Following a successful launch in Dalston over the summer, Hackney Conservatives’ campaign to support our local shops continued in December in Hackney Central.

 Simon Nayyar (pictured middle in the team photo), Conservative parliamentary candidate for Hackney South & Shoreditch and Darren Caplan (second from right), candidate for Hackney North & Stoke Newington, joined local activists and shoppers to highlight the importance of local shops to our community, and the tough time they are having through the recession.

The stall was set up over two locations, outside the Hackney Empire on Mare Street and on Amhurst Road high street with a petition calling on the Government to introduce a raft of measures that would give  immediate, practical assistance to small and medium-sized businesses right across the borough. Hackney Conservatives have now collected almost 150 signatures in support of local shops.

 Commenting on the campaign, Simon Nayyar said: “When we launched the campaign in Dalston over the summer, we were amazed at the positive response shown by shoppers – and I’m delighted to say that this  was repeated on Mare Street and Amhurst Road. The message is clear: the community values the services provided by local shops, and the Government needs to do more to ensure their survival. Once our local shops start to disappear there’s no guarantee they will come back – it really has become a case of use it or lose it!”

 Darren Caplan said: “Small and medium-sized businesses make up the vast majority of businesses here in Hackney: they are the main provider of jobs and the engine room of the local economy. Talking to local people, it’s very clear that they feel local shops are not just places to buy goods and services, though; they are at the very heart of our high streets and communities, and give the places we live a unique sense of character.  We will continue to campaign hard to support local businesses – and the customers that use them – as much as possible.”

Information about the petition

The petition calls on the Government to introduce a raft of measures that will give immediate, practical assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises. Measures include:

•  The establishment of a National Loan Guarantee Scheme, which would see the Government underwrite £50 billion worth of loans to business;
• Cutting small companies’ corporation tax rate from 22p to 20p; 
• Cutting National Insurance Contributions by one penny in the pound for small companies with less than five employees;
• Allowing small and medium sized enterprises to defer their VAT bill for up to six months, paying only the standard 7.5% rate of interest; and 
• A commitment to automatically pay the Small Business Rate Relief to eligible companies, which could save them up to £1,100 a year.

If you would like to add your name to the petition, please email action@hackneyconservatives.com, with your name and address.

The October Office of National Statistics figures show that there are 92 people competing for each job in Hackney North & Stoke Newington compared to 65 in the next worst constituency, and with the national average less than 10.

Darren Caplan, Conservative Hackney North & Stoke Newington spokesman, said:

“These figures simply show that not enough is being done locally to equip those seeking work and to make it easier for employers to employ people.

“Hackney North & Stoke Newngton has by far the worst situation for job seekers than any other area in the country, nine times the national average. Yet we haven’t heard Diane Abott’s views on this, despite her regularly being all over the airwaves talking about national and international issues. What about the people of Hackney?

“No-one is saying it is easy to find a job in today’s tough economic climate. Yet surely the local political representatives – Diane Abbott, who has represented the constituency for 22 years, the Labour Council and Mayor, the Labour GLA member Jeanette Arnold and this Labour government – should take some of the responsibility.

“The Conservatives , on the other hand, recently launched a package of measures to get areas like Hackney North & Stoke Newington working again, including plans for additional apprenticeships and training places, business loans to support self-employment and assisting franchising as a route back into work. It is becoming increasingly clear that to get real change, Hackney North & Stoke Newington needs a Conservative government and a Conservative MP.”

**Dealing with Labour’s Jobs Crisis**

Labour are now the party of unemployment. Two and a half million people are unemployed and one in five young people can’t find a job. By launching our plan to Get Britain Working – a big, bold and radical scheme to get millions of people back to work – Conservatives are showing that we are now the party of jobs and opportunity.

As part of a package of measures designed to Get Britain Working, Conservatives will introduce The Work Programme which:

* Simplifies Labour’s numerous and piecemeal programmes into one single back-to-work programme for everyone who is unemployed.
* Includes the 2.6 million people claiming Incapacity Benefits currently excluded by Labour’s plans.
* Pays welfare-to-work providers according to whether they get jobseekers into sustainable employment of a year or more.
* Is funded by refocusing the Government’s employment and training programmes, including the various New Deals and Train to Gain, and reducing the benefits of Incapacity Benefit claimants found to be fit to work.

To provide extra opportunities to those looking for work, we have also announced:

* Youth Action for Work – 100,000 additional apprenticeships and training places, 50,000 additional training places at FE colleges, and 50,000 work pairing places each year for two years.
* Work for Yourself – offering business mentors and loans to support self-employment and franchising as a route back into work.
* Work Together – a programme to connect people to volunteering opportunities in their area.
* Work Clubs – places where people can receive mentoring, skills training and help to find local job opportunities.
* 10,000 additional university places next year.
* New technical schools in England’s largest cities, as part of our plans for radical school reform.

Letter published in Hackney Gazette, 20 August 2009

Dear sir/madam

A recent article in the Hackney Gazette drew attention to the fact that one in ten shops in Dalston now stand empty. This is hardly surprising when – unbelievably during a recession – the local Labour-run Hackney Council ever more zealously enforces shoppers’ car parking regulations, business taxes continue to go up and Gordon Brown’s government burdens local traders with more and more red tape, meaning Hackney’s wealth creators spend more time filling in forms than running their businesses.

Hackney Conservatives recently ran a campaign in support of Dalston’s local shops. In just two hours outside Dalston Kingsland station over 130 traders and shoppers signed a petition, calling for the Government to adopt Conservative policies aimed at making things easier for small businesses and their customers. Simple measures we are calling for include tax breaks for companies which create new jobs, reducing corporation tax from 22p to 20p, cutting National Insurance Contributions for small companies with less than five employees, a big, bold and simple National Loan Guarantee Scheme to help get credit flowing again and a two year Council Tax freeze, worth over £200 for the typical family, which helps everyone.

It is clear that Hackney Conservatives offer real change. We look forward to taking our positive campaign to the high streets of Hackney and explaining how our policies would bring benefits not only to the traders and shoppers of Dalston but other parts of the borough too.

Darren Caplan

Conservative parliamentary spokesman for Hackney North & Stoke Newington (pictured left)

Simon Nayyar

Conservative parliamentary spokesman for Hackney South & Shoreditch (pictured right)

‘While we obviously do not endorse or encourage illegal parking, we understand that it is a very tough trading environment for small businesses. These are exactly the kind of local people who deserve the help of Hackney Council. Instead, all they’ve got is lack of consultation, lack of sensitivity, and a council apparently hell-bent on seeing these businesses go to the wall’.

Conservative Parliamentary spokesman for Hackney North and Stoke Newington Darren Caplan agreed, noting that:

‘Both this Labour government and this Labour Council have an ideologically anti-car agenda, which makes life very difficult for Hackney’s shoppers, traders and small businesses. Times are difficult enough as it is – instead of punishing Hackney businesses by enforcing ever stricter and unnecessary parking rules, local politicians should be standing up for them and making it easier for them to trade’.

Sabri Keski summed up the attitude of local residents and businesses:

‘This Council obviously finds it easier to fine us for parking incorrectly while moving cars in order to conduct our business, rather than coming out to meet us and discuss how we might be able to survive and keep our doors open during the tough months and years ahead’.
‘I urge everyone who is fed up with this Council to join us on Andre Street at 12 noon this Friday 17 July, for our march down to the Town Hall’.

Darren Caplan, a 36-year old political, communications and campaigning consultant who works in central London and who grew up in north London, has been campaigning with local activists in the constituency since March 2008. He said:

“I’m tremendously grateful to the Hackney North and Stoke Newington association members for choosing me as their candidate. I’m really looking forward to working with the team and to campaigning in the local and increasingly likely general elections in 2010, when we’ll have Diane Abbott firmly in our sights!

“Hackney North and Stoke Newington Conservatives have been ramping up their membership and campaigning activities recently. If you live in the area and want to get involved, please call us on 020 8144 4458 or email me at darren@hackneyconservatives.com – I look forward to hearing from you.”