothing as yet.
• All these businesses have just had their RV increased, by somewhere from 40-60%, based on a review carried out every 5 years, and backdated to early 2008 - i.e. at the peak of the boom, just before the bubble burst.
• There is no one-stop source of advice and help in the Council for small businesses - which everyone says they want to encourage - and they are often baffled by the complex bureaucratic requirements of the Council, HMRC (which employs the Valuation Officer), Valuation Tribunals and other bodies, in dealing with the rating system, and many just give up.

Mark Blackburn, as Chairman of Westminster Liberal Democrats, wrote to the Leader of the Council, Colin Barrow, on 22 July 2009 (letter below) to draw his attention to the resulting plight of small businesses in Westbourne Grove, and to ask the Council to help them "in every way possible": he received little substantive reply.

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Westminster Liberal Democrats

97 St. John's Wood Terrace,

London, NW8 6PP.

22 July 2009.

Cllr. Colin Barrow,

Leader of the Council,

Westminster City Hall,

64 Victoria Street,

London, SW1E 6QP.

EFFECTS OF CLOSURE AND RECESSION ON BUSINESSES IN WESTBOURNE GROVE

Dear Cllr. Barrow,

All the residents of the area attach enormous value to the numerous small businesses in Westbourne Grove and its vicinity, for the personal contact and service they provide. We believe that they are a local treasure, but sadly the Council you lead does not appear to: it fails to communicate with them, to advise or to help them, and seems not to care whether they prosper, or even survive.

This is not just what we think - it is what they tell us: we have just completed a second Survey (copies of results and comments enclosed) to follow up on the one we carried out, almost a year ago, on the effects on these businesses of the closure of Westbourne Grove because of the extensive works by Thames Water between January and July 2008.

The results of this latest Survey are deeply worrying, because not only are the shops suffering the after-effects of the closure, they have now been hit hard by the worst recession since the 1930s. And what is your Council doing to help them? Nothing, they tell us. In response to questions about whether anyone from Westminster Council had offered them any information or advice on how to handle the effects of the closure, or any compensation for the losses they suffered, not one said "Yes".

Nothing has changed: the Council does not in any way communicate or offer help to these small businesses, which are struggling to survive, and in many cases do not know how the bureaucracy, including the rating system, works - most had no idea about the decision of the Valuation Tribunal, or of the HMRC Valuation Officer's appeal against it.

You have ignored every single recommendation we made last year; please do not ignore our request now to help these small businesses in every way possible - 10 of them are now closed and shuttered, partly as a result of your negligence. We cannot afford for any more to go under.

Yours sincerely,

Mark Blackburn, Chairman

City of Westminster Liberal Democrats.