As we approach the general election, we wanted to ensure that businesses in and around our town can consider how our next potential MP will support us. Our membership of local businesses is now over 150-strong, and we canvassed them to determine the issues that matter to them most. Those issues then formed a set of ten questions which we have put to each candidate.
Of the eight candidates for our constituency six have responded by our deadline and you can read their answers in full here https://www.ryechamber.org/blog
Our questions challenged them on their support and plans for:
• The hospitality sector and a reduction in VAT
• Business rates reform
• Skills and recruitment
• Better transport links and affordable housing
• Greater investment in support for tourism
• Holding the water companies to account
• Support for carbon initiatives for small businesses
• Improving working with the EU to cut costs for small businesses
• Policy and initiatives to ensure independent high streets like ours can thrive
• Increased local authority funding
Our questions were very specific requiring detailed responses – we regard it as our job as a politically neutral network to hold all parties to account. Given our neutrality it would be wrong to comment on the specifics of each response, we will leave you to draw your own conclusions, but it has been interesting to note where the detailed knowledge of local issues lies.
In the Rye and Hastings constituency we generate nearly £325m of revenue and £165m of economic value from hospitality (UK Hospitality Data) and as a tourist destination Rye and Camber need the best conditions in which to thrive. Industry body, UK Hospitality, has called on the next government to reduce VAT for hospitality businesses and this is widely supported within the sector. It would help keep costs down, prices competitive and thus stimulate more spending. While all six candidates recognise the importance of our hospitality sector not all were in support of a drop in VAT with Labour and Lib Dems citing the need to steady the public finances first before considering tax cuts.
All candidates support the need for business rates reform to encourage growth and investment. Something that our members agree is urgently needed.
Support for skills and training is on the agenda for our prospective MPs, each asserting the need for greater links between schools, colleges and businesses but also making the case for wider changes in society to support people entering the job market. The Greens make the case for a rise in the minimum wage, the Lib Dems for better childcare, the Conservatives for a more detailed consideration of what the hospitality sector can do and what support it needs to improve staffing levels.
Each candidate was clear on the need for more affordable housing and better transport links in the region to help with recruitment challenges. Labour calls for reforms to the planning system to allow more social and affordable housing to be built on brownfield and grey-belt sites. The Conservatives echo the need to remove planning blockers to the rural economy and also to consider the volume of airbnbs and short-term holiday lets impacting on the ability to recruit and retain staff. The Communist Party of Britain calls for more council houses and rent control.
As a tourist destination we need exposure on an international stage. We all but lost our visitors from overseas because of Covid and Brexit and have been slowly clawing them back ever since. Currently support for tourism is a discretionary item financed by local authorities as they see fit – we’ve seen Hastings all but stop investing in tourism, Rother continues to invest via the 1066 Partnership, but its funds are very limited. Our candidates all recognise the importance of the visitor economy for our area with the Greens making some bold investment pledges, Reform asserts the need for ring-fenced funding from central government to support tourism and the Lib Dems advocate for a Minister of State for Tourism and Hospitality.
The transition to a low carbon economy is on everyone’s campaign list, but Reform are advocating a more cautious approach than our other candidates. The Greens have the most ambitious and fully costed plans to decarbonise society, the Lib Dems assert that their commitment is a non-negotiable – not to be set against the ‘growth duty’ and not to be traded for votes.
Thoughts on improving relations with the EU are perhaps the thorniest and we’d urge you to read these in detail.
We asked what initiatives would help high streets thrive and most candidates refer back to the reform of business rates as being critical. The Conservatives advocate for more Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) involvement in policy making to ensure the existing Small Business Act (2015) is more effective and call for the next Government to recommit to Project Gigabit and speed up its deployment. Labour promises to tackle anti-social behaviour with more neighbourhood policy and PCSOs. The Lib Dems have a specific pledge to make gigabit broadband available to every home and business – even rural ones.
Better funding for local government is recognised as necessary, but the means by which to do this, and the timescale over which this might be achievable, given the state of the public purse, varies from party to party.
A quick distillation would be to do disservice to the considered responses given in full so do click on the link to read more about our candidates’ intentions for supporting our local economy should they be elected so you can make an informed choice before going to the polls on the July 4.
Image Credits: Nick Forman .
Sarah Broadbent has worked her socks off on this. I hope that residents of Rye and Camber acknowledge the impact of this hard work, as it benefits the community as a whole, not just Chamber of Commerce members. Many business owners in Rye do not reside in the constituency so are unable to vote for candidates who prioritise the interests of our town – and that includes Sarah, and myself. It’s over to you, the good people of Rye. This is an essential read. Thank you Sarah!