Alan Wheatley
How independent traders could be given assistance
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| Closed down Monica clothes shop, South End Green, Hampstead, where Pret is planning to move in Photo: Camden New Journal |
• WE value independent traders for the greater variety offered to customers, for the wider range of jobs undertaken locally, for the typically shorter supply routes, for recirculating a greater proportion of their income locally, for not being so involved in tax-avoidance havens and, local studies found in Archway and in Highgate, often for lower prices, (Family businesses fear for future as Pret A Manger makes move on Hampstead, September 5).
Around Archway an independent trader in Junction Road was found to be the cheapest and a supermarket at the Nag’s Head the most expensive.
The MP Jeremy Corbyn, having expressed hope that such traders could be relieved of some business rate burdens, took up a suggestion of the Better Archway Forum in 2013 that this could be done by extending the scope of small business rate relief which would assist 11 rather than only three of the 15 traders in the N19 5QT part of Junction Road alone.
A significant part of the threat to our high streets lies in the fact that while internet suppliers pay low levels of rents and rates for remote warehouses, shopkeepers face the spike as in the case you report. In that case the planning permission, or prior approval, will also be needed for the change of use to restaurant if any sales are to be consumed on the premises.
ADRIAN BETHAM
North Road, N6
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