Councillor Joanna proposed a motion at the borough council meeting this evening urging the council to act to support the borough's small businesses through the impact of the Chancellor's budget including, and especially, increases to national insurance. Typically, she was heckled by the Labour councillor leader during her comments. The motion was seconded by Cllr Gabriella Giles who spoke immediately after Jo specifically looking at the effect of the budget on charities. The debate was recorded on Hounslow council's YouTube channel, see link below.
Thank you, Madam Mayor.
And this is original, and not from CCHQ. (Comment made after Labour accused the Tory councillors of getting their speeches from Conservative Campaign Headquarters.)
There is something wrong with a policy – others have said it – when over 80 leading retailers write to the chancellor about the damaging impact on their businesses of the budget including increases to National Insurance.
At least 23 of them operate in the borough. Others have mentioned some: From Aldi and Asda to Majestic, Mountain Warehouse, Poundland, Primark, Richer Sounds, Specsavers and The Works.
We councillors must listen not just to these large collective voices but also to small independent business owners.
The owner of one café told me that his employer costs will increase by £13,000 a year, before adding utility price rises and food inflation – the ingredients he needs to open his doors to his customers – and the costs of his suppliers whose prices will also go up.
Customers are very price-sensitive, comparing costs between cafés and shops. When a business is only breaking even now, any price increase will reach the point at which customers stop buying.
The cafe owner said, “We’ll be going round in circles. It’s absolute madness, picking on small businesses as if they have no value”.
A service business owner explained that all their costs had gone up, increasing the price of workshops for children. She said, “customers are paying more on other things in their lives so, with less money to spend, the workshops just aren’t viable any more.
National Insurance increases apply along every part of the chain from the originating producers (including farmers) to the closing of the business door and switching off the lights at the end of a day’s trading. It’s compounded, ending with a higher price on the menu, the chalkboard, the label. There is no hiding place as business owners have no more give to give.
This will affect not just our four main high streets – Hounslow, Chiswick, Brentford and Feltham – but also every smaller retail area: Bedfont, Cranford, Hanworth, Heston, Isleworth, Osterley: a pharmacy, hairdresser or barber, café, restaurant, a corner shop or small chain supermarket, these hyper-local parades, all with their futures now at risk.
We need a shop local campaign
Very few residents know what we have where – residents get used to their own favoured routes, seldom deviating. The council should support groups whose ideas it has ignored. In Chiswick, the shops task force is ready to go with ideas that would work across the borough.
Footfall has not returned to its peak – and that’s before 2018. We need to make our streets less hostile to going out especially at night. Poor lighting; pavements slippery from un-swept wet leaves; walking through weeds, waste sacks and litter; dodging unnecessary street clutter – and the risks of crime – all are deterrents to spending in our local economies. We should make more of Christmas and other celebrations. And, please remember, footfall is not the same as spend. We should hold events that bring spending to our bricks and mortar shops, not out-of-town traders who compete with them.
Free parking must be free
Unwelcome as the fact is in this anti-car borough, parking continues to be one of the most important factors encouraging local spending. As anyone interested in Chiswick knows, this continues to be eroded (and I will have more to say on this outside this chamber). Contrary to claims made at a previous borough council, the free 30-minute stop-and-shop parking is not free. It costs 15p. This charge should be stopped and free parking should be extended to, and expanded in, all retail parking streets or nearby and all council car parks.
Business advisory services
How should the council deliver benefits to local businesses? Not through yet more workshops from consultancies that aren’t even based in the borough. And that means not setting them up short-term with an address in the borough to make it look as if they are local. The borough has its own consultancies, including sole traders, who understand their areas and the needs of their local businesses. Let’s support them in supporting our local businesses. Let’s keep the Hounslow Pound – which includes any pounds given to us by government – in Hounslow.
On that point, I must refer to the fact that the council returned to the government £1.2m of the final Covid grant for small businesses. This failure to benefit local businesses must never be repeated.
There is no shortage of ideas within the borough. Suggestions for Chiswick, some of which would work across the borough, were made over four years ago. There is no more time to lose.
I urge you to support this motion.
Recording on Hounslow's YouTube channel. Jo starts speaking at around 1 hour 40 minutes in.
