Businesses across Northampton town centre have voted in favour of renewing their Business Improvement District (BID) status, securing over £2.2 million in funding to be invested over the next five years.
This funding will support ongoing efforts to enhance the trading environment and advocate for local business interests.
The positive outcome follows several months of preparation, including detailed interviews, surveys, and a month-long ballot in which businesses in the town were invited to vote on the renewal proposals.
For the BID to be successfully renewed, it requires more than 50% of voting businesses to cast a ‘Yes’ vote, and those businesses need to represent over 50% of the total rateable value of all votes cast. Both of these criteria were met.
Voting closed on 30th October and 82% of votes cast voted in favour of the BID renewal ballot by total number of businesses, and 88% of votes cast voted in favour of the BID by rateable value.
Through the BID, a range of improvements have been successfully delivered across the town centre. The BID has helped Northampton become a more attractive town through targeted clean-ups, green space improvement projects such as St Katherine’s Gardens and additional bunting and window vinyls.
The BID has also staged and supported numerous events that have positively driven visitor footfall, facilitated business growth and generally supported the needs of the businesses within the town centre.
As a result of the yes vote, the renewal of Northampton BID will commence on April 1 2026 and businesses with a rateable value of £5,000 or above will pay a levy based upon their rateable value, creating a collective fund of more than £2.2 million to spend over the next five years.
The plans were spearheaded and driven by the board of business representatives from across the town, supported by pfbb UK, who develop and deliver BIDs across the country.
Commenting on the successful renewal, co-chairs of the board Sali Brown and Andrea Smith said: “This is fantastic news for Northampton. A huge congratulations to all the businesses that came together and rallied in support of the renewal ballot. Their collective effort has secured a ‘Yes’ vote, ensuring continued investment in our area. We’d also like to thank everyone who engaged in the process, sharing ideas, offering feedback, and ultimately voting in favour of a plan that supports collaboration and resilience during these challenging and uncertain times.
“The BID’s business plan, which businesses were being asked to vote on, has been designed to address the issues which came up during the lengthy consultations with many of the businesses in the BID area, from the small independent businesses to large national businesses.
“The money will now be spent through the three key strategic objectives and their related activities.”
The project team are now looking forward to delivering more great initiatives and projects over the next five years and building on the work to date.
For more information and to view the new BID business plan, please visit www.northamptonbid.co.uk.
