Can business run a city? In many places, it already does
To cut costs, struggling councils have allowed business groups to take partial control of services, policing, and public space
One of the UK’s fastest growing imports isn’t a product, it’s an idea. You’ve walked through and inside this idea before, shopped inside its boundaries and maybe even felt it. The streets are cleaner. There’s suddenly more benches and a pristine graffiti mural next to a new craft beer pub, but there’s also more police, cameras, and other uniformed guards you don’t recognize. For a moment it’s easy to forget about austerity and the crumbling facade on the housing estate across the street. You’re in London, but not really. You’re in a Business Improvement District (BID).