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UTILITY
SAVINGS CORPORATION JOINS RSA
"The
Rural Shops Alliance is pleased to announce that the Utility Savings Corporation
Ltd has taken up RSA Membership. USC are independent utility brokers, who
act on behalf of businesses, at no cost to themselves, to identify the cheapest
and best energy sources for their particular circumstances.
Alan Taylor, Director of USC said “We look forward to working with the
RSA to help rural shopkeepers keep their costs under control. Local retailers
are spending an increasing percentage of their income on energy bills, and
it has been proven that in many instances, they are paying more than they
should be, in some cases up to 50% extra when they are out of contract! USC
are therefore delighted to be able to offer them the opportunity to make cost
savings which will go directly into increased profitability.”
Ken Parsons, RSA Chief Executive said: "This really is an excellent scheme
for rural shopkeepers, and I hope that many will seize this opportunity to
review their utility expenditure, at no cost, no commitment, and no risk to
themselves."
COSTCUTTER
BECOMES OUR LATEST PARTNER
The Rural Shops Alliance is pleased to announce that Costcutter Supermarkets
Group Limited have taken up RSA Membership.
Colin Graves, Costcutter Supermarkets Chairman said: "We are delighted
to support the Rural Shops Alliance. Many of our stores and customers are
to be found in rural locations. Our membership reflects our retailers' aim
of being at the heart of their communities."
Trevor West, RSA Chairman, said: "We are delighted to have Costcutter
Supermarkets as a Partner. They are one of the UK's leading symbol groups,
setting a high standard in community retailing. The Costcutter "Making
a Difference Locally" initiative is a great example of this."
WHICH
WOULD SCARE TESCO MORE – PEOPLE POWER OR A GROCERY OMBUDSMAN?
“People
power can bring about a revolution in the way food is produced and sold”
Hilary Benn, Environment Secretary, at the Oxford Farming Conference
The
Rural Shops Alliance frequently makes the point that government is generally
very bad at joined up thinking. However, even by their normal standards the
recent pronouncement from the Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn, that Britain
must grow more of its own food, ignored inconvenient but key decisions faced
by other government departments.
For years
the supermarkets have used their excessive market power to drive down farm
gate prices for food. The recent Competition Commission report on the grocery
industry took as a basic part of its brief that low prices for consumers were
what mattered. Competition was about having more than one supermarket shed
in a town, even if it meant only one cowshed per county. It did nothing to
preserve a diverse and viable farm industry – not part of the brief.
And the idea that competition might mean specialist butchers, greengrocers,
farm shops, farmers markets and village shops, all able to sell local produce
from smaller producers, did not even get beyond the silage pit in their thinking
- not part of the brief.
Even their
very weak recommendations, including the appointment of an ombudsman to help
suppliers get a fair deal from their supermarket customers, have been effectively
stalled for a couple of years. It would seem that in government thinking,
keeping food price inflation artificially low has had a higher priority than
providing a fair deal to farmers or small food retailers.
Ken
Parsons, Chief Executive of the RSA, commented,
“Hilary
Benn has said that “people power” can now “help bring about
a revolution in the way food is produced and sold”. The fact of the
matter is that the Environment Secretary can huff and puff till the cows go
to slaughter, but unless the government gets serious about taking on the big
supermarkets, with their 80% market share, nothing is going to happen.
The reality
is that if we are going to produce significantly more food in the UK, we have
to make it economic for growers of whatever size to expand output, and for
a wider range of retailers to sell it. That means paying them a reasonable
rate of return. The RSA welcomes Hilary Benn’s statement, but we now
expect him to put his fine words into practice by preventing the supermarkets
from abusing their market power. This will involve him working with his colleagues
in government to appointment an ombudsman to rebalance the relationship between
the big supermarkets and their suppliers. We note that Nick Herbert, the conservative
shadow environment secretary, supports this approach, but this is not something
to park until after the election – this is a decision for now –
and we call on Mr Benn to put his fine words into action”.
THE
SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES ACT – THE RSA SHOWS THE WAY
The RSA has been fully committed to making this revolutionary piece of legislation
work for local shops. The Act provides a “bottom-up” approach
to government, giving local people the chance to put forward ideas to local
councils for submission to the Local Government Association (LGA), which is
acting as gatekeeper to the scheme. The RSA was very active in promoting our
ideas to help rural businesses and our submission is one of these that have
passed the first hurdle and will be considered by the LGA.
We are delighted that the RSA’s proposal, to get central government
funding for local authorities to set up local schemes to improve support for
rural pubs and shops, has gone forward to the next stage for consideration.
We really hope that the LGA and then central government will recognise the
importance of this issue and see the value of our proposals, In addition to
our own submission, there are also a number of other proposals on the list
that could help smaller shops, including support for Post Office branches
and ideas to reduce business rates. We very much hope that this new Act will
actually work to help communities retain their local shops, pubs and post
offices.
There is a long way to go, but at least we have overcome the first hurdle.
You can see all the proposals that have gone forward on the Local Government
Association’s website: www.lga.gov.uk
GOVERNMENT
THREAT TO RURAL PETROL STATIONS
In
1973 there were 33,000 petrol stations in the U.K., today there are only about
9,000 such outlets. This massive decline has seen the disappearance of most
rural forecourts, driven out of the market by the very low profit margins
on fuel sales and the very high costs of maintaining a safe and environmentally
sound site. As a result, there are many rural parts of the country where the
nearest petrol station is many miles away, whilst many even quite large market
towns now depend on only one outlet.
Ken Parsons,
Chief Executive, said, “The 2010 business rates revaluation is the latest
threat to rural forecourts, with many of them facing a massive increase in
their rates bill. Now that the problem has been brought to the attention of
government ministers we expect them to respond – these new rateable
values do not come into effect until April and they do have time to act. Rather
than impose higher costs on independent forecourt operators, they should actually
be encouraging them. The Scottish Parliament has provided grants and other
help to maintain petrol stations in their rural areas. This approach could
at least halt further closures in England and make sure that rural residents
are able to buy fuel without travelling many miles to do so, at significant
wasted cost to themselves and to the environment. However, at the moment it
seems that we are set to accelerate the closure of petrol stations through
the tax system, yet another example of government actions having unintended
consequences on rural areas.”
This is
a particular issue for the 6,000 or so independently run sites. The decision
to base the revised rateable values on turnover is perverse. Sales can seem
very high, with petrol at over £1 per litre, but the profit on that
litre is usually only a couple of pence. When bought together, a bag of sweets
can deliver as much profit as the tank of petrol. A forecourt business with
a turnover of a million pounds a year can end up with just a few thousand
pounds declared profit. Higher business rates could eat a significant hole
in this limited return. Transition relief may help, but ultimately the bill
will have to be paid.
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