Straight Talk

Welcome to Straight Talk, a weekly blog on the subject of business in its widest sense written by David Callam. A new posting appears here every Monday.

David is a freelance journalist, copywriter and general wordsmith, and director of Callamedia Ltd, an editorial services consultancy dedicated to driving more traffic to its clients' web-sites.

To find out what Callamedia could do for your business see the other pages on this web-site: for an example of our work visit www.slec.biz the web-site of South London Export Club.

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Straight Talk 24/09 - Monday, June 29, 2009.

CRIME and the fear of crime is making big business think twice about investing in Croydon, south London, according to one possible investor. Jeremy Collins, head of retail development at the John Lewis Partnership, believes the town’s image is an issue.

The partnership has been blowing hot and cold about coming to Croydon for the past decade – and in all that time I don't remember it raising this particular matter before. Indeed, as I recall, it has previously concerned itself with the size of the store it was offered – initially too big for its liking – and the access to the rest of the town’s shopping area afforded by the design of Park Place, the town’s third shopping mall.

Nevertheless, Mr Collins has a point and, as a senior executive of one of the most respected retailers in the country, he knows a thing or two about cultivating and protecting an image.

Croydon, by contrast, knows nothing about doing so. It has consistently failed to make a positive impact on Greater London, the south-east or the rest of the country. The great and the good of the town are too busy grinning inanely at each other while they plot and scheme behind the scenes. Publicly, they refuse to admit there are any problems, let alone to look for solutions.

Yet Croydon has credible plans in place to reinvent itself. It wants to correct the development mistakes of the 1950s and 1960s, and it has recruited some very talented people to help – architect Will Alsop is a good example. But before it can attract the necessary inward investment to turn Mr Alsop’s vision into reality, it needs to improve its existing image.

And that begins with the creation of a quick response unit, whose job is to find and challenge the Croydon stereotype wherever it is employed by lazy journalists. It continues with the empowerment of a town centre manager to spend some of the area’s BID money organising a programme of high-quality entertainment that will attract the maximum number of visitors every week of the year.

We must convince others that Croydon is the place to be – only then will inward investors be prepared to contribute to our future and make it part of theirs.

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Straight Talk 23/09 - Monday, June 22, 2009.

OPEN government is as much a contradiction in terms as police intelligence or civil service.

But I confidently predict we are about to learn more about financial shortcomings in the public sector, thanks to a new business model created by the Daily Telegraph.

I’m not referring to any money the newspaper may have paid for the unexpurgated list of MPs expenses; in the best traditions of journalism, the editor is rightly keeping quiet about that. Rather I am thinking of the commercial success the paper has enjoyed by publishing extracts of the information over the past seven weeks.

Other editors, many with falling circulations, have watched with growing envy as the Telegraph garnered additional sales and extra publicity with every passing day. There is now an enthusiasm among the fourth estate to talk to anyone with equally titillating examples of sloppy public administration.

As a result, there are apparatchiks quaking in their boots at the prospect that some e-mail instruction to a subordinate will soon be the basis of a national hue and cry.

It is unfortunate that we need to do things this way, but the wilful determination of Whitehall warriors to keep us in the dark leaves us with no alternative. Consider the travesty of openness that was last week’s publication by Parliament of MPs expenses.

We were told it would render Telegraph revelations unnecessary – in fact the swathes of black ink show just how little our once trusted public servants are prepared to share with us.

If our elected representatives dislike the lack of control they have over this emerging market, there is an easy solution. They have only to tell us themselves – as long as they are totally candid, it will disappear like a morning mist.

But I think it unlikely they will confide easily or quickly, so prepare yourself for more ridicule as a further succession of wrong-footed public figures is dragged before television cameras to explain apparent wrong-doing.

Meanwhile, as a token of our appreciation, I suggest we ask The Queen to confer a knighthood on the editor of the Daily Telegraph.

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Straight Talk 22/09 - Monday, June 15, 2009.

PARKING charges are back on the agenda in Croydon, with the main political parties using them as a stick with which to beat each other. The opposition party is crying crocodile tears for small traders in district centres, demanding free parking, while the governing party says it has frozen charges for three years, incurring a loss to council coffers of £250,000.

The argument then descends into the inevitable ya-boo nonsense about who has increased charges more over the years and which party is the truer friend to small business and to the motorist. Call me sceptical, but I think this old chestnut has more to do with a looming General Election than it has with recession-blighted shopkeepers.

Unfortunately, there is a serious problem lerking beneath this party political twaddle – Croydon needs to address it as part of its medium-term plan. The borough already has an unenviable reputation as a congestion hot-spot – I’ve lost count of the number of people who’ve told me they avoid the place like the plague for that reason.

Finding a way to change that image will do more for the borough’s economy in the medium- and long- term than a childish spat about parking charges. It’s all a matter of balance, and as a non-driver I see things weighted in favour of the motorist. We need less traffic in Croydon’s town and district centres – and that means fewer cars.

Architect Will Alsop’s much maligned vision for central Croydon includes the narrowing of one six-lane highway and the burying of a second in a tunnel – that sounds like a good start to me. At the same time we want to encourage more visitors to enjoy a more pleasant atmosphere, to stay longer and to spend more money.

We know the range of options available to us in that respect – they include increased public transport, better provision for cyclists and more encouragement to walk more regularly. And for longer-distance travellers they also include ‘park and ride’.

Adopting any of these policies is likely to be unpopular in some quarters, at least initially, which is presumably why Croydon politicians of both major parties have sat on their hands for so long.

Remember the fuss we made about the introduction of a tram system and look how beneficial it has become. That was the brainchild of a borough politician – his successors need to raise their game.

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Straight Talk 21/09 - Monday, June 1 2009.

RECESSION in Britain is a thing of the past; the property market has stabilised with plenty of would be home-owners ready to buy – or so it would seem.

I make my assertions on the basis of the number of letters I receive from nearby estate agents who apparently have hoards of clients waiting to buy my home. The letters arrive almost daily, imploring me to contact this or that agent if I am even half inclined to sell.

On closer inspection these carefully worded missives remind me that the usual fees apply, by which I assume they mean one per cent or more of the selling price. In Croydon a one per cent fee, even in the present depressed market, is not likely to be less than £1,500.

No wonder estate agents are less popular than journalists – or even members of parliament. And like MPs, there must be some question about what estate agents do for their money.

Of course, there are agents who handle the complicated negotiations surrounding the viewing and sale of baronial properties, replete with moats and duck houses. But their work has little in common with that of those in a nearby shopping parade.

The last time I sold a house the agent’s principal contribution was to line up a series of time-wasters who either didn’t have the finance in place to buy a property or who wanted to make silly offers for it.

Over the past few years many forms of selling have migrated to the Internet and property seems to be a prime example of another that would be better suited to the medium.

It must be cheaper to employ a virtual sales person than to contribute towards the overheads of a network of slick shops and the lavish lifestyles of their directors – and that should reflect in the fees that sellers have to pay.

I understand Britain’s most popular retailer was on the verge of launching an on-line estate agency a few years ago, but decided against it at the time.

Just as supermarkets rescued us from the restricted trading tyranny imposed by neighbourhood grocers, it is surely time for someone to make a comfortable profit by saving us from overpriced estate agents.

Come on Tesco – every little helps.

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Straight Talk 20/09 - Monday, May 25, 2009.

SOUTH London’s businesses came together last week to celebrate their successes. Amid the deepest recession in living memory, even the cupidity of those elected to run the British economy couldn’t dampen spirits.

A record number of firms converged on Selhurst Park, home of Crystal Palace Football Club, to celebrate success in the annual South London Business Awards. Over dinner and in the spaces between the courses they mixed and mingled in the biggest and, for many, the most rewarding networking event of the year.

Eagles’ fans may balk at the notion of people meeting on their hallowed turf, but the idea of putting a marquee on the pitch as a temporary venue for a series of spring celebrations has proved popular with participants as well as lucrative for the club. This year’s business event was deftly conducted by broadcaster and self-confessed Palace fan, David Jensen.

He persuaded diners to part with hard-earned cash for a good cause before the meal and hosted the awards ceremony afterwards. Even those at a distance from the stage in this super-sized, air-cooled tent were able to follow proceedings on a series of strategically placed screens.

The enthusiasm of the finalists – let alone that of the winners – was a joy to see, as was the encouragement given by those who were only there to enjoy the evening.

Sir Bob Scott, chairman of South London Business, organiser of the awards, told the assembled company how impressed he was by the area’s ability to rise above the presently difficult commercial situation and how well that bodes for the economic future of south London as things improve.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has retained its sponsorship of the awards, despite its own financial problems, and will hopefully agree to do so again next year. Some might say this is not a proper use of what is now public money by a bank that is, in effect, nationalised. I would argue that the excitement and inspiration generated by the awards is a fillip for the whole south London business community and as such represents very good value indeed for taxpayers’ cash.

Congratulations to all – the winners; the organisers and the sponsors – and here’s to next year.

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Straight Talk 19/09 - Monday, May 18, 2009.

SHOCK, horror – Croydon Council has terminated its development agreement with Minerva, a property company. Is this the end of Park Place, the town’s third shopping mall, an initiative once touted as Croydon’s answer to Bond Street and the natural home for a John Lewis store?

I doubt it: in fact, I’m not sure the council’s decision makes much difference. Minerva still owns most of the land between Katharine Street and Allders Square in the heart of the Whitgift Centre, and it still has planning permission to redevelop it.

Croydon Council has little or no financial interest in the land and therefore, having granted planning permission, no further role beyond enforcing building regulations. Galling as it may be for some councillors and senior council executives, there are limits and rights-of-appeal built into the Town and Country Planning Acts.

In practice, if Minerva or any successor puts forward a revised plan for the site and the council rejects it, precedent suggests that any resulting appeal by the developer to a higher authority is likely to succeed. And if the council decides to invoke compulsory purchase procedures it will be bound by strict rules covering the prompt re-sale of the land.

So, what’s occurring pussy cat? Well, not a lot actually. In common with almost every other developer in Britain, Minerva is having difficulty raising money in a market where commercial property rents are still in freefall.

There are prime sites in The City of London and the West End where building has stopped mid-hod: petrifaction has spread like waves from a millstone cast into a lake. Croydon Council will certainly have no greater success than a commercial developer in finding necessary funds – logic suggests the developer’s experience would allow it to do a better deal more quickly.

The local authority can produce pretty pictures of how it would like the site to look and it can appoint another developer as its preferred partner, but any such plan will need to be commercially viable before anyone opens a cheque book. And there’s still no guarantee that any council proposals will be looked on favourably by regional government or a planning inspector.

We’ve been here before – with the Gateway site adjacent to East Croydon station. We can ill afford to repeat that costly shambles.

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Straight Talk 17/09 - Monday, May 4, 2009.

A NEW hotel in Coulsdon could be good news for this southern gateway to Greater London.

The town has a fast and frequent train service to central Croydon and onward to central London. It could be an attractive base for people wanting to visit the capital for business or pleasure and might even provide additional accommodation for London’s Olympics.

But Travelodge, the company that seeks to build the 100-bedroom hotel, will need to overcome a high degree of inertia that has afflicted Coulsdon for many years. The town is saddled with a vociferous but apparently influential minority that has so far frustrated all attempts to drag it into the 20th century – let alone the 21st.

The site of the former Cane Hill Hospital in Brighton Road is a case in point. This scandalous waste of space in an area of chronic shortage has been lying idle for more than a decade.

Circumstances have long since overtaken an original plan to build a science park on the site. Backward-looking locals decided this was code for an industrial estate and set their faces firmly against it, despite the best efforts of Croydon Council to show them what an asset such a facility would be.

Development of the Cane Hill site is also frustrated by bureaucrats who have swapped ownership of the land between various Whitehall departments without ever making a serious decision about its future. It remains ensnared by the Green Belt, despite miles of open country to the south and the wonderful Farthing Downs to the east, available to everyone in perpetuity.

Movement of a line on a map could bring much-needed redevelopment to the site, including a hotel; all of which would benefit the town’s retailers who are constantly complaining that there is not enough trade to survive.

There are other sites in Coulsdon – principally those of the former Red Lion pub and the capacious Lion Green Road car park – but each is earmarked for other ventures; a supermarket and a swimming pool respectively. The chance of either being built in the foreseeable future is remote, given the present economic situation.

I wish you luck Travelodge. I think your proposals would greatly benefit Coulsdon. But this is a town with a reputation for looking gift horses in the mouth.

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Straight Talk 16/09 - Monday, April 27, 2009.

AUSTERITY begins at home and politicians should lead by example.

Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer will collect billions more in taxes over the next few years. In order to guarantee value for money, he should first institute a root and branch reform of the gravy train that serves all corners of the Palace of Westminster.

There is no reason why we couldn’t cut the number of MPs by half. They will tell you they are desperately busy people, but to quote Mandy Rice-Davies: ‘they would say that, wouldn’t they’. In fact, over the past few decades, the lower house at Westminster has ceded many responsibilities to the European Parliament – where much of today’s legislation rightly has its origins – and to the Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland assemblies.

If MPs weren’t so determined to duplicate other people’s work – the ultimate job creation scheme – they could spend less time at Westminster and more dealing with the needs of their constituents.

At £65,000 a year MPs are already well paid and they should be required to work full-time for their money – 220 days a year, instead of the present 165, divided evenly between Westminster and their constituencies. Every MP’s principal home must be in his or her constituency – it should be a condition of the job.

Only those with constituencies beyond commuting distance of central London should receive an overnight accommodation allowance, which should be tied to the cost of bed and breakfast in a three-star hotel.

I am happy to give MPs railway warrants and Oyster cards, so they can experience the commuting misery that faces the rest of us – as a result I suspect they would find additional money for public transport faster than you can say ‘bank bailout’.

And what are the chances of any of these long-overdue reforms coming to pass? Absolutely zero; these self-serving egotists are blissfully unaware of the concerns of those they claim to serve. They bemoan the increasing disinterest in politics, but prefer to blame poor press coverage rather than face the fact that their own anachronistic practices are the principle cause of the problem.

If businesses were run like the House of Commons the vast majority would long since have ceased to trade.

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Straight Talk 15/09 - Monday, April 20, 2009.

OUR children need to understand where they fit within the wider world as part of their formal education. As they return to school today after the Easter holidays, I’m not sure the present system is best suited to learning those important lessons.

They will be under the care and influence of a profession that regularly demonstrates only a passing flirtation with reality. I refer to teachers, whose trade union conferences take place over Easter and some of the crackpot demands that come out of them.

In previous years these are the guardians of young minds who have mounted a silent protest, waving placards during an address by the then education secretary, David Blunkett – you couldn’t make it up.

And this year they asked, among other things, for a ban on independent testing of children before they leave primary school and a ten per cent salary increase.

I’m told that colleges of further education are spending large amounts of their budget teaching basic literacy and numeracy to students aged 16 and above. Those are surely skills most of them should have mastered before they left primary school. No wonder we are concerned about how our children will compete for the best jobs in coming years – including against students from developing countries.

Of course our children need to be independently tested before they embark on their secondary education and if their primary teachers are found wanting they should be told to find another way to make their living.

As for a pay rise; are teachers' leaders totally out of touch? Many of them already earn well in excess of the average wage, particularly if you divide their salary by the 38 weeks a year they are contracted to work. They have secure jobs – sacking teachers is hellishly difficult, even when they deserve it – and they enjoy a public-sector, index-linked pension.

Certainly teachers need greater support from school governors and local politicians when dealing with delinquent parents and their obnoxious offspring. In return, we have a right to demand that they apply a more realistic approach to their responsibilities – starting, perhaps, by replacing the delegates who do them such disservice at their annual conferences.

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Straight Talk 14/09 - Monday, April 13, 2009.

A SMALL business man who rose to be one of the most influential people in the country will lend his name to a new commercial initiative in Croydon. And to add to the aptness, the initiative will be run by an organisation that this former tailor helped to establish in the town over 25 years ago.

The man in question is the late Bernard Weatherill, known to his many friends as Jack, a former Member of Parliament for Croydon North East, Speaker of The House of Commons and latterly a crossbench peer.

It was during his time as a constituency MP that Jack Weatherill became a prime mover behind a venture to support small businesses in Croydon. He helped to gather together a group of larger and better-established companies in the town – including accountancy practices and banks, larger retailers and the town’s then thriving local newspaper – to persuade them it was in their enlightened self-interest to support smaller enterprises.

Croydon Business Venture, the group he helped to found, convinced Croydon Council to grant it a lease at a peppercorn rent of a former television factory in Cherry Orchard Road where it could accommodate and advise some of the town’s newest entrepreneurs.

CBV quickly ran out of room; the units are keenly priced and the general level of support is first class. So it is particularly satisfying that the organisation will soon have an additional selection of units to let – this time, purpose-built as part of a mixed development taking shape on the Purley Way.

This is a prime example of the private sector helping itself with minimal, though welcome support from the public realm. CBV will not be required to tick lots of tedious boxes to satisfy small-minded paymasters, which is just as well, since it has far more important things to do in the present economic climate.

Instead, it will be able to go on fulfilling the promises made by its founders to emerging businesses in Croydon – to offer them the best possible advice and support from people who have the practical experience to do so.

Jack would be proud of them – as I know they are of him.

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Straight Talk 13/09 - Monday, March 30 2009.

DEFINE private sector: that’s the first job for Croydon’s new Economic Development Company, and the one that will determine its future success.

In my view it all comes down to money, or rather who’s paying the piper and therefore, quite reasonably, calling the tune.

Predecessor bodies have claimed private-sector leadership, in the sense that they have had a majority of business people on their boards, but they were funded from the public purse.

I recall the chairman of a predecessor company – an astute business man with a track record to prove it – saying he was driven to distraction by political interference. I also recall a former chief executive of the same predecessor company saying he was required to attend Croydon Council chief officers’ meetings, where he was treated ‘like an extension of the press office’.

Croydon already has a number of independent private sector bodies that represent business interests, of which the Federation of Small Businesses and the Chamber of Commerce are probably the best known. Both are privately funded, predominantly through membership fees, and therefore able to take a truly impartial view of any situation.

Will Croydon’s new EDC be similarly privately funded and, if so, how soon? Its predecessors have a poor record in this respect. Some started out with the intention of attracting fee-paying members, but failed to do so in sufficient numbers to make themselves independently viable.

The interests of the business community and those of the local authority do not always coincide – nor should they. But the degree of comfort felt by a business body in making its views known is a good test of its real independence. I wonder how easy it will be for the EDC to champion business causes with a member of the council as its joint chair.

I readily admit that I approach yet another re-organisation of Croydon’s business representation with considerable scepticism – even cynicism. I sincerely hope to be proved wrong on this occasion.

If Croydon is ever to realise its full commercial potential there will be times when it needs positive but vigorous debate between council and business community. This time let’s hope for the best.

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Straight Talk 12/09- Monday, March 23, 2009.

A DECENT education is one of the few gifts we can give our children to help them pay off the huge debts we will be leaving them.

That is the view of political pundit and broadcaster Andrew Neil, as expressed to an attentive audience last week at the annual conference of the Federation of Small Businesses.

He said that in his international travels he meets young people from China and India who receive a broader education than British children and in many cases speak better English.

And he reminded his audience that these are the young people against whom our children will have to compete for the best-paid jobs in the coming decades.

Education is one of the few areas where money is not an obstacle – according to Mr Neil we spend almost as much per head on state students as we do on day students in the private sector.

And yet the effectiveness, as measured by examination results, is very poor – Mr Neil says the seven per cent of students in the private sector produce more quality certificates than the 93 per cent educated by the state.

What are we to do? Maybe the market has the answers.

At the moment the shape of the curriculum is decided by politicians in association with battalions of so-called experts. Some of these people have never had a job outside politics or academia – they have little idea of the realities of life for the vast majority of us.

Local authorities offer a limited choice of secondary schools, so there are never enough places to satisfy the demand for the better ones and there is always shoe-horning of children into the rest to avoid the political repercussions of closure.

The private sector would have none of this: good schools would have the money to expand to meet demand, while bad ones would go to the wall.

All we have to do is give parents the means to decide – in the form of a voucher – and leave them and the forward-looking trusts they would encourage to create a flexible education market that responds to children’s needs.

Of course, it would mean a lesser role for national and local politicians – and that, I suspect, is why it hasn’t happened yet and is unlikely to do so anytime soon.

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Straight Talk 11/09 - Monday, March 16, 2009.

CONSENSUS has broken out among the main political parties in south London over the extension of the tram network.

Labour sees it as a stick with which to beat the Conservative mayoralty, while the Tories are past masters at spotting a rolling band-wagon and jumping on it. No matter the politicians’ tawdry reasons, in this case they coincide with common sense.

The tram is popular with passengers because it is reliable and fast – untroubled by the degree of traffic congestion at any particular time. And it should be popular with politicians too, because it’s much cheaper to build than a new railway line – particularly an underground one – and more reliable on busy roads than a bus service.

But London Mayor Boris Johnson, like his predecessor, is closely surrounded by a fervent bus lobby unable or unwilling to see the advantages of moving large numbers of passengers on trains or trams.

Fortunately, a tram extension to Crystal Palace is back on the agenda now and that is certainly a step in the right direction, but a north south route linking the Victoria Line at Brixton with Coulsdon through the central Croydon loop is the real prize.

The A23/A235 has long exceeded its capacity and there is no easy way to increase it, even if there was any enthusiasm to do so – which there is not.

But there might be scope for the minor realignment of the road in places to produce a central reservation wide enough to take a pair of tram tracks. I saw such a system working in Warsaw a few years ago – I had a bird’s eye view of a busy intersection from my hotel room and I was impressed by its efficiency.

A similar arrangement through the heart of south London would surely induce many motorists to leave their cars at home or in a convenient and reasonably-priced car park and continue their journey by tram.

In my view there is also a case for looking at some of the suburban railway lines that cross south London with a view to converting them to tram routes too – it proved a life-saver for the West Croydon to Wimbledon line and could be equally successful elsewhere.

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Straight Talk 10/09 - Monday, March 9, 2009.

THIS IS the age of the train. But it’s being sabotaged by the attitude of railway managers.

I needed to travel from East Croydon to Victoria yesterday (Sunday). I anticipated a relatively comfortable journey, but I was sadly mistaken – forced to stand in the gangway all the way.

I found a seat on the way back, but there were others standing throughout the train. The problem, as far as I could see, was a combination of a busy line – Sundays are not a day of rest for airlines using Gatwick Airport – and an Arsenal home match with a 1.30 kick off.

Clearly the north London football club has a lot of followers south of the river, as I suspect do the capital’s other Premiership teams – let’s be honest, there’s nothing to excite serious football fans between the Thames and the south coast.

Railway operators must know when these games are being played. Is it beyond the whit of management to lengthen trains from eight cars to 12 and increase their frequency in the couple of hours before and after a game?

Such a gesture would certainly inspire greater customer loyalty, but that doesn’t seem to be an issue with train operating companies, or those who run our bus services.

The days when sports matches all started at 3pm on Saturdays have long gone. There are dozens of leisure events taking place every week-end, not to mention that Sunday is the second most popular shopping day of the week.

The idea of restricting week-end services is an anachronism, only relevant to vacillating public transport managers in hock to backward-looking trades unions.

And yet, I spy the sticky fingerprints of civil servants all over this problem too. People who know nothing about business or public transport have imposed rigid contracts that suit their purposes but not those of the travelling public.

We have privatised the operating aspects of railways and buses, allowing companies to paint rolling stock in all manner of garish colours, but apparatchiks have imposed bad habits they picked up during decades of nationalisation.

In truth, government doesn’t want more people travelling on public transport – the investment is too costly. Remember Thameslink 2000? It may be completed by 2020, if we’re lucky.

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Straight Talk 09/09 - Monday, March 2, 2009.

RECESSION is beginning to bite in Croydon’s district centres – or is it?

It would be so easy to blame the lacklustre performance of retail businesses in places like Coulsdon or South Norwood on the present financial downturn.

But in doing so we may be making the same mistake we have been making since the end of the last recession – or even the one before that.

I think it’s time to face a few facts. Long before the banking bubble burst, economists came to the conclusion that Greater London was substantially over-endowed with retail premises.

Many of our secondary shopping areas were built at a time when society was very differently organised – when each community valued and supported its own baker, butcher and greengrocer. And much as many may say they yearn for the return of those times, basic economics will not allow it.

Neighbourhood retailers have blithely ignored the rise of the supermarket, the shopping mall, the out-of-town retail park and the Internet. They have soldiered on, watching their takings fall in relation to the cost of living and seeing the whole parade become steadily less viable as others move away or close down to be replaced by charity shops, fast food outlets and estate agents.

I remember being told 20 years ago by the owner of a hardware store that he knew the writing was on the wall when he found items on sale in an edge-of-town superstore cheaper than he could buy them wholesale.

The recession is merely the means by which we will impose these changes in a tangible way – I suspect each shopping parade will disappear, to be replaced by a purpose-built convenience store, open 24/7, probably run by one of the supermarket chains and with its own off-street parking. The rest of the parade will be replaced with low-rise housing – end of story.

Some will see this as a regressive step, others will be more philosophical, accepting that the vast majority of us have chosen to abandon neighbourhood shops and in the process set off a chain of events that the current recession will merely complete.

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Straight Talk 08/09 - Monday, February 23, 2009.

CROYDON will become the site of a unique exhibition later this year – an excellent ploy for projecting the town in a positive light. But once again this cack-handed south London suburb has contrived to make much less of an important event than it otherwise might.

The exhibition, which will run from April to August, features 200 artefacts from the Mary Rose, a Tudor warship lost in battle with the French off Southsea in 1545 and lifted from the English Channel in 1982.

Many of the treasures coming to Croydon have never been on public display before, making this an event on the scale of the Picasso Bestiary exhibition that launched the Clocktower arts centre in 1995.

Croydon Council has rightly spent public money to bring the Mary Rose exhibition to the borough, but the artefacts will not be displayed in the Clocktower art gallery, or anywhere else in the town centre. Instead, the exhibition will be staged in the relative obscurity of Whitgift School at South Croydon.

Picasso conferred kudos on Croydon and the forthcoming exhibition has already attracted national media coverage on the BBC Radio 4 arts programme Front Row. But instead of drawing visitors’ attention to the many and varied delights of the town centre – while you’re here, why not shop and/or eat in Croydon – the exhibition is serving merely as a publicity vehicle for the school.

How many more blunders of this kind will it take before Croydon Council realises it needs to market the town centre professionally if it is to shepherd the ailing borough economy competently through the present recession?

Were Croydon Business and the town centre’s Business Improvement District lobbying for a town centre location for this impressive exhibition? If not, why not? Does either organisation actually understand the commercial significance of an exhibition of this kind?

Any other town, particularly one with pretentions to be a city, would have seized on an opportunity of this kind as the vehicle for national and international promotion it most certainly represents.

Wake up Croydon.  

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Straight Talk 07/09 - Monday, February 16, 2009.

GREAT news: in the midst of recession someone in authority is thinking long-term.

Despite the insatiable demands of bankers for further bale-outs to fund their multi-million pound bonuses, we have a decision that will benefit the real economy.

Government has found the cash for a second East London Line extension that will serve south Londoners living in an arc from New Cross to Clapham Junction.

The line will give improved access to other parts of London and the rest of the country making it easier for residents to compete for jobs further afield.

The need for far-sighted decisions about public transport was brought home to me last Thursday as I sat on a bus in a queue of vehicles slowly approaching central Croydon from Thornton Heath.

The road at Broad Green is inadequate for the volume of traffic it carries – a situation exacerbated by a high degree of illegal parking and a job creation scheme for pipe-layers which has been running for months.

If we are serious about persuading people to leave their cars at home we need extra permanent bus lanes and they need to be a continuous network rather than the occasional daubing of red paint amid sections of severe congestion.

In fact, we need the same approach to bus lanes that the designers of the Croydon-centred tram system adopted a decade ago and which has proved so popular with steadily increasing numbers of passengers.

On busy stretches of road, buses must be separated from the rest of the traffic by the addition of extra lanes solely for their use. And it would be better if bus lanes were in operation permanently, rather than being used as linear car parks at week-ends – the idea that there are significantly fewer people travelling on Saturday or Sunday is quaint.

Motorists will inevitably complain vociferously about this discrimination, but our political leaders must have the courage of their convictions.

We need to move the greatest number of people in the most convenient way possible and in a city as crowded as Greater London, that means public transport.

If you are only using your car to drive from home to work or to your favourite sports stadium and back, please consider leaving it in the garage – you will find the journey by public transport is quicker and cheaper.

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Straight Talk 06/09 - Monday, February 9, 2009.

THE WHITE stuff raises some interesting questions about our sense of values.

As Croydon and the rest of south London lay blanketed in snow last week, much of our ailing transport infrastructure ground to an ignominious halt. Within hours of the first flurries, train and bus companies ceased to function – points froze and depots were isolated.

Some saw non-existent public transport or unsalted roads as an invitation to take time off – others added to the chaos by venturing out, in many cases woefully ill-prepared for the elements.

Health and safety legislation took the blame for the closure of schools, while hospital accident and emergency departments were inundated with fractures and sprains. Stories began to emerge of 30-minute journeys that took three hours and brave souls who struggled to work to find they were the only ones there.

The media wheeled out business pundits to tell us how much more these extreme weather ‘events’ were costing an already beleaguered economy. And in that respect ‘humbug of the week’ award goes to Stephen Alambritis of the Federation of Small Businesses who complained about how local authorities’ ill-preparedness was costing his members bank-breaking sums of money.

This is the same Stephen Alambritis who will be touring television studios in a few weeks complaining about equally bank-breaking increases in business rates.

In truth, we were suffering the consequences of an unusually severe fall of snow – it has been 18 years since south London saw anything similar – and there is a good commercial argument for being less well-prepared than some would like.

Excited news reporters drew comparisons between London’s poor performance last week and that of cities in Canada or Russia, where winter weather conditions are regularly a lot worse. But they didn’t tell us how much it might cost borough councils to buy and maintain acres of specialist kit against a once in two decades possibility of heavy snow.

Personally, I would prefer to put up with the occasional inconvenience and see my rates and taxes spent more cost-effectively – extending the south London tram network offers far better value for money than making public transport snow proof.

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Straight Talk 05/09 - Monday, February 2, 2009.

RECESSION has prompted a plethora of business support organisations to offer a wide range of training initiatives.

Sadly they are all offering the same range, most of which were dreamed up by government apparatchiks with little or no reference to business. The system is to blame for this frustrating, costly and now potentially disastrous situation, but it would be very difficult to change it

At the moment business support organisations are customer facing, but in almost every case that customer is central government. And it is superannuated civil servants with little idea and even less interest in small business who dream up the initiatives.

Once they have done so it is equally out-of-touch, publicly-funded business support organisations who attempt to tick the boxes. The end product is a series of measures that miss the point and give the impression that business doesn’t want support if it ignores them.

The simple ploy needed is to make business support organisations face in a different direction – and we could do that by putting the money in the hands of small business instead of government departments and quangos.

We could offer every business a sum of money, in the form of an entitlement, to be spent on any legitimate aspect of business support in a particular year. Suddenly we would see business support organisations really listening to small firms because their very existence would depend on selling relevant services.

Many of these quangos would go to the wall – and frankly, good riddance to a waste of taxpayers’ money. But those that remained would be responding to need in a way that really would make Britain a natural place to do business.

Such a system would mean redundancy for a large number of quasi-public servants who presently enjoy well paid sinecures at the taxpayers’ expense. And that’s the stumbling block. These people have too much influence over central government – “that is a brave move minister” – for craven politicians ever to contemplate their demise.

I remember a former chief executive of a large local authority telling me some years ago: “Politicians come and go, but I run the council.” He did too.

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Straight Talk 04/09 - Monday, January 26, 2009.

THERE’S one born every minute– or so it would seem, even in streetwise Croydon. Last week a bunch of low-lives pulled off a classic ‘bait and switch’ routine in a pub in the Thornton Heath district, one of the oldest con tricks in the book.

They persuaded a group of unsuspecting punters to allow themselves to be locked in a room where they were invited to pay unbelievably low sums of money for electrical and other household items.

Descriptions were kept vague and the pace of the auction was furious, both ploys are a deliberate part of the con, so punters don’t have time to think about what they’re buying until some time after they’ve bought it.

The goods fit the general description, which keeps the sale legal, but they are less valuable than punters have been led to believe – often available on Internet sites for much less than punters have paid.

The success of this and every other con depends upon a seller’s ability to convince a buyer that he is getting a bargain – and the techniques are not confined to low-lives like those who invaded Croydon.

Some of the country’s best established retailers are at it too – they call it double pricing and there’s plenty of evidence to show that if we don’t think we’re getting a bargain many of us won’t buy something, even if the price is keen.

So we get the rather dubious trading climate we deserve: no wonder sellers of sub-prime mortgages were able to relieve respectable but greedy bankers of billions of pounds of our money. Surely we can all learn a few lessons from some of these dodgy deals.

If it looks too good to be true, it probably is – walk away. If the reduction seems genuine – end of a line, maybe, or frustrated export order – do you need the item? It isn’t a bargain at any price unless you do. If you do, is the sale price value for money, regardless of the discount? Ignore any nonsense about the seller doing you a favour, unless he owes you one.

And if the item has ‘inadvertently’ fallen from a passing pantechnicon, remember you too could be seriously damaged if you buy it. A charge of receiving stolen goods will not enhance your personal or business reputation.

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Straight Talk 03/09 - Monday, January 19, 2009.

HEADS up south London – you’re about to see a potential economic asset disappear, as if by magic. The prestidigitation is being perpetrated by senior civil servants and the managers of two multi-national companies, with the willing consent of government ministers.

I refer to last week’s announcement of a third runway and sixth terminal at the 60-year-old planning mistake we are pleased to call London Heathrow. The people of west London are up in arms, but they should not be alone in their concerns.

Those of us in the south should be equally aggrieved, since the announcement makes a second runway at Gatwick less likely. A lack of expansion in rural Sussex will not only perpetuate our need to make the gruesome trek from here to Heathrow, it will also damage south London’s economy.

Imagine the boost the area would receive from having an airport the size of the present Heathrow on its doorstep: a direct increase in employment; the added major airlines that would operate from such a convenient location; the inward investment that would follow in their wake, with jobs galore for local people.

We are in danger of losing all that as we stand idly by while BAA, BA and the government present their wafer-thin arguments for shoe-horning extra capacity into an airport that has distinguished itself only as a worldwide embarrassment.

And what plans has the government made for south Londoners to travel more easily to its envisaged super-sized airport? The answer is none.

There is a proposal for something called Airtrack that would link Heathrow Terminal 4 with Waterloo, via Richmond and Clapham Junction. But there is no funding for this proposal and it is not expected to materialise for at least ten years.

Crossrail and Thameslink combined will offer south Londoners a one-change service to Heathrow via Farringdon, but that too is more than a decade hence.

Gatwick offers south Londoners the prospect of more convenient travel the moment the dead hand of BAA is removed from its management.

We should be making it clear through our MPs, local authorities and business support organisations that we wish to use Heathrow as little as possible; that we want the sale of Gatwick to proceed as a matter of urgency; and that we then want the closest possible engagement with the new owners.

ENDS

Straight Talk 02/09 - Monday, January 12, 2009.

CONFERENCE Croydon is the latest bright idea to be touted as the town’s answer to the economic downturn. It comes from the publicity-hungry Croydon Business, an organisation which, despite its name, is still largely funded by public money from one purse or another.

The idea that the town should play host to the Society of Saddle Tappers Bottom Knockers or the Union of Treacle Benders, and in so doing fill a few empty hotel rooms has much to commend it. But as usual Croydon can’t leave it there – hubris forces the pretentious south London borough to compare itself with places like Blackpool and Brighton.

As someone who has been to conferences in both places I have to say that Croydon lacks the necessary basic facilities to compete with either. In Blackpool my conference hotel, a barn of a place, included the main meeting hall on its ground floor; in Brighton I stayed next door to the purpose-built conference centre.

Croydon is offering the wholly inappropriate Fairfield complex as its equivalent, where the nearest hotels suitable as a base – Croydon Park or Jurys Inn – are ten draughty minutes walk away.

The Fairfield was designed as a concert hall and theatre in the early 1960s, when the demand for commercial flexibility was not an issue – concerts, plays and municipal dinners were the extent of the building’s envisaged uses. Anyone who has run an exhibition there will tell you how hard it is for the staff to fulfil even the most basic layout requests, given that everything still revolves around the concert hall and theatre.

In the years when Croydon Chamber of Commerce ran an annual exhibition it was forced to construct a temporary building for lack of an appropriate space in the town. There is still no appropriate space – it is the first glaring inadequacy to be addressed before we make grandiose comparisons with established conference venues.

On the other hand, if we replaced Fairfield with a modern, flexible arena to include all the electronic bells and whistles demanded by today’s organisers – and added a substantial new hotel – maybe on the site of the existing Nestle building – we might have the basis of a credible mid-market conference sector.

Dream on Croydon Business.

ENDS

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Straight Talk 01/09 - Monday, January 5, 2009.

HAPPY New Year. And I’m sure it will be for most of us if we keep the financial situation in perspective.

The man from insolvency practitioner Begbies Traynor says there could be a further five or more high street multiples going bust in the near future.

The media will have a field day when it happens, but they won’t comment on new retail businesses that are even now being created.

In the past few years there has been a fundamental change in the economics of the high street, which is only being brought to light by the present financial turmoil.

Retailers have reacted as they always do, by sacrificing profit for turnover and cutting prices. But their real enemy is nothing as simple as a downturn – it is a change in the very nature of retailing.

In the past, conventional retailers all had similar overheads, so they needed to sell goods at comparable prices. Gradually supermarkets  broadened their ranges and added additional aisles of non-food goods to larger stores.

As they did so the sector's tectonic plates shifted – supermarkets trade from edge-of-town or out-of-town sites where rateable values are lower. And it costs little or nothing in additional overheads to rearrange floor space and add extra stock.

So supermarkets can afford to slash prices without reducing profits – traditional high street traders have not yet found a way to respond, but you can be certain they are working on it. In the meantime, the downturn has made consumers more price conscious than ever and they are finding the bargains they seek in supermarkets or on the Internet.

The good news for Croydon is that the town centre has long been valued by the retail sector as a testing ground for new formats – it has city-centre footfall without eye-watering rents.

Expect the town centre to retain its attraction for retailers and shoppers alike, despite a downturn that will surely turn into recession. But don’t be surprised if district centres and ribbon retail parades on main roads fall into further – in some cases, terminal – decline.

ENDS

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Straight Talk 51/08 - Monday, December 22, 2008

HO, ho, ho – merry Christmas. That might seem a strange sentiment, given the year most of us have had, but I think it incumbent on every one of us to take a proper break from our businesses if we are to give them our best shot in 2009.

I’m not suggesting we drink to forget – that does nothing but leave us with yet another headache. But I do believe we should become seriously relaxed – a combination of a glass or two of something festive and the company of people in whom we can confide.

If you have any serious worries try to share them before the festivities, and then put them aside so you can return to them refreshed on a later day and work out a solution while you are cool, calm and collected.

Cancel the newspapers – they will be full of dreadful analyses of the year gone by and terrifying predictions for the one ahead – remember, there will be no business news in the next couple of weeks, so print journalists we be even more eager than usual to make mountains out of molehills.

For those of you staying in Britain for the holiday, the same advice applies in relation to those miserable wretches on Radio 4s Today Programme. You don’t need to know, so go for some music instead.

Or if you want to realise just how fortunate you are try the superb coverage on the BBC World Service – imagine spending Christmas in Zimbabwe and not knowing where you will find a meal of any description, let alone turkey and all the trimmings.

We have some serious work to do next year. It will not be the best of times, of that we can be sure. But when the going gets tough, the tough get thinking and then they get doing.

I hear Woolworths will close its last store on Saturday, January 5 – but Woolies’ dire straits are not the result of this or any other downturn – they were created by a series of senior management teams who refused to read the writing on the wall.

The simple lesson you and I can learn from this sad situation is not to stick our heads in the sand and pretend problems will solve themselves – they won’t.

See you next year.

ENDS

Straight Talk 50/08 - Monday, December 15, 2008.

THE SEASON of good cheer is almost upon us, despite the best efforts of many of my media colleagues to convince us otherwise.

I spent last Friday lunchtime spying on our business counterparts in west London and being very impressed with their annual yuletide get together.

West London Business is a kind of jumbo chamber of commerce, covering a sub-region rather than a single borough and being very active in the process.

Its chief executive told us it ran 40 events this calendar year, covering all manner of commercial topics including the all-important networking.

He also said the organisation was girding its loins for the anticipated fight over a third runway for Heathrow – you will not be surprised to learn it is strongly in favour.

But the organisation is equally well aware of the more immediate problems that are likely to beset the sub-region as downturn becomes recession.

It is reaching out to smaller firms across west London with a discount membership scheme, starting early in the New Year, so newer firms can benefit from the experience of more seasoned ones. The idea was warmly received in the banqueting room, as I’m sure it would be in south London, if anyone here was making a similar offer.

The meal was a well-judged mix of business formality and festive cheer, with a free draw after lunch for some very acceptable prizes, followed by a Frank Sinatra tribute act singing some of old blue eyes’ best-known songs.

I didn’t expect to do business that far outside my usual manor, but I was pleasantly surprised by the interest shown in my jottings by a number of west Londoners.

On the way back, as we drove under the final approach to one of Heathrow’s existing runways, I couldn’t help thinking that bringing even more low-level aircraft into close proximity with such tightly packed residential and industrial development is a recipe for potential disaster.

In everyone’s interest, particularly those who live and work in west London, we should be campaigning for expansion elsewhere and an absolute limit on any further development of this 60-year-old planning mistake.

But we will have to be much better organised if we want to prize BAA and British Airways’ hands off a reward they consider to be rightly theirs. A similarly active sub-regional business organisation would be a big step in the right direction.

ENDS

Straight Talk 49/08 - Monday, December 8, 2008.

THE Commission for Outer London will offer Croydon a huge opportunity to expand its economy, despite the dire prospects that prevail more generally.

This new body is an initiative of London Mayor Boris Johnson – a wheeze to make outlying boroughs feel more included in the life of the capital. And in Croydon’s case such an initiative is long overdue.

A former leader of the council used to say that the Greater London Council – forerunner of the GLA – believed London extended only as far as the south bank of the River Thames. It was this kind of sentiment – still prevalent among the outer London boroughs – that led to the abolition of regional government in the capital in 1986, with no replacement for well over a decade.

In last year’s Mayoral election Mr Johnson accused the incumbent, Ken Livingstone, a former leader of the GLC, of having a similar central London bias. Mr Johnson promised a more inclusive Mayoralty with a bigger say for (Conservative dominated) outer London – this is the first manifestation of it.

Among other things, the commission will be looking for five suburban towns that can develop as growth hubs, with huge potential for commerce. I’m told Croydon is very likely to be one of them, which is wonderful, providing there are a few strings attached – ones designed to discourage the local authority from acting like a parish council.

Over the past 40 years Croydon has managed just one major development in every economic cycle – that’s one per decade, approximately – but none in the ten-year boom period that’s about to bust.

The borough has dutifully sent ambassadors to the south of France every year to woo property developers by extolling the virtues of investment in central Croydon. But it has also blundered about, throwing spanners in the works, particularly on the Gateway site beside East Croydon station.

The continued existence of drab, mostly empty, office blocks opposite the Town Hall; the embarrassment that is St George’s Walk; and the impoverished reality of a once proud Fairfield arts complex are all monuments to municipal dithering.

Mr Johnson doesn’t strike me as a man who will allow his suburban initiative to limp along at the borough’s usual pace. I doubt he will say anything publicly, but I hope he will make it as clear to Croydon Council as he apparently did to the former Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police that present levels of performance are not acceptable.

ENDS

Straight Talk 48/08 - Monday, December 1, 2008

RETAILING covers a multitude of disciplines and each will be fairing differently in the present economic downturn. Comparing high street multiples with owner-managed outlets is more likely to confuse than to make matters clearer.

In Croydon we have a variety of micro-economies, many existing cheek by jowl, and the performance of retailers within them will be affected more by immediate circumstances than any national trend.

So a retailer in the Whitgift Centre will always do better than one in Church Street or St George’s Walk – the district centres will each have a different dynamic again, as will the parades of shops that line the main roads connecting high streets across the borough.

Individual traders will react differently too, depending on how well prepared or otherwise they are for the downturn – the impending loss of Woolworth has much more to do with a change of shopping fashion than this particular downturn.

By the same token, the arrival of Clas Ohlson and Costco in Croydon, while much to be welcomed, is entirely the result of the borough’s ability to attract large numbers of people to its major shopping areas. Both businesses will succeed or otherwise accordingly.

My point is that you should take all prophecies of economic doom based on the state of retailing with a very large pinch of salt.

They are mostly made either by retailers that want to part you from as much of your money as possible at this time of goodwill, or by newspapers that have their own axes to grind – they too are finding it harder to sell their wares and know that a scare story guarantees a few extra copies.

Retailing is a dynamic sector of the economy – there are always some businesses that read the public mind better than others and are therefore making more profit than their rivals – look at the relative positions of Sainsbury and Tesco over the past decade.

In a recession – which is where we are surely headed – firms large and small will go to the wall, but others will arrive to take their place. See the vultures already circling above Woolworth’s prime retail estate across the country.

So don’t be hoodwinked by clever marketing or sensation seeking – sound retailers will still be here next year and for many years to come. They will not suffer substantially if you choose to spend within your means this festive season.

ENDS

Straight Talk 47/08 - Monday, November 24, 2008.

OH how the mighty have fallen. The once authoritative Today Programme on BBC Radio 4 is now grovelling around in the media midden favoured by our more sensationalist tabloid newspapers.

In particular, I refer to the programme’s treatment of last Thursday’s retail figures. It offered us the same hysterical doom-mongering as the national press.

It told us gleefully that major shops were being forced to start pre-Christmas sales; the high street was in a state of financial melt-down; and household names would soon be going out of business.

In fact, when the retail figures were published, about an hour after the programme finished, there had been a 0.1 per cent fall in sales month-on-month, but a two per cent rise year-on-year.

Cynical old hacks like me have become used to the rubbish foisted on us by the newspaper trade – any nonsense will do as long as it satisfies the political whims of the owner and excites enough curiosity to maintain sales.

But the BBC is different – or it was. Funding is secure, guaranteed by the license-payer, leaving the corporation to tell the unvarnished truth as a valued point of reference amid the spin-laden babble of the rest of the media.

To be fair, Radio 4’s other news programmes still do that: PM and The World Tonight are particularly good at cutting through the twaddle. Even The World at One does a passable job, though the sad loss of Nick Clarke is still much in evidence.

Today is a victim of timing – there is little real news to report in the early morning, unless something disastrous happens. It is also a victim of having too much time on its hands – a cut of 60 minutes would improve quality immensely.

And the programme itself, or BBC News, needs to put a stop to the editors’ preoccupation with agenda-setting – Today is there to report news, not create it.

I hate to admit it, but in many ways Five Live has a more focused approach to delivering early morning information.

And from Radio 4’s point of view that is surely a waste of human resources, given the obvious talent of such Today regulars as Evan Davies, John Humphries and Edward Sturton.

ENDS

Straight Talk 46/08 - Monday, November 17, 2008.

FIRSTLY let me apologise for the lack of a column last week – due to an unexpected spell as an in-patient in Croydon’s excellent Mayday University Hospital.

Duly restored, let me turn my attentions to the happy task of adding to the praise being heaped on Croydon Business Venture as it celebrates its 25th anniversary.

I have been aware of the organisation for most of its life, but it wasn’t until last year that I truly appreciated its worth. Having become self-employed I quickly realised there were numerous crucial skills I needed to acquire if I were to maximise my chances of success.

I joined one of CBV’s regular three-day courses and began to unravel the mysteries of running a business. I was most impressed by the practicality of the course – essential information imparted by people who have been there and done it themselves.

There were searching questions asked of all of us – how exactly were we going to turn our bright ideas into profits; why would people buy our products or services as opposed to those of others?

I watched the light of recognition dawn in the eyes of my fellow students and knew exactly how it felt as I experienced the same range of feelings. I went to Acorn House believing I had many of the answers – I came away knowing I did not and that there were fundamental areas where I needed to think again.

That was singularly the most valuable lesson I learnt from my course and the one that has helped me most in putting together proposals for potential clients, many of which have proved highly successful.

Thank you to the team at CBV for the invaluable help you have given me and the thousands of others who have benefited from sharing your knowledge over the past quarter of a century.

And now for the future and the delightful news that you will be able to support even more fledgling businesses through an additional supported workshop project on the Purley Way.

In the present economic situation I can’t think of any initiative that is more likely to provide the basic advice and support needed to nurture Croydon’s stock of small firms. Congratulations on your past achievements, CBV, and here’s to even more of them in the coming years.

ENDS

Straight Talk 44/08 - Monday, November 3, 2008.

SEGMENTATION is a marketing technique well known to every successful small business in Croydon and beyond.

It’s equally well know to and practiced by larger firms and consists of refining your appeal to a particular area of the market – selected by age, gender, location or other criteria – and addressing your product or service specifically to that group.

The alternative strategy – trying to be all things to all people – is usually disastrous, leaving the hapless practitioner appealing to nobody.

We have seen a prime example of this basic error in the past ten days with the much publicised downfall of rude boys Brand and Ross.

I will leave it to others to fulminate about the incident and to debate whether it was the result of so-called edgy humour or merely boorishness as a cover for lack of talent.

I’m more interested by the presence of either of these broadcasters on Radio Two in the first place. I’m told they were there to attract a younger audience.

The BBC has eight UK domestic radio stations – four of which (Three, Four, Five Live and Seven) offer specialist services of various kinds and are therefore not in direct competition.

That leaves a further three that already vie for all or part of the youth market (One, One Extra and Six Music).

Now it seems that Radio Two, the former Light Programme, is also trying to attract the nation’s youngsters. So who exactly is looking after the rest of us; the vast majority of BBC license-payers?

If the BBC is truly intent on providing something for everyone, surely it would be more sensible to create two mainstream music stations – one catering for people up to 45 and the other for those aged 35 and over.

The editor of the Daily Telegraph does not aim to attract regular readers under the age of 40. The BBC should adopt a similar policy for Radio Two – and it should make a virtue of it.

Brand and Ross are likely to return to BBC radio at some future date – please could it be on a station dedicated to youth entertainment.

ENDS

Straight Talk 43/08 - Monday, October 27, 2008.

IMAGE is important at the best of times – as we prepare for recession it becomes an essential shot in the marketing locker.

I am reminded of this by disparaging remarks about Croydon in south London made on two of the BBC’s most popular comedy shows over the week-end.

Jeremy Hardy, on Radio 4’s News Quiz, talked about Croydon having some of the largest car parks in the world and Alexander Armstrong, chairing BBC1’s Have I Got News for You, referred to the bus to hell as the 159 to Croydon.

It would be good to be able to say that these are outdated images of the town and the broadcasters concerned were just looking for cheap laughs – but that isn’t true.

Mr Hardy lives in Streatham and knows of what he speaks, he included a reference to the car parks being part of Croydon’s argument to be considered as a city, which may be absurd, but no more so that the case Croydon Council continues to advance.

As a borough we need to work even harder in the present economic climate to encourage entrepreneurs to start new businesses here or to persuade the already successful to consider inward investment.

We have plenty of negative publicity to counter, but I see no evidence of anyone in an official capacity attempting to do so.

We need a series of positive initiatives in the arts and sport – possibly supported with public money in the first instance – aimed at making people think again about the borough and what it has to offer.

My mind goes back to the Picasso exhibition we mounted in 1995 to celebrate the opening of the Clocktower arts centre. We advertised it across Greater London in a campaign that played up to the apparent incongruity of culture in Croydon.

And in terms of the positive coverage we received from radio and television arts programmes and the magazine sections of the quality press it was very effective – more so than anything we have done since.

We won’t change people’s minds about Croydon overnight – but we won’t do so at all unless we make a start.

We should replace all the big talk about multi-billion pound commercial investment – most of which is now on hold for the duration of the recession – with the simple but effective promotion of a programme of events designed to make people think again about what the borough has to offer.

Who knows how many big fish we might catch in the process?

ENDS

Straight Talk 42/08 - Monday, October 20, 2008.

SMALL business is more optimistic about the length and depth of the anticipated recession than media reports would have you believe. And that’s good news for the Croydon economy, where the sector accounts for the vast majority of firms and a clear majority of jobs.  

The optimism comes from Jeremy Frost, chairman of the Croydon branch of the Federation of Small Business.   And he should know – as an insolvency practitioner he is a lynchpin in the business rescue services, on the front line in any economic downturn.  

In addition, he can call on the collective experience of the FSB, the largest business membership organisation in the borough, obtained from frequent sampling in e-mail surveys. 

It is reassuring to hear views that accord with what visitors to Croydon can see for themselves. The jostle factor in North End and the two shopping precincts is still as high as ever – albeit that people may not be spending as much as they once were. Some media reports would have you believe that high streets are deserted, with retailers at their doors desperately seeking shoppers.  

In truth, the biggest problem facing small firms is the willful refusal of banks to lend them the money they need to oil the wheels of commerce.   As the truth begins to emerge from the United States of just how deceitful some well-known financial names became in an attempt to hide their sub-prime skullduggery it’s hardly surprising that bankers trust nobody, least of all each other.

But small firms offering a tangible product or service are a much safer bet and it would be unjust if the money men’s paranoia was allowed to make life even more difficult – particularly as banks have benefited from very generous hand-outs of public money. 

In truth, today’s (Monday) figures from the highly respected Ernst & Young are probably the best indication of future economic performance in Croydon as elsewhere: they predict a relatively shallow recession (one per cent) compared with those of the 1970s, 80s and 90s – albeit with some loss of employment and a further lowering of house prices.  

Most well-run firms can live with that.

ENDS

Straight Talk 41/08: Monday, October 13, 2008.

NOW its official: Park Place is to undergo a complete rethink   Croydon’s third shopping complex is to look substantially different from either the Whitgift Centre or Centrale - a reflection of changing fashion, but also of the new economic reality. 

Gone are the three levels of malls at lower-ground, ground and first floors; gone too are the bridge and tunnel links between Park Place and the Whitgift. Centre.   But what will replace the long-standing and much delayed plan to bridge the town centre gap between the Victorian splendor of the Town Hall and the main shopping precincts east and west of North End? 

Minerva, the developer, says it will reveal all next year, but my guess is that the present proposal for a retail dominated low-rise sprawl will give way to a development where a mixed-use tower or two will help to balance the books.   Restaurants, coffee houses and boutique-style shops will dominate the ground floors, with offices and/or apartments above in configurations ranging from four of five floors to maybe ten times as many. 

A replacement for St George’s House, the Nestle building, would fit well into this new plan, if the Swiss-based food giant decides to move its British headquarters to the Ruskin Square site beside the railway at East Croydon.  

We already know the developers will retain a stand-alone department store - probably with a two-storey rooftop car park. And they have talked about a series of squares. I think they might even add a water feature with rustic bridges and boardwalks along the bank. 

I am drawn to this idea because it’s very similar to the one the developer has submitted to Wandsworth Council in respect of the town centre site of the former Ram Brewery.   In its Wandsworth submission the company makes the point that the area is ideally situated as a residential haven for people working in central London.  

That’s equally true of Croydon, where we are about to see substantial improvements in the rail connections brought about by the opening of the East London Railway at West Croydon and expansion of Thameslink services from East Croydon to The City and beyond. 

But we need to get our skates on because it won’t take the financial services sector long to recover from its present travails.   We’re already in the right place, but we need to make sure we can offer the right product at the right time

ENDS

Straight Talk 40/08: Monday, October 6, 2008.

SHOPKEEPERS in central Croydon are still being short-changed by the local authority.

At a time when retail sales are in decline and retailers are looking toward the Christmas season with trepidation, the lack of a co-ordinated public transport network is making Croydon increasingly unattractive to shoppers.

I’m thinking particularly of the council’s continued refusal to introduce park and ride, despite long-standing requests from Croydon Tramlink among others.

I was forcefully reminded of this shortcoming on Saturday morning, when I made the mistake of accepting a well-intentioned offer of a lift into town from my home in South Croydon.

Even at the busiest times the journey normally takes me no more than ten minutes door-to-door by public transport – a short walk to the bus stop and any of five services to Katharine Street or Wellesley Road.

On Saturday it took three times as long just to get to Old Town, thanks to a badly sequenced set of traffic lights on Roman Way. It then took a further 15 minutes to park the car – our first choice, Centrale, was queuing sedately, so we settled for Surrey Street and a walk to the shops.

This ad hoc parking arrangement is chaotic and the fees are high. Together they must be adding to the general unattractiveness of the town centre. And that must also be reducing the amount of money passing through retailers’ tills relative to those in neighbouring Bromley and Kingston – where there is park and ride at the busiest times of the year.

We could easily set up park and ride in Croydon, using trams to the east and west of the town and trains to the south – secure parking at Addington Village and Ampere Way tram stops and Coulsdon South or Reedham stations, none of which is more than a few minutes ride by rail from the town centre.

My first experience of park and ride was in Oxford more than 15 years ago; we left the car in a secure car park on the outskirts of the city and were chauffeured into the centre by a helpful bus driver who told us which were the most convenient stops for the various colleges and shops.

Surely it cannot be beyond the wit of Croydon Council – itself an aspirant city – to organise something similar?

ENDS

Straight Talk 39/08: Monday, September 29, 2008.

HOW many organisations does it take to support small business?

There seems to be a plethora of them, all offering seminars and fact-finding interviews designed to deliver a service tailored to meet specific needs.

I’m all in favour of support – it makes a pleasant change from allowing Britain’s businesses to bumble along on their own and then asking why so many fail.

The emphasis on marketing plans with formal timetables to achieve agreed goals is something from which my business has benefited hugely – and I’m not the only one.

But do we need large numbers of organisations, each with its own expensive administrative structure, to promote and deliver them?

Certainly there’s a strong argument for local delivery if we are to encourage the maximum number of smaller firms to take part. And make no mistake: it will be smaller firms rather than multi-nationals that will save us from the worst excesses of any imminent recession.

But it is not beyond the wit of sub-regional or even national support specialists to organise activities in a particular town or at a mutually convenient location for two or more centres of business, if that is more appropriate.

The specialists contracted to deliver the training should be those with a record for attracting interest and a reputation for exceeding the expectations they raise.

All this may seem blindingly obvious, but my own experiences lead me to believe that the civil servants who distribute tax-payers’ money are still more influenced by political considerations than commercial ones.

I am plagued by phone calls and e-mails from organisations offering me the same opportunities that I know are available from more experienced agencies elsewhere.

There seems to be a political determination at the highest levels to keep certain local authorities happy, despite how bad a delivery job they do or how much they get in the way of others who provide a better service.

When it comes to trimming budgets, central government could and should make a virtue out of necessity and withdraw its support from mediocre delivery agencies long before it cuts the programmes themselves.

ENDS

Straight Talk 38/08: Monday, September 22, 2008.

CROYDON watchers will be filled with a distinct sense of déjà vu this week. It follows reports that Croydon Business, a quango, is to introduce a commercial ambassadors’ initiative in the New Year.

Those of us from the south London borough who travel abroad or meet visiting international executives here are to be issued with information that will help us promote the area as a suitable place for inward investment.

I seem to recall that a previous chief executive of what was then called Croydon Marketing and Development launched a similar scheme some years ago. On that occasion businesses were issued with booklets listing 100 essential facts about the borough, which they were encouraged to distribute freely.

The problem now, as then, is one of credibility. If you accept the definition of an ambassador as ‘someone sent abroad to lie for his country’ you can certainly tell tall tales about the borough with impunity. But you may wish to think twice if you value your own standing.

Croydon has a reputation for talking big, but failing to deliver – some years ago it embarrassed itself severely when it claimed a lifestyle and shopping choice to rival London’s West End.

It got away with this piece of bombast initially, until the London Evening Standard sent a reporter to investigate. The resulting two-page feature – hilarious but intensely damaging – dealt Croydon’s external image a blow from which it has yet to recover.

At the time, we united to lambast the Standard for what we called ‘biased coverage’, but we only had ourselves to blame for making such silly claims.

This time, what are we to tell potential inward investors – bearing in mind they will certainly come and see for themselves before they spend any money here?

Can we tell them with confidence about the fate of the Gateway site at East Croydon; or the redevelopment of West Croydon station in time for the arrival of the East London Railway?

Can we wax lyrical about a third shopping centre we are about to commission; or the future of Fairfield?

This is the ideal time to sort out these problems: once the work is actually in-hand, let’s go out and tell the world. Until then, I suggest we maintain a dignified silence.

ENDS

Straight Talk 37/08 - Monday, September 15, 2008.

VIOLENT death returned to the streets of the south London borough of Croydon on Saturday night.

An entirely innocent young man paid the ultimate price for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is a tragedy for his family, to whom my heart goes out.

And it is a disaster for the town too.
- How many shoppers will hear of this murder and decide to spend their money somewhere safer?
- How many would-be or existing employees of Croydon firms will look for jobs elsewhere instead?
- How many established businesses will be unable to attract the right calibre of staff?
- How many of those will decide to downsize in a town with such a violent reputation?
- How long will it be before a major employer leaves the borough, taking hundreds of jobs with it?
- How many would-be inward investors have rejected Croydon in favour of more peaceful locations?

And what is Croydon Council doing about it? Where is the flow of positive stories about the town that would help to put even Saturday’s tragic events into perspective?

Some years ago the council set up an organisation called Croydon Marketing and Development – on which it has subsequently spent substantial sums of tax-payers’ money – to develop and place a steady stream of positive stories in regional and national media.

CMD metamorphosed into Croydon Business, but in neither guise has the organisation succeeded in this important aspect of its work.

In truth, Croydon is no more dangerous today than it was before the dreadful events of Saturday night or similar fatal attacks in the weeks and months previously.

The town centre is an unsavoury place, best avoided after dark, particularly at week-ends – but that has been true since Croydon Council adopted its ‘Dodge City’ policy in relation to vertical drinking establishments.

And sadly it will remain so until someone in a position of authority has the balls to do something to restrict the lethal mixture of testosterone and alcohol that is proving so destructive of lives and reputations.

ENDS

    

Straight Talk 36/08 - Monday, September 8, 2008.

AT a stroke, the Mayor of London has added millions of pounds to the cost of doing business in the capital.

Mr Johnson's decision to raise bus and tube fares from the start of 2009 will increase congestion on Greater London's already inadequate roads. In so doing it will also reduce the reliability and viability of the existing bus network.

The bright young things at Conservative Central Office who run London on Boris’s behalf may not realise it, but these things are predictable because we’ve been here before.

An increase in fares will cause significant numbers of people to switch back to using their cars. That will add to congestion, making it even harder for bus companies to maintain regular services.

It will also reduce the revenue they can raise from fares, which will prompt a demand for higher subsidies. When the demand is refused, the companies will be forced to reduce the frequency of services – making public transport even less attractive and inducing even more passengers to return to using their cars.

The bus companies will also find it necessary to make their fleets last longer by replacing buses less often – that will lead to a higher percentage of buses off the road at any one time due to maintenance delays.

This downward spiral will mean later arrival at work for thousands of commuters and increased congestion for delivery vehicles, reducing the capital’s productivity. And all of that adds up to millions of pounds extra being added to the cost of doing business in London, making the city progressively less attractive commercially.

In fact; there is a strong argument for making public transport free at the point of use – we already do so for those aged under 18 and over 60.

If we extended those initiatives to everyone else we could introduce a number of measures that would make bus journeys faster and services more reliable – we could delight business executives, commuters and environmentalists simultaneously.

The added cost would need to come from taxation in some form. Maybe we could persuade central government to let the capital keep more of the money it already raises for the public purse – after all, there are a significant number of voters in Greater London.

ENDS

Straight Talk 35/08 - Monday, September 1, 2008.

MY BOYS go back to school this week. So, like many parents, I’ve spent the past few days checking uniforms to make sure everything still fits and is in good condition.

And that has lead me to wonder why we still insist on compelling our children to wear a uniform based on the casual attire of the 1940s.

Blazers, formal shirts and ties are not common items in my sons’ wardrobes – indeed; they only appear as part of their school uniforms. And they are singularly impractical in that respect.

Is this a conspiracy to prop-up old-fashioned clothes shops, an artificial way to line the coffers of the nation’s schools, or just a refusal to move with the times?

Don’t misunderstand me, I’m in favour of school uniforms – they are the ultimate defence against parents with more money than sense who indulge their offspring with ludicrously over-priced designer clothes.

My concern is with the high cost of the uniform that my boys and most of the country’s children are forced to wear. What would be wrong with a more casual approach? Will students learn less well if they are more comfortable?

Why can’t we dress our children in machine-washable, non-iron chinos and piques? We could certainly prescribe school colours, but allow credit-crunched parents to buy the clothes at reasonable prices from any number of high street outlets.

When the weather turns colder we can simply add a sweatshirt of fleece – again in school colours – possibly with a logo emblazoned on it.

At the moment schools are waxing lyrical about the work they do to prepare students for the world of work – and yet, in offices, shops and factories, ambulance, fire and police stations, the tie has been largely abandoned.

My boys are censured if their ties are not securely knotted and they are forbidden to remove their jackets too, regardless of the weather – quaint distinctions they share mainly with perennially out-of-touch politicians in the Houses of Parliament.

The start of a new school year is a good time to reconsider the question of what constitutes a uniform in the 21st century – a few forward-looking institutions have already made the change, it’s about time the rest followed suit.

ENDS

Straight Talk 34/08 - Monday, August 25, 2008.

THE CLOCK is ticking: there are about 205 weeks before London plays host to the Games of the 30th Olympiad. This is a fantastic opportunity for my home city to impress the world and to use the next four years as a public relations springboard for international trade.

So how are we doing thus far? Well, the captain and the coach have already dropped the baton a couple of times, but they seem to be playing the same game, albeit by subtly different rules.

Before the spectacular close of the Beijing games, Tessa Jowell, Britain’s Olympics minister, was busy talking down expectations:
-         the budget is set;
-         there can be no increase in funding;
-         if we want to spend more on one aspect, we will have to spend less on another;
-         there may not be room for all the athletes in the Olympic village.

Then there was the Mayor of London, shambling down the red carpet in the Birds Nest stadium. He looked like a personification of Tracey Emin’s unmade bed by comparison with the immaculately dressed Mayor of Beijing.

Later, Boris Johnson talked about sport coming home to London in four years time – he said table tennis had been invented on the dining tables of the British – but he didn’t mention the legacy aspect of the London Olympics.

And finally there was the normally dour Gordon Brown, grinning inanely and shaking hands vigorously with the British medal-winners. No doubt he is genuinely as pleased as the rest of us with their outstanding performance, but this seasoned politician is also hoping surely that some of their popularity will rub off.

If London is to distinguish itself as the legacy games we need to start making decisions now about post-2012 uses for the Olympic Park. We need ingenuity to design buildings with a dual purpose and political will to spend the extra money required to build them that way.

Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, is right to suggest that costs associated with legacy should not be included in the budget for the London games. But can we persuade our slippery politicians to agree?

ENDS

Straight Talk 33/08 - Monday, August 18, 2008.

ATTITUDE is everything in sport.

The superb performances by many of Britain’s Olympic athletes in Beijing are partly due to the National Lottery money spent on elite sport in the past few years.

But they are also about the conviction of the country’s top cyclists, rowers, sailors and swimmers that they are simply the best and their determination not to be beaten.

Compare their heart-warming success with the lacklustre performance of England’s national cricket and football squads – clearly, money isn’t everything.

As it is in sport, so it is in trade: the British Chambers of Commerce is the first major business organisation to predict a recession – albeit a short one – in what it believes will be a very difficult two years ahead.

If the BCC is right: what can business in general and small firms in particular do about it? In my view we can broaden our commercial horizons to encompass parts of the world where rates of economic growth are higher than the one per cent or less we are expecting in Britain.

Over the next six months there are opportunities for subsidised trade visits to the Caribbean, eastern Europe and South Africa – in the company of highly experienced international traders who will lead the visits and provide practical help and support. 

All the destinations – from Bridgetown in Barbados, through Sofia in Bulgaria, Prague in the Czech Republic and Krakow in Poland, to Johannesburg in South Africa – have been fully researched. Each is enjoying a higher growth rate than the United Kingdom and all are keen to do business with British firms in a wide range of professions and trades.

If you want to know more I suggest you visit my good friends at South London Export Club – www.slec.biz – who are intimately involved in all these initiatives.

ENDS

Straight Talk 32/08 - Monday, August 11, 2008.

THOSE who pay the piper will inevitably call the tune. Cliche? Absolutely, but it also happens to be true and any attempt to circumvent it leads to an uncomfortable reckoning.

Let me offer two topical examples: the first is London’s Olympic preparations; the second is Croydon’s Gateway development.

The cost to the public purse of transforming large parts of east London into an Olympic Park has been rising steadily since the city won the bid to host the 2012 games.

Planners have blithely assured us that business will pick up a significant proportion of the tab. Now we are told the credit crunch has reduced the amount of private sector money available to support the games, so the taxpayer will have to take up the slack.

In truth, the credit crunch is a convenient excuse – the private sector has not been consulted in detail or offered any meaningful role in the games preparations. It has merely been expected to meet an arbitrary proportion of a bill determined by the grandiose ideas of government apparatchiks

A similar situation, though on a much smaller scale, has left the people of Croydon in the mire once more. Their elected representatives tried to exert undue influence on the Gateway development at East Croydon by manipulating the planning system.

But those efforts have now been successfully thwarted by the company that owns the site and Croydon Council has been left with egg on its face.

In both cases, these lessons in common sense are tinged with sadness for me – I want us to embrace the next Olympics wholeheartedly by setting a realistic budget; not necessarily one that will equal the amount being spent by the Chinese in Beijing.

And I want us to assume that we will have to pay for everything from taxation and treat any private-sector contribution as a welcome bonus.

In Croydon, I want to see a commercially viable arena built close to East Croydon station – probably the best and certainly the most environmentally friendly site for such a development anywhere in south London.

And I want to see far greater honesty from Croydon Council – either it puts our money where its mouth is and finances a suitable successor to the Fairfield from the public purse or it creates conditions in which the private sector finds it attractive to do so.

ENDS

Straight Talk 31/08 - Monday, August 4, 2008.

WISPS of economic reality are slowly drifting across the development landscape of central Croydon.

Insofar as any of us can predict the commercial demands of the coming decade, Minerva seems to be responding with its revised proposals for Park Place.

Gone is the plan for retail units on lower ground and first floor levels – already seen as unrealistic by many retail experts.

Gone too is the bus station – part of the developers' Section 106 agreement with Croydon Council – reflecting perhaps the diminished cash return expected from the complex in these straightened times.

But the department store stays – maybe a long-coveted branch of John Lewis – and that reminds me of a possibly apocryphal tale of retailing.

Lend Lease bought into Bluewater in the wake of John Lewis's withdrawal from the project. So the globe-trotting Australian developer asked the archetypal British retailer what might tempt it to return.

The department store is said to have replied: "You could start by tearing up the existing plan and working with us to devise a new one." And the rest, as they say, is history – the most carefully researched and now one of the most successful retail environments in Europe.

Having watched the development of Bluewater from its early stages, I am hopeful, if John Lewis is really involved in Park Place, that Croydon will be presented with something esthetically attractive as well as commercially viable.

Now, as we contemplate the prospect of a public park and a new fringe theatre on the former coal yard adjoining East Croydon station, we must turn our attention to the Fairfield.

The time has come to jettison the political humbug; set aside the sentiment and start facing a few facts. Is there still a market for a 2000-seat auditorium in south London?

If so, how much will the Fairfield Trust need to spend to bring the complex up to a standard where it can address that market? I warn you now, a coat of paint and some new carpet is not enough – we are talking about tens of millions of pounds.

If, as I suspect, the market has changed irrevocably, do we want a 21st century entertainment complex in central Croydon?

Are we ready to bite the bullet and replace our beloved Fairfield with a flexible performance space – possibly an arena?

And in the new economic climate, who will pay for it?

ENDS

Straight Talk 30/08 - Monday, July 28, 2008.

A BAR-B-CUE in the garden of one of Croydon’s most impressive hotels was the ideal place to gauge the mood of business in the real economy.

Last week’s networking event, jointly organised by Croydon Chamber of Commerce and The Best of Croydon, brought together a wide cross-section of small and medium-sized firms, most of whom do most of their trade in south London.

While we munched on burgers and salad and sipped Pimms, I took the opportunity to ask a number of those present about the state of their businesses.

This was hardly the place for intimate confessions, but the level responses – look-you-in-the-eye answers to direct questions – left me with the strong impression that business is generally in reasonable health.

Indeed The Aerodrome Hotel, where we enjoyed our delightful sojourn, was eager to show us around the plush new floor it has just added – all superior rooms and £300-a-night suites – and to tell us of additional improvements already under way.

So why the disparity between what we see at such a gathering and what we hear from my journalist colleagues in the national media?

National journalists are as much part of the village as our politicians: their contact lists don’t venture far beyond central London, where they talk mostly to people in financial services, property and retailing.
All three sectors have been badly affected in the past year:
·         financial services as a direct result of risky investments brought about by its own greed;
·         property by the lack of eye-watering bonuses for people who work in financial services; and
·         retailing because internet shopping is seriously starting to rival high street shopping

There are also lobbyists from both major political parties with a vested interest in making the downturn look as dire as possible for the present administration.

But beyond the wine bars of the square mile and the West End, smaller and more agile firms who make up the majority of the British economy are foreseeing and dealing with threats to their livelihood as part of everyday business.

It would take a braver – or more foolhardy – man than me to insist that the British economy is not heading for recession: I would only say that reports of it have so far been wildly exaggerated.

ENDS

Straight Talk 29/08 - Monday, July 21, 2008.

HOSPITALS, schools and public transport across Britain will have to make do for the time being. So says the deeply underwhelming Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Archie Andrews to Gordon Brown’s Peter Brough.

Mr Darling made public his stringent strictures to fellow cabinet ministers in an interview published in The Times on Saturday. He believes the general public would see any more tax increases as unfair, so he is contemplating additional borrowing to see us through the downturn.

But Mr Darling’s notion of fairness does not extend to increasing income by requiring higher earners to shoulder a more proportionate share of the tax take and he makes no mention of initiatives to reduce overheads in the business of running government.

A recent study by the Treasury reveals that a 50p tax rate imposed on those earning more than £250,000 a year would generate about £3.5 billion annually – enough to give every household a £200 reduction in Council Tax. Surely it would not be too iniquitous to impose a 50p rate on incomes over £100,000 – that would raise even more revenue without burdening most of us.

On the other side of the balance sheet, this government has created a huge administration in the 11 years since it was first elected – there are departments writing contracts for a bewildering array of quangos, each of which is taking a commission for its oversight before passing the work on to someone else.

There are plenty of other examples of government profligacy too – from obscene bonuses paid to ineffectual executives, through unnecessary occupation of costly central London offices, to ministers’ continuing reluctance to outsource those things that the private sector does more efficiently.

And then there are the salary additions for MPs that are thinly disguised as expenses and therefore exempt from income tax.

If the downturn lasts as long as Mr Darling now thinks it might, there could come a time when he or his successor will need to raise general taxes once again – the rest of us are likely to be less resentful if we are sure he has put the government’s house in order first.

ENDS

Straight Talk 28/08 - Monday, July 14, 2008.

PETROL prices are encouraging many drivers to look again at alternatives to travelling by car: this should be a golden opportunity for London’s public transport. Here is a chance for contractors to expand their individual fleets to meet a welcome increase in demand.

The international oil market is succeeding where a procession of hand-wringing environmentalists and pusillanimous politicians have failed dismally.

But just when the circumstances are aligned for a sea change in the way Londoners negotiate their city, along comes Boris Johnson’s transport Tsar, Tim Parker, with a king-sized spanner to jam in the works.

The woefully unimpressive Mr Parker, who spent 20 minutes saying nothing at the recent Passport to Export awards, tells us TfL must be properly funded – in English, I think that means a rise in fares, a reduction in service, or both.

But London’s public transport is not like the AA or Clark’s Shoes, Mr Parker’s previous fiefdoms, where he apparently cut a swath through the workforces.

I thought we had finally learnt the lesson that neither London nor any other major city can run its public transport network purely as a business.

I also thought we had disposed of the idea that public transport must be demand led:  offer a poor service at a high price, and those who have a choice will go elsewhere; offer a reasonable service, keep costs down, and more people will find it attractive.

Even the existing bus network – far from perfect in my part of London – has been carrying increasing numbers of passengers; largely because it is relatively cheap.

The justification for a subsidised public transport network is the overwhelming contribution it makes to our quality of life. It is an attractive prospect for inward investors, whose employees will use it every day; and for tourists, who contribute so much to the capital’s commercial success.

Rival world cities like New York are investing in public transport, as are would-be world cities like Johannesburg.

With the Olympic spotlight swinging in our direction, after next month’s Beijing Games, we need to be seen as a city where travel is becoming easier. And that means increased investment in public transport.

ENDS

Straight Talk 27/08 - Monday, July 7, 2008.

RECESSION: what recession? I exaggerate to make the point that it would be dangerous to presume the British economy is in free-fall.

Some sections of the media would have you believe that the end is nigh; that we are about to face financial Armageddon. Of course it would be foolish to deny that some sectors of the economy have bleak prospects for the coming months - even over the next year or two.

But there is no evidence as yet that we Brits are about to sink into the Slough of Despond - indeed, the forecast for this financial year is for one per cent growth.

Britain still has the fifth largest economy in the world and nobody is seriously predicting that we will tumble down the rankings.

The most recent causes for concern have been the poor performances of Taylor Wimpey, Britain’s biggest homebuilder, and of Marks and Spencer, the bellwether of the retail sector. But the gloom-mongers neglect to mention that both are special cases.

Taylor Wimpey is a direct casualty of the collective rashness of the banks that lent mortgage money to all and sundry at low rates of interest, in the process fuelling a housing price bubble.

Their decision to retreat to more responsible lending positions has burst that bubble, leaving builders and others in the property sector floundering like so many beached whales. In the past, building companies have overcome such problems by leasing unsold properties to housing associations – if the present economic downturn continues, no doubt the builders will do something similar again.

M&S sells quality clothes, food and furniture at premium prices - it is hardly surprising that the media's false but remorseless cries of fire in a crowded high street have caused the rest of us to stampede in the direction of cheaper shops.

But Marks is a well-run company that will quickly adjust its prices to meet its customers’ needs and thus restore the dip in its sales figures.

Inevitably some firms will cease trading in the coming months, but their failure will be as much to do with their own management as with the economic climate – whether or not they are honest enough to admit it.

ENDS

Straight Talk 26/08 - Monday, June 30, 2008.

PEOPLE in New Addington finally have a supermarket - or rather, they will, once it's built. But it has taken nearly 60 years for this town on the outskirts of Croydon, south London to achieve this modest feat.

New Addington began life as a London overspill housing estate after World War Two – it has grown to become a small town of more than 30,000 people, but the original master plan for the area has stayed firmly in place. That called for a parade of small shops - the norm at the time, but an increasing anachronism as retail habits have changed.

Major supermarkets have been casting envious eyes on the town for decades - in the early 1990s one offered to build a multi-storey car park at the transport interchange in Lodge Lane in return for an outlet next door. The proposal was turned down because politicians and planners were worried about the plight of shopkeepers in Central Parade.

In reality, residents were already voting with their feet - or rather, their cars - and shopping outside the district, making this commercial cocoon ultimately unsustainable.

At long last the free market has arrived in New Addington, but the new Tesco supermarket will not materialise like Dr Who's Tardis – smaller traders have at least two years to plan and implement a retail strategy.

They should not expect existing customers to remain loyal - whatever they say now. In the past 40 years Britain’s shoppers have migrated to superstores in huge numbers because they like the convenience and the prices.

A wily trader will be making regular visits to other branches of his nascent competitor; comparing the range of stock and the price. He will be asking himself whether he can offer an alternative - maybe by carrying a wider range, albeit at a higher price.

He will also be asking existing customers if there is a market for such a range. If they say yes, he will try stocking it now and seeing how it sells.

He may even be thinking about opening a second outlet further away from the superstore and developing new trade there. When the time comes he could then use the existing premises to start a non-competing business that would benefit from the increased footfall generated by the superstore.

None of this is easy – but it’s not impossible either. It’s a challenge, not a disaster.

ENDS

Straight Talk 25/08 - Monday, June 23, 2008.

OIL exporting countries will never invest in the development of alternative forms of energy, so Gordon Brown’s week-end trip was a waste of time. That seems to be the view of a number of business commentators.

I disagree. When the oil finally does run out most of the world’s producers will be left with nothing but sand unless they diversify. And alternative forms of energy are an infinitely better investment than international banks or city-centre property.

The last few months have shown that we can shun particular financial institutions very quickly and that expensive real-estate only retains its value while there are an excessive number of people clamouring for it. Energy, on the other hand, is always in demand and even in an austere economic climate it will continue so to be.

The company that finds a way to harvest wave power in commercial quantities from around the British Isles can look forward to steadily increasing profits for the foreseeable future. Long after oil is a distant memory far-sighted investors in sensible alternatives will be rightly lauded as leading business lights.

And in the meantime I hope Mr Brown will remind national and regional transport authorities that electrical energy is the one with a future: that means electrifying all main line railway services; putting lorries on trains  similar to the Anglo-French shuttle; favouring trams over buses; and offering cash incentives to taxi firms who invest in dual fuel vehicles.

We have already revived the tram, with great success in places like Croydon – we could do worse than bring back the trolley-bus too. And for those who see trolley-buses as the lumbering presence they were in the 1950s I recommend a visit to Croydon’s twin town Arnhem in Holland, where sleek modern electrically-powered vehicles deliver the same performance as their diesel-engined equivalents without the noxious exhaust fumes.

Was there ever a better example of necessity being the mother of invention than the revitalised search for alternative sources of cheaper energy? I look forward to a cleaner, greener environment as a direct result.

ENDS

Straight Talk 24/08 - Monday, June 16, 2008.

PLANS are finally afoot to replace Taberner House, the borough council offices in Croydon, south London.

The existing building, named after a former long-serving town clerk, is a product of the early 1960s. It has never been entirely fit for purpose; intended to be the tallest tower in town at 20 storeys it 'lost' two floors during construction. It was also intended to replace the Victorian Town Hall, but it was designed and built without a council chamber.

Originally, the local authority planned to cover the running costs of its new high-rise headquarters by letting out the top floors commercially, but somehow there were always too many staff to make that a reality.
The next generation civic offices will also replace what the council calls the Fell Road building, once home to a huge computer and an equally capacious senior executive dining room – this squat featureless box is probably best known to Croydon residents as the Register Office.

If the computer-generated image is an accurate guide, the 21st century building will be a featureless box too, albeit somewhat taller.

I find it sad that a local authority with pretentions to be London’s third city has given so little consideration to the hub of its empire. Just around the corner, in Mint Walk, is a Town Hall extension that houses the central library.

A former administration took the trouble to blend the styles to great effect. The 1990s extension is not a copy of the Victorian original, but it has enough similarities to make it visually pleasing. The new building will share its Fell Road and Mint Walk elevations with the Town Hall, but apparently none of that splendid old building's architectural features.

Is this a deliberate decision, to opt for contrast, or just a cheap option, designed to maximise profit for a cash-strapped local authority’s commercial partner? I fear the council is taking what it is given rather than using its commercial muscle. Even in the present economic climate, land in central Croydon is a valuable asset, which means the council can afford to choose what it builds and with whom.

ENDS

Straight Talk 23/08 - Monday, June 9, 2008.

A BANQUET in central London for businesses from its southern boroughs is an ideal place to contemplate the sub region’s entity – or lack of it.

Between dessert and coffee in the elegant surroundings of the Mountbatten Room at the RAC Club, Sir Bob Scott, in whose honour the dinner was held, made a lively speech on the subject.

In it he told a few home truths about the under-performance of some of the bigger towns in the sub-region, Croydon included.

Sir Bob, chairman of South London Business, is a wily campaigner – the man who brought the Commonwealth Games to Manchester and helped Liverpool become this year’s European City of Culture – so he knows something about spotting winners and inspiring them to raise their performance.

But there are none as deaf as those who will not hear and I fear his wise words may be ignored by some who most need to heed them.

A few of south London’s borough councils remain besotted with the idea of being a special case in their dealings with regional and central government – harking back to a time more than 40 years ago when they were semi-autonomous County Boroughs.

They recognise themselves, quite rightly, as a jewel of great worth, but persistently ignore their wonderful setting.

During business trips abroad, I have found repeatedly that the mention of south London brings more interest than that of an individual borough. It is easier to identify south London on a map and overseas entrepreneurs readily recognise the diversity of the sub-region with its three million residents and 110,000 businesses.

Sir Bob is not the first to complain about a lack of sub-regional awareness – I can remember the chief executive of the former South London Training and Enterprise Council (SOLOTEC) being equally frustrated by it.

But maybe this is a good time to think about it more carefully: firstly because – in the present economic climate – we need all the help we can get to boost trade; and secondly because – with the London Olympics on the horizon – the eyes of the world are upon us and south London is an easier sell in an international market than any particular borough.

ENDS

Straight Talk 22/08 - Monday, June 2, 2008.

PLANNING laws are a serious headache for British business. They are incredibly time-consuming and – as time is money – that makes them expensive too.

The problem is political: a proposal to build a new development – like the planned arena in the centre of Croydon, south London – is inevitably controversial. Politicians’ first instinct is to reconcile the opposing views by spending huge amounts of time and tax-payers’ money on public inquiries.

These quasi-judicial proceedings have only proved effective for the lawyers involved, who use their eye-watering fees to buy second homes and educate their children. Sizewell B nuclear power station and Terminal 5 at Heathrow are perhaps the best-known examples of planning inquiries that have dragged on for years, causing us to slip ever further behind our continental European cousins, who have no such lengthy deliberations before embarking on major projects.

Today (Monday), the House of Commons is again considering a Bill that would take these decisions away from politicians and put them in the hands of a committee of experts. Objectors would have the chance to present their arguments, but once a decision was made work could start.

This is surely the kind of system we need if we are to respond to situations like the expansion of renewable energy or the provision of a high-speed rail network that will meet anticipated needs as they arise rather than ten years later.

When the French ran out of capacity at their existing Paris airports they built a new one on the other side of the city complete with high-speed rail and road connections. Our best answer to a similar problem is a half-length third runway in a densely populated part of west London at an airport that is fast becoming the most unpopular in the world.

We briefly considered building a new airport on an artificial island in the Thames Estuary, but abandoned the idea when we realised how long it might take and how much it might cost, just to obtain planning permission.

Nobody wants a new airport or shopping centre or arena on their doorstep, but if everyone is allowed to reject such proposals, Britain will rapidly degenerate into a giant historical theme park only accessible by boat from France or Ireland.

ENDS

Straight Talk 21/08 - Monday, May 26, 2008.

THE END of the English soccer season is marked in Croydon, south London by feasting and merriment. The celebrations are made possible by the materialisation, Tardis-like, of a marquee on the pitch at Selhurst Park, home of Championship club, Crystal Palace.

In a week-long extravaganza of award ceremonies and charity bashes this big tent offers a high-quality, high-capacity entertainment facility, unavailable in the area at other times of the year.

Those of us fortunate enough to be invited to a selection of events are required to unearth the glad rags from the back of the wardrobe more than once in a week. This year I attended two successive dinners, eating the same meal on both nights, but experiencing very different atmospheres.

I understand every diner in the marquee this year – apart from the vegetarians – was served duck as the main course. It was very good, but I was disappointed by this lack of variety. Service was impeccable and caterers from more permanent establishments in the area could learn from the relaxed efficiency that delivered hot food simultaneously to every guest on each table of ten.

My two causes for celebration were the South London Business Awards and the Croydon Charity Ball. The first was hosted by James Max, a former contestant in The Apprentice and now a presenter with LBC Radio – experiences that have sadly left Mr Max addicted to the sound of his own voice.

The second was hosted by David Jensen, an infinitely more experienced radio presenter, who understands that his job is to stand up, speak up and shut up – a superbly judged performance from David added considerably to my overall enjoyment of the Charity Ball.

The South London Business Awards have established themselves very quickly as a highlight of the sub-regional business calendar. What we now need is a much lower-key series of borough awards – each presented at an annual lunch, perhaps – run in conjunction with these sub-regional awards and acting as qualifying rounds.

The overall success of the marquee suggests there is a market for a permanent facility in the area – a home for these and other events spread across the year – a possible additional roll for an arena in central Croydon.

ENDS

Straight Talk 20/08 - Monday, May 19, 2008.

DINERS are being served meat described as British that actually comes from elsewhere – shock, horror. An investigation undertaken by Trading Standards officers in the West Country has uncovered this dastardly foreign plot, but only after DNA analysis.

It seems out taste buds alone are unable to tell the difference, but the ‘British’ tag is clearly a selling point, so Devon’s Del-boys have been adding it to boost sales. Supermarkets in my hometown of Croydon in south London all have signs above the meat aisles assuring customers that the beef and pork are home grown.

But, if you want to know how the animal was produced you will have to look more closely for terms like ‘free range’, ‘outdoor reared’, or ‘organic’. And yet, that is surely the main determinant of taste – slow grown, well hung beef doesn’t need DNA testing to tell you how much more succulent it is, providing of course it is competently cooked.

A good cook can make the most of a mediocre piece of meat, but a bad one can easily reduce a superior cut to so much shoe leather. Does it seriously matter where the food was produced, unless of course, you are the person producing it? Apparently not, since we are enthusiastic consumers of Danish bacon and New Zealand lamb.

Back in the late 1960s Bruce Forsyth was the public voice of an ill-fated Buy British campaign with a song called I’m backing Britain – unfortunately many of the T-shirts designed to support the song were made in Portugal. All the bally-hoo at the time did nothing to change our buying habits; the motor car, motor cycle and white goods factories it was intended to protect have largely gone and the gap has been filled by better quality products from overseas.

I still remember with fondness a series of steaks I ate during my last visit to South Africa. I suspect it was a combination of breed, feed and careful cooking that gave the meat such a wonderful flavour. Personally, I’m not bothered where my food is grown as long as it’s not laced with too many growth hormones, antibiotics and artificial fertilisers in the process.

ENDS

Straight Talk 19/08 - Monday, May 12, 2008.

CAR parking is a major aspect of any economy - particularly one that is heavily reliant on retail as a provider of jobs. So any increase in charges is sensitive, especially at the moment when shoppers are turning in their droves to the internet as a source of cheaper goods.

In my hometown of Croydon in south London the previous administration sold a number of centrally-sited car parks – the new owner has announced yet another increase; the third in two years. The present council has tried to make representations, but the owner – a national company – has chosen to ignore its telephone calls asking for a meeting.

So the council has taken to wringing its hands instead and blaming its political opponents for the present unsatisfactory state of affairs. To me that seems like a wasted opportunity. The electorate already knows the shortcomings of the previous administration – that's why voters ousted it at the last election.

What can the present bunch do? Well, quite a lot, if it is prepared to stop political grandstanding and roll up its sleeves. In the short term, the council could grant temporary planning permission to owners of development land in the town centre to use as car parking, providing they agreed to limit their charges – that would increase the competition, which should force higher charges down.

In the longer term, the council could co-operate with Transport for London and town-centre retailers to create a state-of-the-art park-and-ride initiative based around Croydon's first-class train and tram services.

Since there is no chance of expanding the borough’s already overcrowded road network, park-and-ride will become a necessity sooner or later - many would say it is already essential and some would even argue that Croydon is a prime candidate for congestion charging.

The council might reasonably want to replace the town centre’s more inadequate car parks – for example, it might suggest that a 2,000-space car park planned for the roof of the new Park Place shopping development is a replacement for the Allders and Whitgift car parks.

Adding permanent parking capacity in central Croydon is likely to meet stiff opposition from the GLA, even allowing for the recent change of incumbent at City Hall.

ENDS

Straight Talk 18/2008 - Monday, May 5, 2008.

YOU are a quango looking for a sub-contractor to tick a list of boxes on a lucrative government contract. You need to put bums on seats for a series of workshops on international trade.

But you are mindful that your paymasters require you to meet certain social quotas in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, marital status and physical ability - so you write them into a three-page invitation to quote.

However, there is no requirement that the people your sub-contractor gathers from the highways and byways have the slightest interest in overseas trade – so you don't mention it.

Does this sound like a script outline for 'Yes Minister'? Sadly it’s a fact, and I have a copy of a recent ‘invitation to quote’ to prove it.

Overseas trade is an aspect of business in which I have a particular interest. I have crossed continents with trade visits as both an observer and a participant and I know they offer huge potential for smaller and newer firms – indeed, I can quote examples.

And I believe south London has the expertise to deliver first-class support to those who are prepared to take the plunge – again, I can quote examples.

I can also assure you that political correctness and bureaucratic box-ticking have no part to play in the success of international business.

In my experience the people who sign up for trade visits come quite naturally in similar numbers from both genders and in a wide variety of ages and ethnic origins. Some are single parents and others probably have disabilities

Indeed, it is one of the delights of international trade visits that you can learn so much about other ways of life – not only from the places you visit, but also from your fellow travellers.

There are just two qualifications you need for international trade:
*         a product or service for which there is an overseas market; and
*         an interest in visiting that market in order to test it.

Government apparatchiks need ask only three questions of potential exporters:
Do you have a viable business?
Where in the world do you want to take it?
And why?

ENDS

Straight Talk 17/2008 - Monday, April 28, 2008.

ANGELINA PURCELL leaves Croydon Business this week – which is good for enterprise, but not for my hometown. Once free of the administrative and political restrictions that surround Croydon Council and its dependant organisations she will again be able to offer the quality of business support that won her such a well-deserved MBE.

When I first met Angelina she was doing a superb job, encouraging Croydon’s less obvious entrepreneurs to set up their own businesses – she was enthusiastic about her work, with an intensely practical approach to it that singled her out as a ‘doer’ rather than a talker.

She was equally outstanding as a member of Croydon Council’s economic and strategic development unit, where she pioneered overseas trade missions; first to the Caribbean and later to eastern Europe and South Africa.

It was no surprise when she changed employers to run the borough’s chamber of commerce and equally predictable that she should be chosen as the person most likely to revive the fortunes of the lacklustre Croydon Marketing and Development under a new guise as Croydon Business.

She was well rewarded for her work, but she was bound hand and foot by a local authority – elected members and officers alike – with a long-standing penchant for control.

She was instrumental in Croydon’s success in the Local Enterprise Growth Initiative (LEGI) – galvanising essential private sector support for the borough’s bid. But she was bitterly disappointed by the way the council implemented the process and how little influence she and the private sector had in subsequent decision-making.

Now I’m told she is taking up the challenge of establishing a chamber of commerce in Lambeth – a daunting but necessary task in which her understanding of the needs of smaller firms will stand her and her new employer in good stead.

Her departure from Croydon is a loss to the economic development of a borough that has many advantages – not least £70m of government LEGI money – but has so far failed to make best use of them.

Croydon needs people like Angelina with get-up-and-go if it is ever to fulfil its full economic potential, but as long as its establishment continues to smother their initiative, they will follow her lead and go somewhere else.

ENDS

Straight Talk 16/2008 - Monday, April 21 2008.

RETAIL sales are going through the roof: but not in the high street.

Figures released by the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) today, reveal that Internet retail sales for the first quarter of 2008 passed the £13bn mark for the first time – a 50 per cent increase on the same period last year.

And that’s not good news for high streets across the country, particularly those – like my hometown of Croydon in Greater London – that are trying to promote large-scale retail development.

The John Lewis Partnership, a store Croydon still hopes to attract into town, says internet trade remained strong throughout March, despite tougher trading conditions in the market at large.

IMRG says it has seen this trend before – when the going gets tough, shoppers go online – so it confidently predicts that e-retailing will buck the trend and continue to grow strongly during the year ahead.

Against this background it is hardly surprising that Croydon has increased numbers of empty retail units in its two existing shopping malls and no progress to report on the one it wants to develop.

The surprise is that there has been no public discussion of plan B – assuming one exists. Croydon Council seems more concerned about presenting itself as London’s third city; a diversion that will not, of itself, bring a single extra penny of inward investment or one new private-sector job into the borough.

Croydon needs to be ahead of the game rather than always bringing up the rear. There are three major sites in the town centre that remain in need of development.

Schemes involving offices are less attractive now as there is about to be lots of grade A space available in The City at bargain prices.

And high street retail faces ever-growing competition from the internet, making a shop in the town centre an expensive alternative – even in the good times – to a well-designed website and a warehouse on the bypass.

Croydon’s existing aspirations are decades out-of-date, despite tinkering by the likes of Will Alsop. Perhaps the present economic downturn is the impetus the town needs for a fundamental change – the council’s new chief executive could do worse than open and lead a wide-ranging discussion on the subject.

ENDS

Straight Talk 15/2008 - Monday, April 14, 2008.

A FARMER with an eye for business is a rare breed. But I came across one recently, developing a new enterprise in the wilds of Kent.

Thanet Earth is turning a large tract of ‘the garden of England’ into a giant farming operation, with seven arena-sized glasshouses designed to meet the increasing demand of shoppers for fresh Mediterranean vegetables all year round.

The company knows the demand exists, it says, because it carried out a series of market research studies: it also knows it needs to supply vegetables in bulk because those same studies confirm that most of us buy our supplies from supermarkets.

Once the company is fully operational it will employ 500 people – a significant number in any local economy, but an agricultural revolution for rural Kent.

The company impresses me, in part because it has adopted such a business-like approach to its initiative. It also impresses me because it is such a positive contrast to the collection of world-class whingers featured on Farming Today, Radio 4’s procession of the demotivated and over-subsidised.

Their complaints fall into three broad categories: we need more government money; health and welfare regulations are too strictly enforced; and supermarkets are conspiring to deprive us of our living.

I know nothing of agriculture: as a rambler I see farms as open-air factories from which farmers do their best to exclude me, despite my having made a substantial contribution to their livelihood. But I can’t imagine how huge reliance on public money and an antediluvian approach to business can possibly encourage innovation.

I’m in favour of lifestyle businesses – I run one – but they must be truly commercial and therefore capable of standing on their own feet financially.

Would it seriously matter if Britain withdrew farming subsidies, as New Zealand did some decades ago? It would certainly lead to consolidation of agriculture into bulk suppliers and those smaller ones that cultivated niche markets. And it would mean that those who couldn’t find a market would go out of business.

You may think that’s merely the way things work in the real world of commerce – I suspect you would have great difficulty convincing many farmers of that.

ENDS

Straight Talk 14/2008 - Monday, April 7, 2008.

THE TRAM is something that makes my home town unique. Croydon is the only district in London to be served by light-rail, which the capital otherwise prematurely pensioned off in the early 1950s.

Now this reliable and popular service is to be fully integrated into London’s public transport system, which could be a good move, if it’s done properly.

The people of Croydon conceived the tram network at a time when there was no regional government in Greater London and each of the 32 boroughs was expected to fend for itself. So Croydon Council championed the tram for Croydon people and introduced it, despite the misgivings of other transport operators, particularly bus companies.

There have been occasional spats ever since, with Transport for London and the bus operators hurling the odd brickbat at Croydon’s semi-autonomous tram company. London’s mayor makes no secret of his affection for buses – he never ceases to praise them for the improved service they offer.

As a regular bus traveller I have searched in vain for these improvements. I can only conclude they must be statistical. And I am concerned that the improvements now being promised as part of tram integration will be equally statistical.

Transport for London is a traditional public service operator – it puts the convenience of its trade unions before that of its passengers. It seems to believe it can solve the capital’s public transport problems with buses alone, despite the fact that they share the same crowded roads as other traffic and are therefore subject to the same delays.

It rejects the idea of a multi-modal approach that would see buses used in outer suburban areas to ferry passengers to trams running parallel to major roads. The trams would offer interchange with park and ride facilities and with suburban and national rail networks.

The biggest single improvement wanted by most Croydon tram travellers is an extension to the existing network, so they can travel further on it. A link with a proposed new tram line from Streatham to the West End seems an obvious example, but at the time of writing Transport for London is not in favour.

ENDS

Straight Talk 13/08 - Monday, March 31 2008.

POLITICS is certainly a career: is it also a business? If so, is it keeping its customers, the electorate, satisfied?

I see it as a service industry, but because it is also a self-regulated monopoly – you can vote for a different party, but not an alternative system – it has a responsibility to impose rigorous checks and balances.

Politicians in Britain are constantly complaining about a lack of public interest in what they do. Are they really surprised? If so they must be more cocooned in the Westminster bubble than many of us suspect.

In the brief glimpse of their rituals that most of us see on television they are little more than a baying mob – is this any way to conduct the business of government?

They cling on to elaborate rules of language and dress that the rest of us have long since consigned to history and they wonder why we laugh at them.

They insist on responding to bells and trouping through lobbies to vote, eschewing the pager or the mobile phone that would allow them to register their opinion, or that of their party, at a distance. They buy and furnish second homes at the tax-payers’ expense and they employ relatives to do non-existent jobs.

If politicians want us to take them seriously they will have to earn our respect by introducing root and branch reform of their own working practices.

Any MP whose constituents commute daily to work should do so himself, at his own expense, so he can truly represent their frustration and press for a better service.

Those whose constituencies are beyond daily commuting should have the use of a modest furnished flat in suburban London – the kind of accommodation they would probably choose if they had to pay for it themselves.

MPs should be employed and paid as civil servants, receiving the same salary increases they award to others: their secretarial support staff, family or otherwise, should be employed and graded in the same way.

I agree with Winston Churchill that democracy is the least worst form of government: that does not preclude it from being run in a cost-effective way that makes best use of 21st century business practice.

ENDS

Straight Talk 12/08 - Monday, March 24, 2008.

THE EUROPEAN Union is the common market in which most of us will ultimately do business.

Within the working lifetime of today’s students it will be as unremarkable to buy and sell in another state as it is to do so now in a neighbouring town. A combination of cross-border takeovers and the rationalisation of regulations make pan-European trading easier by the year.

I was reminded of this wholly desirable development a couple of weeks ago by the staff and students of Titus College in Arnhem who came on one of their regular visits to my home town of Croydon in south London. On this occasion, I agreed to field a question and answer session with the Dutch students.

I knew they would be asking about my job, the town, London or the United Kingdom. But I didn’t have advance knowledge of the individual questions – it seemed to me that the session would be more spontaneous that way. In fact, many of the students wanted to ask about journalism and some of the questions were very searching – I found it an enriching experience.

The self-confidence of these young people was inspiring – here they were on foreign soil conducting an in-depth discussion superbly well in a language other than their own. I fear that our own students of the same age would not do as well.

And yet, if they are to compete in the world of work with their Dutch counterparts, or those from any other European state, they will need the same degree of self-confidence. The present generation of British teachers must embrace the prospect positively if they are to guide tomorrow’s workforce in the right direction.

Britain may have lost an empire, but not the attitudes that go with it. Because English is a universal language we expect others to speak it – we also expect them to adapt their customs and practices to suit ours.

We are mistaken in those outdated notions and we will lose significant amounts of business unless we face up to reality – I will believe we have started to do so when I see a group of Croydon students going to Arnhem to ask questions in Dutch.

ENDS

Straight Talk 11/08 - Monday, March 17, 2008.

DEVELOP a new product or service and sell it overseas – that’s the demand being made of businesses in today’s global market.

And in many cases the businesses themselves are new to the home market, let alone the international one. But this raising of the barrier is the price we pay for free trade and while it’s tough, it is surely better than the alternative.

There is a temptation, in economically troubled times, to retreat behind trade barriers and let the rest of the world go by. The problem is that the rest of the world retaliates – we impose sanctions: it does the same. The result is decades of lost opportunity for everyone.

We have everything to gain from free trade and nothing to lose, even in the short term. If someone overseas can make a product or provide a service more cheaply, our response must be to innovate. Motor manufacturing and electronics are sectors where it took a long time and a great deal of unnecessary pain to learn that lesson.

Today our successful motor manufacturers make niche products of high quality with the most advanced technical specifications using imported production techniques. Our electronics firms do the same. One Dutch company that once made televisions in south London still designs them in Europe, but builds them under licence in the Far East.

Small firms must follow suit. The days have gone when you developed a domestic market first and then looked further afield.  Every business is a potential international trader – some seize the opportunity faster than others.

There are many compelling economic reasons for selling overseas, but as a number of seasoned exporters will tell you: ‘it’s fun too’. And we have an abundance of expertise in innovation and international trading in south London – friendly people ready to help – so why hesitate?

Croydon Chamber of Commerce and UK Trade & Investment are running a free afternoon of seminars on selling bright ideas abroad on Monday, March 31 in central Croydon. For details call the chamber’s events team on 020 8916 2345.

Straight Talk 10/08 - Monday, March 10, 2008.

CLOSE and be damned – the British Post Office is an anachronism and the quicker we stop wasting tax-payers money on it, the better. But we are awash with sentimental nonsense about Post Offices being the heart and soul of their respective communities.

As a nation can we really be serious about this? How can anyone possibly become dewy-eyed about queuing up to buy stamps or send a parcel? Are some people’s lives really so dull that a visit to the Post Office offers them a social lifeline? If so, we certainly need to do something about community development, but not by continuing to subsidise what is supposed to be a commercial enterprise. In truth, even the government has been taking work away from Post Offices because it can find less-expensive ways of doing it.

Now Essex County Council wants to take on the subsidy that government has at last had the courage to withdraw – there’s another reason for not living in Essex. I can’t think of a transaction done in a Post Office that couldn’t be carried out as easily in a bank, a supermarket or on line. I don’t remember the last time I went into a Post Office; I suspect there are millions like me – and that’s the problem.

It’s beguiling to see the issue through a nostalgic haze as part of a golden past that never actually existed. The Post Office belongs to a time when few of us had bank accounts, let alone debit cards or the Internet; so postal orders, giro cheques and benefit books were important.

The Post Office had an unquestioned monopoly of all official means of payment and we had no choice but to queue – I don’t remember thinking of it as a socially defining experience. Retirement pensions were a mainstay of the network, but the steady stream of cash-encumbered elderly became easy pickings for any toe-rag who considered it cool to grab a granny’s purse.

Before local authorities go squandering tax-payers’ money on yesterday’s ways of doing things they should remember why Post Offices find themselves in difficulty – the lack of a discernible market. Most of their former customers have moved on –they should now do the same.

ENDS

Straight Talk 09/08 - Monday, March 3, 2008.

THE IDENTITY of the next president of the United States has become an obsession for the British media. And yet those same journalists devote little or no time to the creation of a presidency for the European Union.

That seems perverse to me, when our experience of the World Trade Organisation suggests that a united Europe can exert a strong influence on the United States – far stronger than any single European state regardless of its perceived special relationship.

We Europeans have no influence over the American presidency, but we do over the one in Europe, even if we are not yet being asked to vote directly for a president. Of course the battle between the Clinton and Obama camps for the Democratic Party nomination is fascinating.

But neither of them – nor John McCain, if he becomes the Republican Party candidate – would be better or worse for Europeans. The future President of the United States will rightly look first and always to the interests of his or her fellow Americans.

History suggests that a strong European president – one with the support of all 27 states of the union – might have had more influence over United States strategy in Afghanistan or Iraq than a supine Tony Blair.

And that might have saved the lives of gallant British service people, as well as leaving us with more money to spend at a time of economic difficulty; and more overseas friends with whom to do business.

The American people must judge the actions of their current president and his political supporters – by all accounts they intend to do so unequivocally later this year.

We need to concentrating on finding an equal and independent voice in international affairs – political or commercial – and we can best do that by being first among equals in the world's largest trading bloc.

ENDS

Straight Talk 08/08 - Monday, February 25, 2008.

CONGESTION is the enemy of commerce. Clogged roads mean deliveries take longer and as time is money, that’s expensive.

Parking restrictions are the obvious answer, but when they are applied in a cavalier way they can damage the businesses they are intended to protect.

As a non-driver I have no sympathy with people who take a vehicle into a crowded town or city centre without good reason. Public transport may not be perfect, but it is usually quicker and always less selfish than wasting limited road space for the convenience of one person and the inconvenience of everyone else.

But we need to make proper provision for those who must use the capital’s inadequate road network for business.

Consider the plight of a contact of mine whose business is supplying pre-prepared food for West End restaurants. He has a production kitchen in south London where he employs a team to pick frozen foods or wash, slice and dice vegetables.

His work saves his customers staff time and, more crucially, space in an area where both are at a premium. But he is being increasingly harried by private-sector contractors who enforce parking restrictions on behalf of the local authorities.

He tells horror stories about improperly served notices that are allowed to accrue additional costs of many times their face value and one particular tale of being ticketed in Soho’s Greek Street by ‘someone from the bottom of the gene pool’ while he waited in standing traffic.

He says there are many streets where there are no loading bays within a reasonable distance of his customers’ premises, forcing his drivers to risk a ticket. But he has been brought to boiling point by a recent series of incidents that have resulted in one of his most valued drivers resigning.

He believes the time is long overdue for local authorities to compel their contractors to distinguish between those who are driving in central London for their own selfish reasons and those who are doing so as an essential part of their business.

I wonder what our London mayoral candidates think?

ENDS

Straight Talk 07/08 - Monday, February 18, 2008.

ENTERTAINMENT is a business – show business – and sometimes very lucrative.

Just ask Lord Lloyd-Webber and friends why they are smiling all the way from the stage door to the bank. But like any other business an artistic one needs to follow the stricture of Simon and Garfunkel and ‘Keep the Customer Satisfied’.

So what’s all the fuss about the loss of grants from Britain’s Arts Council?  A company that is properly focused on its customers (it’s not a dirty word) will replace the income with money from other sources.

Let me cite the example of the London Mozart Players, based – despite its name – in perpetually unfashionable downtown Croydon. This is a chamber orchestra of considerable talent that enjoys, or has enjoyed, the patronage of major international businesses – Nestle is perhaps the best known.

The last of its concerts that I attended – and thoroughly enjoyed – was sponsored by HSBC bank and featured the world-renown musical skills of flautist Sir James Galway. He had some kind things to say about the band on stage and he was equally complimentary when he visited the bank’s guests during the interval.

It is surely ludicrous to suggest that such a well-connected and esteemed group of musicians can’t replace a grant of £160,000 a year once they put their minds to it. In essence, it will be more important than ever to follow the Simon and Garfunkel stricture – like any other successful performance, it’s all about bums on seats.

But the LMP has a loyal following who will happily act as a focus group, allowing it to weave less well-known material into its repertoire without losing ticket sales. There is transitional funding on offer from the Arts Council, which the band should take – but for six months rather than a year.

It should use that time to shake the quango’s dust from its patent leather shoes and accept the added challenges that being a fully commercial operation will undoubtedly bring. I suspect the LMP’s new status will enliven its performances even further, which can only serve to widen its appeal – and just think of all those mind-numbing government forms it will no longer need to complete.

ENDS

Straight Talk 06/08 - Monday, February 11, 2008.

HEATHROW was the subject of a survey that dropped into my inbox last week.

But the short questionnaire was just a box-ticking exercise that didn’t begin to address the matter of whether south Londoners should put yet more eggs into a west London basket.

According to BAA, the company that manages the airport, we now need a third runway at Heathrow if we are to keep pace with the Dutch and the French. Would that be instead of or in addition to the proposed extra runways at Gatwick and Stansted?

The BAA Heathrow website promises continuing construction until at least 2012 – completion of Terminal Five will be followed by a tart up for Terminal One, substantial refurbishment of Terminal Four and then demolition of Terminals One and Two to make way for Heathrow East.

At that point, sometime in 2013, the company will consider AirTrack, a rail link between the airport and Waterloo. So, allowing for construction of the rail link, those of us who travel to Heathrow from south London by public transport will have to endure the present truly dreadful connections for at least another seven years.

By contrast, we already have a fast rail connection to Gatwick – just 35 minutes from Victoria, 30 from Clapham Junction or 20 from East Croydon. I have travelled on intercontinental flights from both airports and Gatwick is infinitely superior, both in terms of the travelling to and from the airport and the quality of service while you’re there.

I’m in favour of introducing the necessary market mechanisms to divide London’s air traffic more or less equally between its three major airports – that would include breaking up the BAA monopoly. The three-site solution is better for most of us than adding ever more capacity at Heathrow and I expect government ministers to face up to the comparatively small number of vociferous individuals and vested interests that will inevitably oppose it.

Meanwhile, government can reduce growing demand for short-haul flights by looking at ways to speed up inter-city trains – making tracks for the new 330kph AGV from French manufacturer Alsthom would encourage more of us to travel further into Europe, or to Scotland, by rail.

ENDS

Straight Talk 05/08 - Monday, February 4, 2008.

THE FOREIGN exchange market in London is a truly awesome operation; the largest of its kind in the world and one on which we are all dependant to some extent.

But I was staggered to learn from an experienced trader that over 98 per cent of the $US25 trillion that moves across the London market every day (more than £200,000 each for every man woman and child in Britain) has nothing to do with businesses needing currency for international deals.

It is speculation by major banks and others, which contributes substantially to their eye-watering annual profits: in this case, the others include insurance companies that use the money they make to boost the performance of pension funds.

However, there are more immediate ways in which the market affects those of us who are not directly involved with it: supermarkets buy on credit – at least 30 days – and sell in cash, so they speculate in the interim. The additional profit they make helps them to compete as vigorously as they do on the retail prices they charge. Without the money markets we would all be paying more for our groceries.

And yet, the whole foreign exchange market is in a permanent state of flux: it moves from second to second, 24 hours a day, six days a week. It is influenced by events around the globe over which nobody has much control, without any one trader – no matter how affluent – being able to dominate it for more than a few hours.

Maybe I’m being naive, but I find it disconcerting that both my short-term and long-term financial well-being and that of my family are substantially dependent on a monetary mechanism that runs on little more than traders’ reactions to situations they don’t fully understand.

So what can I do about it? Nothing, just cross my fingers,whistle and get on with my life.

ENDS  

Straight Talk 04/08 - Monday, January 28, 2008.

INWARD INVESTMENT is a vital ingredient of any dynamic economy.

So it comes as a disappointment to learn that my home town of Croydon in Greater London has only managed to attract three substantive businesses in the past nine months. I assume the council has not been spending much on this aspect of its work, since it is fairly strapped for cash. And the poor result would also suggest that it lacks the necessary expertise.

In Greater London inward investment should be handled at sub-regional level. The idea of 32 boroughs vying with each other in this endeavour is silly – they will cause such confusion that nobody outside the capital, and very few people within it, will have the slightest idea who is offering what to whom.

But the borough councils still have an important role to play in two respects. Firstly, they need to set and maintain a far higher standard of welcome for visitors to their towns – through such things as improved cleanliness and helpful sign-posting.

Last year, when I visited the diminutive city of Gagny in the suburbs of Paris, I was delighted by the show of civic pride demonstrated by clean streets and colourful arrangements of flowers festooned at every lamppost and road junction.

Sadly most of south London’s town centres look anything but loved – and in the case of boroughs like Croydon there is no financial excuse. The council collects a levy of £1m a year from larger companies in the central area for precisely this purpose as part of a Whitehall initiative called Business Improvement Districts (BIDs).

Secondly, borough councils need to monitor inward investment performance at sub-regional level and, if it doesn’t reach the required standard, they need to make the strongest representations at the highest levels of central government.

South London has a stronger story to tell – especially to an overseas audience – than any of its 12 individual boroughs. They will all benefit more from a collective approach than from trying to do it themselves and in the process undermining each other.

ENDS

Straight Talk 03/08 - Monday, January 21, 2008.

I’M BOTHERED about a predicted slump in Britain’s commercial property market.

Not that I have any personal investment in offices and shops, but I am concerned that plummeting prices could wreak havoc in my home town – Croydon, Greater London. According to CB Richard Ellis, the world’s biggest property consultant, the country’s commercial market is facing its worst year since it crashed in the early 1990s.

Forecasters predict that values will drop by ten per cent in 2008, compounding the free-fall that has taken place in the wake of last summer’s credit crunch. Against that background Croydon is still trying to close deals that are crucial to the development of three major sites in the town centre.

There are proposals for an arena or an urban park on one site; and the town’s third shopping mall on another. A mixed development is planned for the third site, but coupled with an expensive refurbishment of a much-loved but anachronistic concert hall and theatre. At the moment, offices play a major funding role in two of the developments and retail is integral to the other.

One of the sites has lain fallow for nearly 50 years; while a second has been largely vacant and a blight on the town centre for more than a decade. At regular intervals over the past three years we have been promised an imminent resolution of each site – in fact, nothing tangible has happened in that time. Now it appears that investors will be more reluctant than ever to buy into schemes that have progressively less chance of finding tenants.

Perhaps the town needs a fundamental change of aspiration. Before the office boom of the 1960s central Croydon was predominantly residential – maybe we should be looking in that direction again. With a series of high quality apartment blocks the town could be offering directors and senior executives a convenient weekday home just 20 minutes by fast train from The City or the West End.

Croydon could be the new Wimbledon – and if that sounds presumptuous to those who know both places, maybe my home town needs to work harder at projecting a positive image.

ENDS

Straight Talk 02/08 - Monday, January 14, 2008.

HOW delighted I am to see some long-awaited recognition for a man who so richly deserves it.

I refer to the award of an MBE to Bryan Treherne in the British New Year’s Honours List. I have known Bryan for a number of years, but I have gotten to know him better in the past 12 months.

It was about this time last year that I told him I was going freelance and I asked for his advice about the business aspects of my decision. Commercially, that proved to be my most astute move so far – he didn’t weigh me down with reams of well-meaning theory, or direct me to a useful web-site. Instead he started referring me to people who could help in the most practical way – by offering me work - and he has gone on doing so regularly over the past year.

I have been on a series of trade visits with him in 2007, to Holland, France and Hungary, and I have watched him extend the same level of courtesy and care to others. He is always the last in a group to go through passport control – in case someone has a problem – and he is the first to share a contact in a foreign city, if he thinks that could be helpful.

Bryan has introduced me to a number of people who are now on my own contact list and  those to whom I have spoken in the past fortnight have been as pleased as I am to see Bryan recognised in this way.

I’m sure he and his wife Betty will enjoy their day at Buckingham Palace later in the year and that they will treasure the medal itself. But I suspect the greatest reward for Bryan is to know how highly his friends and colleagues regard him.

There are two kinds of business advisor: those who talk- and they are ten a penny – and those, like Bryan, who do – and they’re as rare as hens’ teeth. The people who work with Bryan, me included, are privileged to have someone of his calibre in our midst.

*For more details of Bryan’s award and his reaction to it visit the South London Export Club website at www.slec.biz

ENDS

Straight Talk 01/08 - Monday, January 7, 2008.

A WARM welcome to the first of a weekly series of missives on a wide variety of business topics.

Some of you will recall my monthly columns in the south London centred Business News publication, others will even remember those on the business pages of the Croydon Advertiser.

Since I left the newspaper group at the end of 2006 I have seen some of my former readers at networking events. A number have been kind enough to say how much they miss the columns.

And since I miss writing them, it seems reasonable to reintroduce them, but in a form more suited to the 21st century.

In the past 12 months I have broadened my sphere of activities substantially, both in terms of the work I do and the area I cover, so the new column – a weekly blog here on my own website – will reflect that wider perspective. But I continue to live in the Croydon area, so it is inevitable that I will draw some examples from my experiences locally.

I will publish a new edition every Monday and I will write to a wide cross-section of contacts from the Americas and Europe to southern Africa with an abstract of the text in the hope of whetting appetites.

If you prefer not to receive the newsletter you will always have the opportunity to unsubscribe. Naturally, I hope you will choose to accept it, maybe to respond on occasions and even to pass it on to contacts of your own – the more the merrier.

ENDS