I am so upset by the recent closure of Coughlans Bakery after 89 years of trading. With 31 branches around Croydon and the surrounding areas, it has been a familiar part of our community for generations. The loss of 170 jobs is devastating for the families affected.
Managing Director, Sean Coughlan, was clear that the Labour government’s tax increases caused the business to close and caused the loss of those 170 jobs. That’s 170 families who now don’t have an income, thanks to Labour. Local businesses across the country have faced huge business rate increases under Labour, the biggest ever increase in employers’ National Insurance and rising energy bills.
These swinging tax rises (levied to fund massive increases in welfare spending) are now making smaller businesses go bust and destroying jobs. It’s why unemployment has gone up every single month since the last General Election. This didn’t have to happen – it’s down to the terrible choices the Labour government has made.
I recently spent the morning on Selsdon Road with local Councillor Dani Denton, meeting local business owners and hearing directly about the challenges they face. One conversation particularly stood out. The owner of Emerald Dry Cleaners showed me how his business rates bill had increased from around £3,000 two years ago to more than £8,000 today. You need to do a lot of dry cleaning to pay for that. He explained that, alongside rising energy costs and higher employment costs, these increases were making everything so much harder.
The same concerns were raised again and again by other businesses along Selsdon Road. The government’s increases in National Insurance and Business Rates for small shops, pubs and restaurants are causing jobs to be lost across the country.
Independent businesses are what make our neighbourhood’s streets special. They provide local jobs, support our communities and give our shopping streets their unique character. They deserve a tax system that helps them succeed, not one that pushes them out of business.
I have long believed that independent high street businesses should not pay any business rates at all. I am arguing for that change on our behalf in Westminster. If business rates were completely abolished for smaller high street businesses – including shops, pubs and restaurants – then it would help local businesses grow, and it would mean jobs are created, not destroyed. This should be funded by introducing much tougher eligibility criteria for welfare claims, so only people who really need welfare payments receive them. This would include requiring face-to-face medical examinations before getting signed off sick and stopping anyone getting signed off for disability benefits for things like mild anxiety, which is happening now.
The closure of Coughlans Bakery should be a wake-up call. We cannot afford to lose any more valued local businesses. It’s a shame that the Labour government does not care about this, and seems intent on taxing local businesses so hard that they face going bust – just like Coughlans did.
I will continue meeting businesses across our neighbourhood, listening to their concerns and pressing for changes to help them thrive – because strong local businesses are essential to our economy and essential for our local community.
