Town centre businesses vote from 23 September on a third five-year BID term at 2.75% of rateable value. The result is announced on 30 October. What it costs, and who pays.

Businesses in Welwyn Garden City town centre will be asked from 23 September whether to keep the town’s Business Improvement District going for another five years, at a levy of 2.75% of rateable value. Ballot papers close at 5pm on Thursday 29 October and the result is announced the following day.

The renewal proposal and the full 2027 to 2032 business plan were published on 28 August in the papers for the borough council’s Cabinet meeting on Tuesday 8 September, where councillors are asked to back the BID and to cast the council’s own YES vote as a ratepayer. Both documents are on the Cabinet agenda.

What businesses are being asked to pay

The levy is charged on rateable value, not on turnover or floor area. The business plan sets it at 2.75% for the first year, and at 2.41% for businesses inside the shopping centre, on the grounds that the centre’s own service charge already covers some of what the BID does.

Three rules decide who pays:

  • premises with a rateable value below £5,000 pay nothing and get no vote
  • the levy is capped at a rateable value of £1 million, so the largest units pay no more than a £1m property would
  • from April 2028 the bill rises each year by CPI inflation or 2%, whichever is higher

These are the indicative first-year costs the BID has published.

Indicative BID levy at 2.75% of rateable value, 2027 to 2028
Rateable valueA yearA weekA day
Under £5,000NothingNothingNothing
£5,000£138£2.64£0.38
£15,000£413£7.93£1.13
£20,000£550£10.58£1.51
£50,000£1,375£26.44£3.77
£100,000£2,750£52.88£7.53
£250,000£6,875£132.21£18.84
£500,000£13,750£264.42£37.67

The plan does not publish the levy rate businesses pay under the current term, so the size of any increase is not stated in it. What the BID board does say is that its income has fallen in real terms: levy income in 2026 to 2027 is “only marginally higher” than it was in 2017 to 2018 while inflation has run at almost 40% over the same period, and changes in rateable values have cut the levy raised from individual properties.

The dates that matter

The bill you get in April 2027 is worked out from the rateable value on the council’s business rates system as it stands on 17 September 2026, so a revaluation landing after that date does not change the first year’s levy.

Welwyn Garden City BID renewal ballot: the key dates A timeline running from September 2026 to April 2027. Notice of ballot published 9 September 2026. Rateable values fixed 17 September. Ballot papers issued 23 September. Last day to appoint a proxy 19 October. Ballot closes 5pm 29 October. Result announced 30 October. New five-year term begins 1 April 2027. The BID ballot: seven dates between now and April 2027 Indicative timetable published in the Welwyn Garden City BID business plan 2027 to 2032. 9 Sep 17 Sep 23 Sep 19 Oct 29 Oct 30 Oct 1 Apr 2027 Notice ofballotpublished Rateablevaluesfixed Ballot papersissued tolevy payers Last day toappoint aproxy Ballotclosesat 5pm Count andresultannounced New termstarts, runsto 2032 To pass, the ballot has to clear two tests at once A simple majority of those voting must vote YES, and those YES votes must also carry the majority of the aggregate rateable value cast. Fail either one and the BID ends on 31 March 2027. Source: Welwyn Garden City BID Business Plan 2027 to 2032, ballot timetable and levy criteria. Graphic by Welwyn Online.
Graphic by Welwyn Online. The 28-day postal ballot opens on 23 September 2026.

What the levy would buy

If the ballot passes, the BID expects to raise £2,069,647 in levy over the five years and a further £208,162 from sponsorship, landlords and commercial income, giving total income of £2,277,808. Planned spending of £2,227,700 breaks down like this:

  • £884,916 (40%) on “Proud Place”: marketing, the Wonderful WGC brand and the events programme
  • £455,100 (20%) on “Thriving Economy”: investment promotion, business support and networking
  • £379,250 (17%) on “Welcoming Environment”: floral displays, lighting, an engagement officer and crime reduction work with the police
  • £342,108 (15%) on central management, administration and office costs
  • £103,482 (5%) contingency
  • £62,844 (3%) paid back to the council for collecting the levy

The BID says businesses have put more than £3 million into the town centre through the levy since 2017, and that it worked with Hertfordshire County Council on town centre improvements worth £9 million.

Who gets a vote

The plan records 219 occupied and trading businesses in the area that meet the levy criteria. The boundary runs from Campus West and the college in the north to the railway line in the east, then south along the railway to the Osborn Way car park, with Parkway as the western edge. Fourteen streets are listed inside it: Bridge Road in part, Church Road, College Way, part of Digswell Road, Fretherne Road, Howardsgate, Osborn Way, Parkway numbers 1 to 101, Stonebank, Stonehills, The Campus, Sir Theodore’s Way, Wigmores North and Wigmores South.

At the last renewal ballot in 2021 the BID says it won the support of more than 80% of the businesses that took part.

The council is on several sides of this

Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council runs the ballot, is paying for it, collects the levy and is itself a levy payer on the properties it owns inside the boundary. The Cabinet report asks members to delegate authority to the Executive Director for Finance and Transformation to cast a YES vote on the council’s behalf. Two council representatives sit on the BID board, and the business plan names the council’s returning officer as the returning officer for the ballot, while the Cabinet report says the returning officer will be confirmed by Electoral Services.

None of that is unusual for a BID renewal, and the council also has a statutory veto it must consider using: it has to decide whether the proposal conflicts with any adopted council policy, or places a significantly disproportionate financial burden on any person or class of person. The report concludes it does neither.

There is one complication the council cannot control. Local government reorganisation is due to replace Hertfordshire’s current councils with new unitary authorities from April 2028, subject to parliamentary approval, which falls in year two of the new BID term. The business plan says the levy would then be billed and collected by “the new Central Hertfordshire Council”.

What it means for you

If you run a business in one of those 14 streets, check your rateable value now rather than in April 2027. The figure on the council’s system on 17 September sets your first bill, and anything below £5,000 takes you out of both the levy and the vote. Ballot papers go out on 23 September and have to be back by post before 5pm on 29 October; a proxy has to be appointed by 19 October. The levy is payable whichever way you voted, or if you did not vote at all.

If you live here rather than trade here, the ballot decides who pays for a list of things most people would assume the council funds. The Christmas lights trail, the floral displays that have taken Anglia in Bloom golds, the World Food Festival, Screen on the Green and the town’s free recycling scheme for businesses are all listed in the plan as BID-funded, and the BID says they would end without a renewed mandate.

Details of voting procedures are available from the council’s elections team on 01707 357300 or at elections@welhat.gov.uk.

More local coverage: what is happening with planning in Welwyn Hatfield, things to do in Welwyn Garden City, and town centre parking charges and roadworks.

Sources: Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council Cabinet, 8 September 2026, item 7b, Proposal for a third term of the Welwyn Garden City Business Improvement District for 2027 to 2032 and Welwyn Garden City BID Business Plan 2027 to 2032.