| |
Time to help the small businesses with big problems
EVERY powerholder talks big about the need to support small businesses.
And every powerholder, down the years, has done as little as he can get away with.
Local authorities blame Whitehall, and Whitehall blames the local boys.
Meanwhile, aspiring business men and women with a dream take a gamble with council-owned studios or shops, gulp at having to pay the steep rents, struggle on for a short time, perhaps a year or two, and then give up.
Another dream gone!
Since the 1950s a form of statism has evolved through the chain of municipal authorities allowing town halls to intervene in the local economy. This has shrunk since Thatcherism, through different forms of privatisation, but the council still influences the economy in one area – the small business sector.
At present, our council owns more than 1,000 commercial properties which brings in nearly £11million a year in rents.
On the assumption this annual yield isn’t ring-fenced, this tidy sum is presumably sucked into the general kitty and spent – hopefully sensibly.
But a question remains: If the council owns so many business sites, cannot it do something to help the small trader?
Though the council may not behave as rapaciously as some landlords it is still a stickler for rents fixed at market level.
Far too often, this proves too high a hurdle for aspiring traders.
In many cases, for instance, a shopkeeper, renting a council-owned premises, will probably be faced with rents and business rates totalling more than £30,000 a year.
Only a few, in “golden” High Street sites, will make it with that level of basic overhead.
Even so, many pull down the blinds after a year or two.
As the council apparently has the power to fix rents without interference from Whitehall, why doesn’t it start at a very low, effectively subsidised level, allowing traders to establish themselves in what can be, in any case, a very competitive market. The council could also give newcomers a long holiday in rent.
Small businesses, encouraged in this way, would grow and probably create jobs for local people. Perhaps, they would help to chip away at the long list of unemployed youngsters.
However, our elected representatives, apparently bereft of ideas themselves, have decided to go hunting for so-called specialists who can “regenerate” areas and encourage entrepreneurship.
They have decided to spend more than £200,000 on salaries for these “creative individuals”.
This seems like throwing money at a problem.
|
 |
|
|
|
| |
| |
