The National Federation of Retail Newsagents’ (NFRN) National President Parminder Singh and Northamptonshire County Councillor and local business owner Suresh Patel have visited Brian Binley MP for Northampton South to discuss the major concerns facing shopkeepers.
Highlighted issues included crime, planning, empowering small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and the vital role retailers will play in the regeneration of the UK economy and local communities.
In support of the industry and a return to common sense policy making, Binley cited the impending tobacco display ban as a priority piece of legislation that must be repealed.
The ban, which was introduced by the previous administration under opposition from both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, will cost retailers on average £1,000 each to become compliant. With a dwindling sector of 70,000 SMEs that sell tobacco, the new coalition government is asking them to collectively pay a staggering £70m to implement the proposals that will have no public health gain.
Binley said: “The tobacco display ban will be to independent retailers, what the tobacco ban was to local pubs and clubs – a final nail in the coffin heralding a death knell of our local high streets.
“Once the pubs, clubs and small shops shut down, it will be nigh on impossible to recover them and our nation of shop keepers, will be gone for good. This loss, at the ‘heart’ of our communities, has a direct correlation with the decline in the sense, identity and cohesion of our local area.”
Source: National Federation of Retail Newsagents (NFRN)
