PEOPLE AT WESTMINSTER

The country seems to have a deep cynicism about its politicians at the moment. However, who sits in which office can actually make a difference at grassroots level. There have been several changes recently that could make a real difference to rural retailers.

Secretary of State for BERR

The most obvious change recently has been the appointment of Lord Mandelson to this role. Whatever your political views, he does seem to have quickly got a grip on the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR), with an immediate positive effect on decisions that affect rural retailers.

The retention of the Post Office Card Account by Post Office Ltd. was a welcome early change of policy that showed he was in charge. The RSA wrote to Lord Mandelson fairly soon after his appointment emphasising the cumulative effects of various government initiatives - BERR has a clear role both to protect business interests but also to ensure that different government initiatives from all departments taken together do not overwhelm companies. We received a letter signed by Lord Mandelson accepting many of the points we made and subsequently he announced a significant delay to the implementation of the tobacco “going dark” programme – a partial win for ourselves and other groups lobbying on this issue.

“Minister for Retail”

An announcement that did not achieve much coverage in February in the national papers was that Gareth Thomas has taken over responsibility in BERR for the retail sector – effectively becoming Minister for Retailing. Mr. Thomas was appointed a joint Minister of State in the Department in October 2008. He had previously held the position of Parliament Under-Secretary of State for the Department for International Development and the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform from June 2007. He was thus genuinely PUSS for DFID & BERR, a job title that we did not make up and really defies comment.

Mr Thomas is Member of Parliament for Harrow West and was actually brought up in the constituency. He was a schoolteacher before entering parliament – he has no experience whatsoever of business. He has been Chair of the Cooperative Party since 2000 and has been an active campaigner on behalf of the Co-operative movement and social enterprise. He has a very loyal voting record – he has never voted against the government.

Together with other members of the Independent Retailers Confederation, we will be seeking an early meeting with the new minister.

Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Small Shops Group

In the last edition of Rural Retailer, we ran an article about the All-Party Parliamentary Small Shops Group and its work. As an update to this, we can add that David Amess MP has now agreed to chair this group. Mr. Amess is the Conservative MP for the Southend West constituency. Before entering Parliament, he spent a year as a schoolteacher, then practised as an accountant for many years.

We hope to work with the new Chair to ensure that parliamentarians are made aware of the importance of independent shops and what government can do to help the sector.