Fighting the recession

Payments to Gloucestershire small businesses within 10 days
o Small businesses need all the help they can get with their cash flow during the recession.
o Gloucestershire County Council will make payments for work done to Gloucestershire-based small businesses within 10 days of the work being done.
o We will give all Gloucestershire small businesses who work with us the contact details for the Cabinet Member in charge of finance, so they can tell us directly if there are any problems.
o There will be a small loss of interest – although with current low interest rates this should be very marginal.

Freeze price of on street parking
o Gloucestershire’s town centre shops and businesses have been hit hard by the recession.  We will do what we can to help them.  Shops in Cheltenham reported difficulties following the Liberal Democrat decision this year to increase some parking fees by over 60%.
o We will freeze on street parking costs for the next two years – and investigate keeping the price down even longer.  Whilst Liberal Democrats are pushing up the price of parking and stifling local businesses, Conservatives will freeze it.

Made in Gloucestershire website
o We want to make it easier for Gloucestershire people to buy goods and services from Gloucestershire companies.
o Working with Gloucestershire First, we will set up a Made in Gloucestershire website to let people know about local goods and services.
o This won’t sell things directly – just point people in the direction of Gloucestershire companies.

Extra money for CAB debt counselling
o The recession is causing more and more families to struggle with loans and debt.  Loan sharks are on the increase, praying on vulnerable and desperate families.  Gloucestershire people in trouble need to have a reliable source of help to turn to with debt problems.
o We will pay the Citizens Advice Bureau, or a similar organisation, £40,000 to increase debt counselling in the county.

Double the number of council apprentices
o The county council is one of Gloucestershire’s major employers and needs to play its part in offering jobs and training opportunities to young people in the county.  This is particularly true during a recession when training opportunities can be very limited.
o At the moment there are 8 county council apprentice posts.  We will introduce another 8 posts across the Gloucestershire public sector.

Publicise business rate relief
o Particularly in the recession many Gloucestershire businesses could be getting relief from the Government’s business rates.  This might be enough to help save a struggling business.  Despite pressure from Conservative MPs businesses have to apply for rate relief – it doesn’t happen automatically.
o We will organise a campaign, working with Gloucestershire’s district councils to publicise rate relief and make sure Gloucestershire businesses aren’t paying more tax than they need to.

Appoint a champion for small shops and small businesses
o We will appoint a small shops and small businesses champion.  This will be a councillor, outside the Cabinet, whose job is to represent the views of small shops and small businesses.  They will be a key link between the council and vital small businesses – helping us do all we can to support them through the recession and beyond.