Nick Clegg calls out to small businesses in Kilburn with rates pledge
PICTURED: Nick Clegg and Ed Fordham buy bananas in Kilburn High Road
Monday February 15, 2010
By TOM FOOT
THE leader of the Liberal Democrats spoke to independent shopkeepers in Kilburn High Road on Friday.
Nick Clegg launched a new manifesto pledge to help small businessmen compete with massive chain stores.
If elected, he said the Lib Dems would help sustain high street post offices and force big business to pay fairer rents and rates.
He said: "I have been all across the country and I hear the same story over and over again. Small shops feel abandoned. They pay business rates through the nose, compared to big companies, particularly in places like this. The planning law is biased towards the bigger companies – it drains the life from local high streets.
We are talking about devolving business rates to big businesses and giving rate relief on empty properties."
He added: "We want also want to introduce low cost banking in our post offices."
The Liberal Democrat candidate for the Hampstead and Kilburn constituency is Ed Fordham, who is up against Labour's Glenda Jackson, Chris Philp for the Conservatives, the Green Party's Beatrix Campbell and UKIP'S Magnus Nielsen.