Backing the bill

Jan 31 2008 By Sarah Judd, Evening Gazette

INDEPENDENT retailers on Teesside today backed a bill that sets out to protect local high streets from predatory supermarkets by giving financial support to small shops and lowering business rates. It would also set up an Office for Retail Planning.

Under the Bill authorities would have to advise existing retailers, or those proposing to open shops, about the different forms of ownership available to them. Financial support would also be available where three or more individuals formed a cooperative or partnership in order to run a small retail premises.

Russell Sawdon, a florist who owns shops in Hartburn and Acklam Road described the Retail Development Bill introduced in the House of Lords last week to force local authorities to establish support schemes, as “the first bit of positive legislation for SMEs we have seen from the Government in four-and-a-half years in business.”

Although he had managed to head off competition from mini supermarkets and convenience stores for flower and plant sales, he said providing protection for struggling shops was a “good move.”

“It is good to see politicians thinking of addressing the needs and problems of the small business and offering them more support,” he said.

“I have contract customers and provide services for weddings and funerals, so the supermarkets can’t compete with us on that level, but where people are just looking to pick up a standard bunch of flowers, we’ve got to let them have that market and push the quality side of ours.

“Luckily, in Acklam, there is no competition from a mini supermarket, but there is a Somerfield at Hartburn which sells flowers and plants and that is starting to impact our business for the first time.”

The Forum of Private Business (FPB) is also backing the Bill introduced by Liberal Democrat peer Lord Cotter.

If it becomes law, local authorities would have to provide financial support to businesses threatened with closure. The Government would also review retail business rates applied to small shops, possibly based on a percentage of annual turnover.

But Middlesbrough Council’s business development manager, Abrar Hussain, said the council already provided support for local retailers.

“Businesses call us and give us an idea of the grants they need to set up, grow, or keep their business afloat or keep them level pegging with the competition,” he said.

FPB’s policy representative, Matthew Goodman, said councils such as Middlesbrough could do better: “They should look on this review as a chance to make their communities better places in which to do business.”