Delivering a keynote speech at a Conservative Party Conference Fringe Event on ‘the role of tax increment financing’ Stephen Hughes, Chief Executive of Birmingham City Council has called on Government to push ahead with plans to use Birmingham as a pilot for how the ADZ/TIF model could work in practice.
Stephen Hughes, Chief Executive of Birmingham City Council said:
“Following the earlier announcement that “councils will be able to keep some of the extra business rates and council tax they raise when they enable new developments to go ahead”, we now call on Government to take the next step and allow Birmingham to become the pilot for turning this ambition into reality.
“There is no time to delay – Scottish Government and Scottish Future’s Trust last week gave approval to Edinburgh City Council’s plan to borrow £84m through TIF to redevelop the Leith Docks
“Now we urge Government to retain the £120m ADZ Pilot Programme announced in the Budget on 24th March, and use this money to permit a small number of TIF supported projects to start immediately.
“To enable this process to move forward quickly, and deliver the thousands of new jobs which will flow from it, we believe legislation must:
o be permissive to allow for a range of TIF models
o be included in The Finance Bill, not Localism Bill
o have no caps, but instead agreed objective criteria for TIF approval
o support difficult genuinely transformational economic change projects
o offer flexible borrowing – ie not restricted to local authorities
o avoid the unworkabilities of 2000 Local Tax Reinvestment Programme
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