A FUNDING request for £25,000 of local authority money is being made to support plans for a Business Improvement District in York.

City Team York is proposing to introduce the Business Improvement District (BID) scheme in York's city centre in a move which will see businesses within the inner ring road charged a one per cent levy on their business rates.

The money, which City Team York believes could be as much as £4 million over five years, will then be used on improvement schemes, agreed by businesses within the district.

Ahead of a vote later this year, which will determine whether the BID scheme is adopted or not, City Team York has entered into consultation with businesses on the proposals.

The organisation has also now put in a request for £25,000 from City of York Council's Economic Infrastructure Fund to supplement the funding of a Business Improvement District Manager, post April 2015.

The manager will be tasked with ensuring that any proposals put forward for the area are produced with the backing of city centre businesses.

The council's Cabinet Members will decide whether to allocate the funding when they meet on March 3.

Cllr David Levene, cabinet member for Transport, Planning and Economic Development said: "A Business Improvement District would allow businesses to come together to decide how they might pool their resources to benefit the local economy.

"The council is looking to support this project, in order to unlock significant private-sector investment in the city's economy."

The Economic Infrastructure Fund (EIF) is a £28.5 million fund that was created to enable projects of strategic importance to the city’s ambitions for creating jobs and growing the economy. So far investment from the fund approved to date from previous cabinets is £28.2 million.