Rates row People's Supermarket received £25,000 in grants before launch

Published: 10 March, 2011
by RICHARD OSLEY

CAMDEN Council paid £25,000 in grants to The People’s Supermarket – the “Big Society” shop championed by David Cameron – to help the project get off the ground, it has emerged.

The revelation of financial help, not enjoyed by other businesses in the area, came as Labour councillors defended themselves against claims that the Town Hall had unfairly targeted the Holborn store over unpaid business rates.

The shop, in Lamb’s Conduit Street, made famous by a recent Channel 4 documentary and a visit by Prime Minister Mr Cameron as he relaunched his “Big Society” programme of neighbourhood action, has been ordered to appear in court next week. Court documents say it owes £33,000 in rates.

Conservative MP Bob Neill, part of Eric Pickles’s Local Government department, wrote to the council last week to ask why the shop had not been given rate relief given its credentials.

Cabinet member Coun­cillor Sarah Hayward wrote back on Thursday arguing that Camden had helped the venture with start-up grants and that the door was not closed on rate relief with an appeal against refusal still possible. 

“Camden Council has been very supportive of The People’s Supermarket,” she said. “We awarded them a £25,000 grant under our capacity building programme to help early development and start-up of the enterprise.”

The People’s Supermarket was created by Camden chef Arthur Potts Dawson who has since been encouraged to replicate the set-up with new shops in other areas of Britain. It has been praised for its attempts to source food locally and cut the amount of unsold waste.

Kate Bull, a former boss at Marks and Spencer who worked alongside Mr Potts Dawson before the launch, said the management were unhappy at being used in a political row between Labour and the Conservatives.

“All we want to do is run a community shop that brings environmental and social benefits to the Holborn area,” she said. “We are not politicians, we are not aligned to any political party. Other people are trying to politicise us, Camden Council is trying to politicise us.”

Mr Cameron’s tour of the shop last month, which saw him booed by protesters outside, has divided opinion about whether the store was wise to allow the Prime Minister to use it for a photo opportunity on the day he attempted to breathe new life into his flagship policy. 

The store works by hiring people from the local area and getting them to work on tills and in the store room in return for member discounts on their shopping. It is designed to engender community spirit among neighbours. 

Labour members believe Mr Neill’s letter amounted to a “PR stunt” aimed at portraying the council as taking a frosty approach when it came to helping worthy enterprises and businesses despite the pressures of recession. The letter caught councillors and officers by surprise when a copy was obtained by the New Journal last week. There has already been a row over cuts to the Surma Centre in Regent’s Park, the elderly people’s lunch club which Mr Cameron’s wife Samantha visited during the general election campaign last year.

Mr Neill wrote: “I have written to Camden Council to ask it to reconsider its decision not to grant the non-profit rate relief. There is a clear public benefit from the People’s Supermarket to the local community and a broader public interest in promoting co-operatives and the Big Society. I am concerned that Camden’s actions could undermine this important Big Society initiative.”

But Cllr Hayward said in reply: “It is clear that if the government wants to ensure councils support the Big Society then government needs to provide the necessary funds for councils to support it rather than ripping up public service provision and support for the voluntary sector.”

She added: “It also seems to me that you and your department’s interference with local decisions is at direct odds with your government’s professed support for a localist agenda.”

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