Businesses are working together as communities to ease their plight, reports Alex Turner

INTERNATIONAL discussions to find a solution to the ongoing economic crisis are once again to the fore, but across the region small businesses are coming together to fight back against recession.

This month, Love Frodsham has been created as more than 60 businesses have joined together to raise the profile of the Cheshire market town as a leisure and shopping destination.

Chairman Barrie Davidson, of Stationhouse Brewery, said: “We passionately believe Frodsham is a great place to be. We want to remind people how attractive it is and put the town back on the map again.

“We will be launching a major awareness campaign and working hard to improve the quality of the visitor experience by enhancing the Thursday market and other events and initiatives.

“Our aim is to make Frodsham the UK’s most visitor-friendly market town by 2012.

“This is not pie in the sky but a real, measurable quality standard, that we have every expectation of meeting.

“We are a fantastic town, with a lot going on and a great heritage. We just need to tell other people, so they come and find out for themselves.”

Traders in Old Swan are also pulling together to attract more customers.

The Old Swan Business Association (OSBA) was set up six months ago, and one of its first acts was to produce a business directory that was distributed to 14,000 homes which gave details of services and products, and contact details to encourage residents to shop locally.

Paul Aberdein, joint chairman of OSBA and a partner at Bartletts Solicitors, said: “There is a real need to grow the economy in this area, as well as other suburbs, and we took the view that our businesses can thrive if we work together to encourage the local community to access what we have to offer.”

The Daily Post’s sister paper, the Southport Visiter, has launched the Shop Local campaign to encourage people to support the resort’s retailers.

The paper has also joined the “I Love Southport” campaign organised by Southport Business Enterprise, which is supported by Sefton Council and local businesses. Southport town centre manager Jim Breen said: “We want the public and private sectors to do their best to support each other in these times.

“People are responding well to the campaigns.

“We had a bunch of promotional material printed and the shops keep ringing me up asking me to top up their supplies.”

A report by Public and Corporate Economic Consultants, for the Local Government Association (LGA), called From Recession to Recovery: The Local Dimension, argues that the best way to boost the economy is to allow decisions to be made at a local level.

It says: “In times of recession, the need for devolution to sub-regions, including counties, functional economic areas, local council partnerships and individual local authorities becomes more obvious and more urgent.”

It said that, even within individual regions, there are marked differences between how local areas may fare.

The report was part of a warning by the LGA, which represents councils in England, that a national, blanket policy to deal with the recession will be unable to target help effectively to specific areas.

It called for as many economic decisions as possible to be taken at a local level to ensure that local solutions can be found to local problems. It says: “National and regional policies cannot, therefore, target fully the areas which are most likely to be affected by the slowdown. Decisions about economic interventions need to be taken at the level of the functional economic area.”

The report’s conclusions recommended “appropriate local policies” fell into five categories. These are business development and support, training and skills, infrastructure investment, housing and planning, support for innovation.

Local authorities in the Liverpool city region have been active in providing support to businesses.

Knowsley Council has announced it is to set up a £1m business support fund to help companies that have hit financial difficulties to get through the downturn and retain their staff.

Knowsley’s executive director for regeneration, Nick Kavanagh, said: “This fund has been set aside from the council’s budget to assist businesses in difficulty.

“They may need help with property-related issues, training or business rates to assist them in staying afloat. That £1m will pay itself back ten-fold.”

The announcement came as the council held a business summit in Kirkby, which saw 100 business leaders and regeneration officials debate the state of the borough’s economy.

Nigel Graham, managing director of Kirkby chipboard factory Sonae, was involved in the discussions at the summit.

He said: “As businesses, we need some help through this difficult period. We are not saying that we don’t have a responsibility but we do believe that there can be help provided by local and central government and we must get away from overly-bureaucratic solutions – so it’s a particular solution to today’s problems.”

A year-long Keep Trade Local campaign, by business support organisation Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has sought to highlight the problems facing firms, especially in smaller communities.

The FSB is gathering signatures to a petition which calls for the Prime Minister to secure the future of small shops across the UK and safeguard the choice and competition that people expect in the market place.

Wirral MP Stephen Hesford was one of the first to sign the petition locally, and scores of FSB members across the region have gathered signatures at their business premises and shops.

The FSB has campaigned specifically on issues including procurement, business rates, business crime and parking which it wants to be addressed to assist small businesses and local economies.

It has also created a small business engagement accord, a voluntary code of practice for councils and the FSB to sign.

FSB Liverpool branch chairman Chris Burgess said: “By signing up to the Accord, we can work together with local councils to address the most common problems that all too often serve to alienate the business community from the decision-making process. We both have a common interest in ensuring that the voice of the local business community is heard on issues that concern them. By working together, we can ensure that we put the voice of small businesses at the heart of all future consultations.”

Wirral and Halton councils have also held events in recent weeks to provide businesses with the information and support to get through the difficult times.Steve Maddox, chief executive of Wirral Council, said: “Events like this allow us to get many different business support agencies in one room, so that our companies can find out about the support that is available to them, and how to access it without having to take too much time out from their working day.”

alex.turner