Businesses across Sefton will be hit hard by the national cost of living crisis the Council’s Cabinet meeting heard today.

In the summer, Sefton Council started pulling together a response to help households and businesses across the Borough deal with the national cost of living crisis.

Worrying questions

Aware that people faced with the hugely worrying questions about how they are going to pay rocketing gas and electricity bills and meet steeply rising prices in shops this winter, Sefton Council put information on support and advice in one place on its website at www.sefton.gov.uk/cost-of-living.

Recognising that there are those who do not have easy access to digital information, the Council has also produced and distributed an easy-print factsheet. It contains advice about support available as well as a reminder that there is free computer and Wi-Fi access at all Sefton Council Libraries. People just need to visit their local branch to find out more.

The Council’s Contact Centre can also be contacted on 0345 140 0845 or and there are One Stop Shops, in Bootle and Southport. The factsheet can be downloaded from www.sefton.gov.uk/factsheet.

Challenges

The report to today’s Cabinet meeting says that businesses across Sefton are facing a range of challenges including fuel prices, rising costs, changes in household spending patterns, supply chain issues and, for some, recruitment. It also says the Council will continue to engage with local businesses, a process recognised as an area of good practice in a recent Local Government Association review of the authority.

Sefton Council will also do what it can to maximise Levelling Up opportunities support regeneration and growth across the Borough. And it will continue to engage proactively with Government at both regional national levels.

“Another crisis”

Introducing the Report Cllr Marion Atkinson, who is Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Skills, said: “Here in Sefton businesses, like other businesses up and down the country, are facing yet another crisis. One of many they have faced over the last 10 years.

“Firstly, there have been the significant challenges of a Government programme of 10 years of ideological cuts to our public services.

“Those same public services that underpin the many reasons why businesses want to set up and grow in our Borough – good schools, good infrastructure, good quality housing, a beautiful coastline and green spaces, safer communities, good access to hospitals and GPs.

“In Sefton, we have seen a £230 million reduction in grant funding from the Government. That’s 50% of our budget gone in 10 years.

“hamstrung”

“But despite being hamstrung by this Government we and our hard-working staff continue to support businesses as best we can.

“Now, in order to protect the significant shareholders dividends, salaries and bonuses of the few, I fear more cuts in public services are on the way and this will again impact on our businesses.

“Secondly, the impacts of Brexit on supply chains, the labour and skills market and the economy, and the failure of this government to deliver on the promises it made of an ‘oven ready deal’.

“The tragic fact is that the country now can’t afford to heat the oven to bake whatever half-baked plans they had ready anyway.

“Here in Sefton our hospitals, nursing homes, hospitality, and agriculture sectors have all felt the impact of shortages in staff and the availability and rising costs of goods.

“Years and years to prepare for Brexit, but simply nothing ‘oven ready’ about it.

“Thirdly, a pandemic that has left many businesses fighting for survival.

“too little too late”

“I acknowledge that there was some government support for businesses in Sefton, but it was often too little and too late to help some of our businesses. Despite this, staff in our Finance Department and Invest Sefton service worked day and night, weekends and Bank Holidays to get the little support that was available out to businesses, because they knew families, homes and communities relied on them.  

“There was, however, from the Government an abundance of dither and delay, an abundance of broken promises of support, and plenty of money for PPE contracts being awarded to friends and family who delivered unusable goods wasting eye watering sums of our money.

“And fourthly, on top it all this, a cost of living crisis created by spiralling energy costs.

“Not just down to a war in Ukraine as this Government’s narrative would have you believe, but down to corporate greed and this Conservative Government’s unwillingness to tax that greed in order to protect the businesses, and the residents of this Borough.

“protect the poorest”

“Even the Chief Executive of Shell is calling on the Government to tax oil and gas companies profits to protect the poorest. Mr van Beurden said ‘You cannot have a market that behaves in such a way that damages significant parts of our society’.

“I will share with cabinet some real-life examples of the increases that businesses in Sefton have already been hit with:

“A Bootle based manufacturer that employs over 90 staff and occupies four industrial units has seen its gas and electricity costs increase by over £250,000 per annum. Gas increased 700%, electricity increased 300%. 

“A family-owned Bootle based pet food retail & wholesaler that employs five people and occupies a single industrial unit has seen its energy costs doubling to £3,863 per month.

“A Waterloo restaurant & bar that employs 12 has seen its energy costs increase from £600 to £2,100 per month.

“A recent report published by Liverpool City Region states that ‘77% (of respondents) said they had been negatively impacted by rises in the cost of living, with 61% of respondents citing energy price rises as being the expense that had increased the most.

“mental health”

“Bills and savings were the most common areas that respondents pointed to as being affected as a result of rises in the cost of living, but over a third of responses cited their mental health being impacted.

“This Government’s economic policies and strategies are failing our residents who own businesses, work for businesses or use businesses. But the government will shout out that there is support well two of those I referred to earlier are not eligible because of the sector they are in.

“Whilst I welcome the Government announced support for businesses, in reality this six-month cut to energy bills will not cover the costs of the rise in fuel prices for our businesses. And it still places the burden of paying back that support on those businesses for years to come.

“You will hear the mantra of tightening our belts, dipping into savings, and pulling on reserves.

“What do the government think businesses have been doing – for the last three years in particular?

“cupboards are empty”

“For most of our businesses the cupboards are empty, rather like this Government’s economic ideas, which have just seen the value of the pound slump to an all-time low and sent markets into a spin.

“I hope for the businesses of Sefton’s sake that the Government see sense and raise a windfall tax on energy companies to pay for this support.

“To put it simply, we need more support for businesses in Sefton from the Government.

“We need a government willing to put the needs of the people at the heart of its decision making. We need to invest in clean renewable energy, and to ensure we are not reliant on other countries to power our industries and warm our homes, which has been allowed to happen under this Government.

“As recent polls have shown, what we need is a Labour government.”

You can find the agenda and papers for the Cabinet meeting here.