Let Bedford Work

This is the third in a series of papers on rebuilding Bedford. The first made the case for rejecting decline. The second focused on restoring order and civic pride. This paper sets out the path to local prosperity, through decentralisation, economic freedom, and radical trust in the people of this town.

Reclaiming Bedford: Paper No. 3

Towns like Bedford don’t die because of one single act of destruction, they die from slow suffocation. From economic overreach. From a creeping belief that only government can fix what’s broken. But government is not working. And it hasn’t worked for a long time.

Bedford doesn’t need more top-down plans from people who’ve never run a business. We’ve already seen the failure of these approaches, those expensive town centre 'masterplans' that waste our money on consultants and branding, only to result in more empty units and less footfall.

What Bedford needs is space to breathe. It needs the freedom to build. And it needs to trust the instincts, drive, and creativity of the people who live and work here.

This is a call for radical localism, inspired by Jane Jacobs, who defended the bottom-up vitality of real neighbourhoods, and Friedrich Hayek, who showed why the central planner can never match the collective wisdom of free individuals making their own decisions.

This paper sets out five bold actions Bedford can take to unlock its potential: trust local knowledge, scrap top-down planning, create an economic free zone, cut taxes and audit every penny the council spends.

Action 1: Trust Local Knowledge

In The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs warned against the fantasy that cities could be engineered like machines. “Cities,” she wrote, “have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”

She saw what we see now: planners don’t understand real life on the ground. The heartbeat of a town. The hidden economy. The informal exchanges that make a place tick. When government tries to control that from above, it flattens everything that makes a town thrive.

Hayek echoed this in The Use of Knowledge in Society, where he explained that knowledge is “dispersed bits of incomplete and frequently contradictory information” held by individuals. Government can’t replicate it, it can only get in the way of it.

So the implication is simple: the more we trust people, the more they’ll build.

Innovation doesn’t come from strategy documents or consultations. It comes from people trying things, quickly, freely, without waiting for permission.

But under government bureaucracy, that spirit gets buried. Under high taxation it gets suffocated:

• A café wants to put out a few extra chairs - there’s a form for that.

• A barbershop wants to play music - they need a licence.

• A business wants to hire someone - they face a minefield of employment law designed by union-backed politicians.

All of this under a tax regime that bleeds businesses dry, choking off the profits that fuel ambition and innovation. Government has abandoned its purpose and become a parasite, treating every penny you earn as theirs to seize at will. Let’s call it what it is: legalised state racketeering.

Bedford doesn’t need more red tape. It doesn’t need fairness lectures from people who’ve never made payroll. It needs to unleash its builders, traders, and entrepreneurs.

Action 2: Scrap Top-Down Planning

Jane Jacobs spent much of her life fighting modernist planners who wanted to bulldoze neighbourhoods and replace them with “rational” developments. What they left were dead zones: soulless towers, failing estates, and streets nobody wanted to walk down. She called it “a senseless order, imposed by command.”

That same spirit is alive in our councils and government departments today: endless frameworks, consultation exercises, performance indicators, but no life, no urgency, no instinct to say yes to people with ideas.

As Hayek put it in The Road to Serfdom, “The more the state ‘plans,’ the more difficult planning becomes for the individual.” Every licence, restriction, and delay is a barrier between a good idea and action.

Top-down planning doesn’t build towns. It kills them.

Bedford needs permissionless action, the freedom for people to trade, test, build and create without waiting for bureaucratic sign-off.

Action 3: Create an Economic Free Zone

Local businesses are the heartbeat of Bedford but they’re being strangled by business rates, rent, energy costs, regulation and unfair competition.

The Problem with Business Rates

Business rates were meant to fund local services through a tax on commercial properties. But in today’s economy, they’ve become a weapon against local businesses, an outdated tax crushing the very entrepreneurs that give towns their character.

In theory, they’re simple: your property gets a rateable value based on what it might rent for. That value is multiplied by a government-set figure (currently 49.9p for small businesses) to give your bill. What’s not simple is the world local businesses are now forced to compete in.

Unfair Playing Field

Online shopping has changed everything. People now order with a click, and high streets pay the price. Soulless retail parks, built with parking, scale, and tax efficiency in mind, leech life from town centres. Supermarkets no longer just sell food; they’ve moved into clothing, electronics, pharmacies, cafes, and even banking, colonising every high-margin sector once served by independents.

And then come the multinationals.

Take Starbucks. They don’t just open a single store, they cluster multiple locations across towns to maximise visibility and convenience. With global supply chains and vast marketing budgets, they can offer slick branding, loyalty schemes, and seasonal promotions that small independents can’t match. Landlords often favour them with better rent deals, seeing them as stable, big-name tenants. And while local cafés pay full whack on business rates and taxes, Starbucks has been widely criticised for using complex international structures to minimise their UK tax bill. The money flows out, the independents fold, and we’re left with a high street that looks the same in every town.

And their coffee is crap.

Why Local Matters

The local café owner buys milk from the corner shop, beans from a UK roaster, pays local wages, and reinvests their profits back into the community. Every pound spent with them circulates through the local economy 3–4 times, building resilience, not extracting it. Yet they’re hammered by high rents, punishing business rates, and taxes on everything from space to staff to waste.

And what do they get in return?

This isn’t just bad policy, it’s economic vandalism. If we don’t act, our town centres will rot into ghost towns: boarded-up shops, chain-store mediocrity, and a fertile ground for the growing problem of anti-social behaviour.

We must not accept this. We will not accept this.

That’s why Bedford’s town centre should be an Economic Free Zone: zero business rates for small, independent, locally-owned businesses. This wouldn’t apply to chains. It’s targeted relief to restore fairness and revive our town centre with the personality of the people that live there..

As Hayek said, ‘Competition is a discovery procedure’, a way to reveal what works by unleashing many independent attempts. But that only happens when people are free to try. And right now, locals are taxed out of the race before it begins.

Ah, but business rates are a statutory tax set by Westminster. Councils have discretion to offer rebates or local relief schemes, they should use that power boldly

Action 4: Cut Council Tax, Restore Freedom

Council tax has risen by 36% nationally over the past decade, but in Bedford, it's even worse. Band D households now pay over £2,356 a year, a 44% increase.

And what do we get in return? Fewer police, more crime, a high street which is dying.

Does council tax need to rise every year? Absolutely not. So why does it? Because there are virtually no constraints. When a council lacks fiscal discipline, it simply raids the pockets of hardworking residents.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Councils should commit to reducing council tax year on year, not as a gimmick, but as a moral and financial imperative. This doesn’t mean cutting essential services. It means putting first things first: safety, cleanliness, and core infrastructure. Everything else must prove its worth or go.

As Hayek warned, “Once it is recognised that the function of government is not to ensure particular results to particular people, but merely to provide a framework within which individuals can pursue their own ends, the justification for taxation beyond the minimum required for those functions vanishes.”

Lower council tax means more money in people’s pockets, more dignity, and more economic freedom. It also forces the council to confront the hard questions it’s been avoiding…

Action 5: Audit Everything. Cut the Fat.

We need a full, public audit of every pound spent by Bedford Borough Council, not just to find waste, but to ask: should the council even be doing this at all?

Councils have expanded their scope far beyond what’s reasonable. They’ve become quasi-governments, running PR departments, sponsoring “inclusivity” officers, funding vanity schemes, duplicating services already handled by charities or the private sector.

We must embrace constraint.

Constraint focuses the mind. It forces prioritisation. And it restores public trust, because right now, few people believe the council spends their money wisely.

The council’s role must be redefined:

• What must it do?

• What might it support?

• And what should it never touch again?

Everything else should be left to civil society, business, volunteers and the community. The people who already do the real work anyway.

This approach requires humility, the recognition that no central body can solve every problem for every citizen. The more a council tries to solve, the more it undermines the very foundations of society: initiative, responsibility, and self-reliance.

That’s why we start with a line-by-line audit of council spending. Every contract. Every job role. Every department. No sacred cows.

We should ask:

• Is this essential?

• Could it be done more efficiently?

• Should it be done at all?

This process begins with a freeze on all non-essential spending. A review of procurement contracts to eliminate waste and sweetheart deals. An end to funding lifestyle activism, PR departments, fringe initiatives, and political pet projects. A discipline to say no to the creeping belief that the council exists to fix every grievance, subsidise every want, and cushion every personal hardship.

This isn’t austerity. It’s clarity. And it’s the path back to liberty through discipline and responsibility.

From Civic Dependency to Civic Action

Jane Jacobs called cities “problems in organised complexity.” You can’t solve them from spreadsheets. You can only steward them with trust and freedom.

Hayek called this spontaneous order, the emergence of structure and value when free people act on their knowledge without central instruction.

That’s the Bedford we want: not micromanaged into mediocrity, but alive with civic energy. Where locals take responsibility, clean streets, open shops, support neighbours, host markets, build culture.

A town not controlled, but thriving. Not directed, but dynamic.

Final Word

We don’t need another five-year plan. We don’t need more consultations. And we definitely don’t need another government-funded ‘town centre revitalisation scheme.’

We need freedom. We need trust. We need government to step aside and let Bedford work.

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No Broken Windows in Bedford

Reclaiming Bedford: Paper No. 2

In the early 1990s, New York City faced what felt like irreversible decline. Crime was rampant, public spaces were decaying, and confidence in the city’s future was falling. But then something remarkable happened. Under Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Police Commissioner William Bratton, a new strategy was introduced: Broken Windows Policing.

The theory came from criminologists James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling. Their argument was simple but profound: if a window is broken and left unrepaired, it sends a message that no one cares. And if no one cares, small crimes escalate into larger ones. The answer was to take the small things seriously: fix broken windows, clean up graffiti, tackle petty crime, and uphold public order.

This approach wasn’t about zero-tolerance brutality; it was about setting and enforcing standards that made law-abiding citizens feel safe again. And it worked. Crime plummeted, businesses returned, and New York experienced one of the most dramatic urban turnarounds in modern history.

Similar Crossroads

Walking through Bedford’s town centre, as with so many across the country, you can sense echoes of the decay New York once faced: rubbish on the High Street, boarded-up shops, public drunkenness, open drug use and entire buildings left to rot. It’s all too easy to grow numb to it, to accept this decline as the new normal. But this isn’t normal, and if we don’t act, it will only get worse.

The town centre isn’t just a place where people buy things. It is the heart of our town: our economic engine and our social commons. It’s where people come to work, relax, meet friends, support local businesses and build lives. When we neglect the town centre, we do more than let buildings decay, we allow our civic life to collapse.

Reversing Terminal Decline

Terminal decline doesn’t happen overnight, it creeps. First, footfall drops as people no longer feel safe or welcome. Businesses struggle and eventually shut their doors. Jobs are lost. What’s left behind is a vacuum, quickly filled by anti-social behaviour, addiction, crime, and despair.

The fewer reasons people have to come to town, the more it becomes a place people avoid. And when we lose the town centre, we lose more than an economic hub, we lose pride, opportunity, and community.

We can reverse this decline, reclaim our town and build a place where businesses thrive, families feel safe, and our community can flourish once again. It starts with the will to act.

Clarity, Courage & Discipline

Discipline in public life means upholding standards. It means drawing boundaries. And it means refusing to confuse empathy with enabling destructive behaviour.

Too often, local authorities fall into what Gad Saad calls suicidal empathy: a well-meaning but ultimately self-destructive instinct to tolerate behaviour that ruins public life for the majority. I’ve seen it firsthand in America’s progressive cities. San Francisco is the prime example. As Michael Shellenberger writes in San Fran-sicko, misguided compassion has led to a city where open-air drug markets, untreated mental illness, and aggressive homelessness are tolerated under the guise of social justice, while families and businesses suffer. In short, progressive policies ruin cities.

Let us say this clearly: there is no place for misguided progressive policies that allow a small minority to make life unbearable for everyone else in Bedford. We’ve tried the liberal approach. It has failed. Now it is time for tough love, order, and responsibility.

Bold Actions

To restore Bedford, we must take bold and unapologetic action:

1. Expand and Enforce the PSPO (Public Space Protection Order)
   The Council already has the powers to address anti-social behaviour, but they are too narrow, too weak, and rarely enforced. We need to expand the PSPO zone to cover the entire town centre and enforce it vigorously. That means no more turning a blind eye to groups of alcoholics gathering on the green at the top of the High Street, drinking, fighting, vomiting and scaring residents. If the police won’t enforce it, the Council should deputise a private security team.

2. Zero Tolerance for Drug Crime
   Open drug use has become common in the town. With it comes petty theft, intimidation, and an atmosphere of danger. Business owners are sick of watching crackheads shoplift and make the public car parks feel unsafe. The police must be told in no uncertain terms: the town centre is a no-go zone for drugs. Arrests must happen. Enforcement must be visible.

3. Clamp Down on Aggressive Begging
   Not all begging is the same. Some is coercive, some is criminal, some is part of organised activity. We need a clear distinction between those in genuine need, who should be supported, and those harassing residents, intimidating shoppers, or running scams. The public must feel safe and unbothered in town.

4. Review the Housing of Vulnerable Populations in the Town Centre
   There are people who want help and want to change. They should be supported. But those who refuse help, persistently offend, or fuel anti-social behaviour should be excluded from the town centre. HMOs that have effectively become crack houses must be shut down, and those abusing the housing system must lose access to it. We are not obligated to subsidise destruction.

5. Stop the Importing of Other Councils’ Problems
   It is outrageous that councils like Luton are offloading their most difficult cases onto Bedford. If someone is placed here without a connection to the town and brings disruptive behaviour, they should be supported to return to their community. Bedford is not a dumping ground.

6. Clean the Streets and Raise Standards
   Basic civic pride starts with clean streets. Today, too many areas are filthy with overflowing bins, takeaway litter, smashed bottles. Businesses must take responsibility for the area outside their premises. The Council must enforce cleanliness standards. When the streets are clean, people feel different and they behave differently too.

Civic discipline

Civic discipline isn’t about punishing the vulnerable, it’s about protecting the community. It is about drawing a line between help and harm. It’s about making Bedford safe for the elderly, welcoming for families, and vibrant for entrepreneurs.

The liberal approach, based on vague compassion and endless tolerance, has led to decay. What we need now is a return to conservative principles: structure, responsibility, pride in place, and hard work. That’s how we restore our town.

We act now or we lose what’s left.

No more broken windows in Bedford.

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A Declaration of Civic Restoration

Reclaiming Bedford: Paper No. 1

Bedford is in decline. As are many towns across the U.K.

Empty shops, rising crime, and a tough economic environment highlight a decline that many of us see and feel.

Families, workers, and businesses are caught in systems that no longer serve them. Local politicians lack the power to act decisively and central government policies often prioritise self-preservation over lasting change.

So why is this happening, and how can we fix it?

Historic Perspective

In trying to understand the problems we face, we can look to the parallels with the founding of the United States. Faced with distant and unresponsive governance, the American colonists returned to first principles regarding core ideas about liberty, self-determination, and the proper role of government.

In 1776, the American colonists described a government that taxed without consent and deployed bureaucracies to harass and control. The people were treated not as citizens, but as subjects.

Does this sound familiar?

Thomas Jefferson wrote that when a government becomes “destructive of these ends”, the ends of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it. The American patriots did not wait for permission. They did not ask politely. They did not accept decline as destiny.

Thankfully, the United Kingdom is not on the verge of violent revolution, nor should it be. Instead, we have the opportunity to drive a different type of revolution: a peaceful one driven by community. No muskets. No militias. Only resolve. Resolve to act, to organise, to reject decline and build something better. Because when government no longer works, we must act.

Government is the Problem

At the national level, government has grown into a stagnant blob, a creature of its own appetites. It taxes endlessly, spends blindly, and regulates obsessively. It talks of fairness while presiding over a rigged and decaying system. It offers benefits in place of opportunity and surveillance in place of safety.

Locally, councils are trapped. Shackled by statutory duties that leave no room for bold action. Their budgets are consumed by social care mandates while local entrepreneurs are held back by a business rates system hostile to growth. Even those with good intentions are rendered impotent by the machinery of government.

The consequences are there for us all to see. Bedford’s town centre has become a place where drug addicts and alcoholics roam the high street, openly taking drugs and contributing to the plague of shoplifting which the police refuse to deal with. Shops sit vacant, and families, especially women, come to the town less and less as they feel unsafe. Coupled with a neglect for the aesthetics of the town, it is unsurprising that so many refer to the town centre as a “shit hole”.

Bedford is not unique with these problems but it can be unique with its refusal to accept decline as inevitable. It can show the country that when government cannot fix a town, the people can.

A Call to Action

What is needed now is an army, not of soldiers, but of locals. Locals who are proud, angry, and determined. Locals who believe Bedford can be more than it has become. If united, this town can be rebuilt from the ground up. Not in theory. In practice: specific, implementable, unapologetic plans.

Those who believe this must do more than agree, they must act. Show up. Sign up. Speak up. Join the working groups.

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This article was inspired by the American Declaration of Independence and The Federalist Papers.

More articles will be written to highlight why we must take action to reclaim our town.