Local businesses and shops are the heart of the community. They provide, in the long-run, more jobs than large superstores and, when you compare a broad range of products, are actually cheaper than the majors, which loss-lead on key items like butter, milk and potatoes to get you through the door, but ramp up the prices on other goods. In addition, local stores give a community some valuable side benefits:

• shops on a street create more pedestrian traffic, make a street feel more alive and thus reduce crime - conversion into homes does the opposite
• forcing people to shop further away makes shopping more difficult for the elderly, the infirm and young mothers
• large superstores also mean more traffic on the roads because people drive to them
• local shops make a borough feel different, unique and ours - our streets shouldn’t be yet another line of the same chain stores

That’s why it’s insane for the Lib Dems to say they’re green and yet sell off dozens of council-owned shops to property developers. The council has a fundamental responsibility to protect the long-term health of the borough and ensuring a proper mix of housing and shops is integral to that. The short-term financial boost of the sale fails to take into account the longer-term costs of all the issues outlined above. It’s why IGP has bitterly opposed the sell-off (some of our members run local shops and services). Instead we propose a 10-point charter, which has been winning support from local businesses:

1. No more big supermarket developments in Islington
2. More council goods and services bought from local suppliers
3. Better public transport to make Islington shops more accessible
4. Free short-term parking outside local shops
5. Parking enforcement taken away from private contractors
6. More affordable shop and business units for local traders
7. Protection for Islington’s street markets
8. Action on unfair rent rises and rate relief for community shops
9. More money to help convert flats above shops
10. Council support for restoring the Post Office network