Ashford town centre businesses get a postal vote from 18 November on a five-year Business Improvement District raising about £120,000 a year in levy.
Businesses in Ashford town centre are set to vote on whether to pay a levy for a Business Improvement District (BID). Ashford is about three miles east of Staines.
Ballot papers are due to go out on Wednesday 18 November. Postal votes must arrive by 5pm on Friday 18 December, and the council plans to announce the result on Monday 21 December. Those dates come from the BID team’s summary of consultation published with the council’s committee papers.
If businesses vote yes, the BID would run for five years, from 1 April 2027 to 31 March 2032.
What the council was asked to decide
Spelthorne’s Business, Infrastructure and Growth Committee met on Thursday 1 October to decide whether the ballot can go ahead. The council has the power to veto a BID if it conflicts with council policy or puts an unfair burden on one group of ratepayers.
Officers recommended no veto. Their report says they found nothing that would justify one. The council had not published the committee’s decision when we checked on Sunday morning. We will update this page when it does.
What the BID would cost
The full BID proposal and the list of businesses entitled to vote are exempt from publication. The public papers still give the main numbers:
- About £120,000 in levy from businesses in 2027/28, plus an estimated £5,000 in voluntary contributions
- No levy below £10,000 rateable value, and a cap of £5,000 on what any one business pays, according to the council’s compliance matrix
- £3,375 for the council to run the ballot, which it pays whether the vote passes or fails
- £3,500 a year charged to the BID company for collecting the levy, plus a one-off £9,500 set-up fee, under the draft operating agreement
The council would pay levy on its own property too. The report puts West Surrey Council’s share at £1,000 a year, mainly for the multi-storey car park. The finance officer’s comments in the same report give £1,500. The difference appears to be two county-owned buildings, the library and the Ashford Clinic, whose levy a report comment says would fall to the county budget.
The rateable value of a property is the figure business rates are worked out from. The public papers do not give the levy as a percentage of it.
What it would spend the money on
The BID’s programme has four priorities, according to the consultation summary:
- a connected Ashford
- a safer Ashford
- stronger business performance
- an improved town centre environment
The detailed projects sit in the exempt proposal, so we cannot list them yet.
How the idea started
The plan grew out of a feasibility study by consultants Heartflood, dated May 2025. It surveyed town centre businesses between 3 February and 14 April 2025 and got 76 replies.
Of those who answered, 61% agreed a BID should be put to a vote after more consultation. 31% were undecided and 8% disagreed.
The proposal has changed since. The 2025 study suggested:
| 2025 feasibility study | 2026 proposal | |
|---|---|---|
| Ballot | May 2026 | 18 November to 18 December 2026 |
| Start date | August 2026 | 1 April 2027 |
| Levy-free below | £5,000 rateable value | £10,000 rateable value |
| Yearly levy income | about £80,000 | about £120,000 (2027/28) |
The study estimated about 240 business premises would be inside a BID on its suggested boundary. It also suggested a levy of 2.9% of rateable value. The 2026 papers do not say whether either figure still applies.
The study’s suggested priority projects, drawn from the survey, included:
- improving the look of empty shops
- security and CCTV improvements
- car parking promotions
- street markets
- street cleaning and washing, including chewing gum removal
How the vote works
A BID only passes if it wins two majorities among the businesses that vote:
- more yes votes than no votes
- yes votes from businesses with more combined rateable value than the no voters
The ballot will be run by Spelthorne’s Returning Officer with an outside ballot provider. If it passes, the levy becomes compulsory for every eligible business in the area, including those that voted no.
Spelthorne is due to be replaced by West Surrey Council on 1 April 2027, the same day the BID would start. The officers’ report says the operating agreement includes terms to hand the levy collection over to the new council.
What it means for you
If you run a business in central Ashford, check you are on the voter list. The BID team says the voter list and each business’s named decision-maker will be checked with the council before the ballot, and businesses will be told about proxy voting where needed. The team can be reached at info@ashfordbid.co.uk, the contact given on the council’s BID page. Ask for the final business plan, which the BID team says will go to every eligible business before voting starts.
If you live in or shop in Ashford, the vote is for businesses only. Residents do not pay the levy and do not get a ballot. The council says BID money must pay for things on top of its normal services, not replace them: a separate baseline agreement sets out the street cleaning, litter and graffiti work the council must keep providing.
For other changes to the town centres, see our planning news.
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