Callam Column - The Blog

Welcome to the Callam Column, 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 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.

What do you think? We welcome your responses to the views expressed in this blog. We also welcome your own observations on any aspect of business. RSVP to david.callam@callamedia.co.uk

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Callam Column - Monday, September 6, 2010.

LONG-SUFFERING Croydon commuters are facing yet more disruption to their daily trek in and out of central London.  And now the East London Line operates as far south as Norwood Junction and West Croydon, the latest round of rail strikes has even more relevance.

This time the trade unions are protesting about an ordered reduction in jobs brought about by a lighter workload. They claim there are safety considerations; but they always claim that. The huge success of the Oyster Card means fewer passengers are buying tickets on the day of travel, so station booking office clerks have less to do.

London Underground proposes to reduce this surfeit of staff by natural wastage: it has guaranteed no compulsory redundancies, but union leaders are still not satisfied. They know the rail service is vital to London’s economy, a means of mass transit to be encouraged in such a densely populated area, but they seem to believe the rest of us owe them a living, whether or not they have a productive job to do.

In the real world a reduction in jobs is an employer’s reward for investing in new technology: employees who stay receive additional training and higher salaries for taking more responsibility; those whose jobs become redundant retrain for other work within the organisation, or outside it.

London Underground is a monument to public service muddle: massive under-investment over decades; partly a result of political interference and partly because myopic trade union leaders have been allowed to bully ineffectual management. It needs a revolution similar to the one instigated in newspaper production by Rupert Murdoch at Wapping, but we can’t turn the entire underground network into a fortress, so we must devise a solution we can sell to the trade unions.

The answer may be to ‘stuff their mouths with gold’ the strategy adopted by Nye Bevan in 1948 to bring doctors into the National Health Service. In the short-term it could cost more, but ultimately it would pay dividends, providing managers can be trusted to negotiate a deal that includes greater automation. Computers drive trains more safely and more cheaply than human beings.

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Callam Column - Monday, August 30, 2010.

RAILWAY lines are a source of largely untapped development opportunity; particularly where they intersect existing areas of economic activity. Or so you might think, but in the case of East Croydon, the busiest non-terminus railway station in Britain, that would seem not to be true.

The station was last extended in 1895: the present bridge-like structure, opened in 1992, added not a square centimetre to the floor space, meaning that thousands of commuters who use the station twice a day are struggling with the shortcomings of Victorian planners’ assumptions.

You might think the station is a prime candidate for development, even in the depths of a commercial property slump: just 20 minutes by air-conditioned train from The City of London or the West End in one direction and Gatwick Airport in the other; East Croydon boasts a round-the-clock service seven days a week.

Surely it’s the ideal venue for high-flying business types to establish themselves in a metropolitan pied-a-terre directly above the station; double-glazed for peace and quiet and just an express lift ride from the platforms.

And yet it would seem not. Even Croydon Council, never known to undersell itself, has only modest ambitions for the station. In an otherwise hyperbolic document entitled ‘Croydon: The Third City’ it talks about a world-class railway interchange. But it admits that, in reality, funding is only in place for a pedestrian bridge between Dingwall and Cherry Orchard roads and a new main entrance, but not until 2014: useful as these additions will eventually be, they fall short of the building’s potential.

I have no experience of property development, as this piece probably confirms, but I am at a loss to know why a high-rise East Croydon is not attractive commercially. It would not be out of place in an area awash with tall buildings. A new station is the catalyst for the badly-needed redevelopment of the whole area.

Once we have it we can re-define pedestrian routes to the Whitgift Centre and the Clocktower, and then we can re-plan the town centre accordingly. Anything would be an improvement on the picture of suburban deprivation painted by the station and its environs at the moment.

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Callam Column - Monday, August 23, 2010.

EDUCATION has topped Britain's news agenda in the past week. Journalists have focused on A level results and a supposed shortfall in university places.

But there has been little said or written about the inadequacy of the present education system, from primary to tertiary teaching. We are turning out 25 per cent of 16-year-olds who are unable to read, write or do simple arithmetic. My nearest tertiary college receives large annual grants from central government to teach reasonably intelligent students basic skills they should have learnt by the time they left primary school.

These are not ‘educationally challenged’ young people; maybe they are slower than average, not academic, and teachers have apparently given up on them. But their plight is too embarrassing for politicians and educationalists to consider: there is no advantage in organising better education for these students, maybe because their parents are unlikely to vote, or if they do, to do so tactically.

We continue to react as if every floating voter’s child is entitled to a university place. We have re-branded every polytechnic; a case of style before substance. And we continue to churn out graduates who can't find jobs.

The legal and medical fraternities have a better arrangement: they adjust the pass mark in their final examinations, year by year; to ensure there are never more graduates than there are jobs available for them.

There is no entitlement to a particular form of education; and certainly not to a place at university. My primary school head teacher used to insist that the 11-plus was no more than an aptitude test. You couldn’t pass or fail; it merely indicated the most appropriate form of secondary schooling.

We must invest in a basic education for every child; one that equips him or her to earn a living. And if that means encouraging technical colleges or part-time learning at the expense of universities, so be it. We must expel government from education; give parents vouchers and let them decide. Good schools and colleges will prosper; bad ones will fail

We recognise the merits of a balanced economy. We need a balanced education system too; one that is more practical, less in thrall to political expediency; one that produces more plumbers and fewer media studies graduates.

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Callam Column - Monday, August 16, 2010.

SIR Philip Green is unlikely to have any more success in saving government money than his namesake, the game-show host Hughie. And I mean that most sincerely folks.

I'm not questioning Sir Philip's competence, perish the thought: he has a track record with Arcadia of which he has a right to be proud. And he has a knighthood to acknowledge his considerable achievement. The problem is the working of the public-sector mind: it addresses problems in a completely different way and it will see Sir Philip’s proposals, whatever they are, as totally impractical.

Let me offer an example from my own neck of the woods in Croydon, south London: a tale of two businesses, one set up by the private sector, the other by the public.

The first appointed a chief executive and set her to work immediately to create and implement a programme of activities. The second spent a year defining its role and appointing senior executives to oversee its work. The first found its chief executive a desk and a phone in an existing office. The second hired a suite to house its top team.

At the end of 12 months, the private-sector organisation had a functioning programme at minimal cost, while the one in the public-sector had a highly-paid team established in its own premises and looking for its next tier of staff.

You may have a view about which arrangement is more cost-effective: my point is that Sir Philip, who will probably favour the private-sector solution, will have the civil service ranged against him with its equally entrenched views.

Sir Philip is not the first guru brought into government to help it save money: he will not be the last. The track record of his predecessors is patchy at best. If Sir Philip is to do the business, the coalition must prepare for a long period of upheaval as it finds champions to drive the changes against inevitably vehement opposition.

And it must be prepared to meet the significant cost of retraining large numbers of staff. Otherwise its efforts in this respect will be seen as all spin and no substance.

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Callam Column - Monday, August 9, 2010.

I HAVE good news and bad. The good news is that Croydon Council in south London has finally decided to abandon its economic development company.

The bad news is that Mike Fisher, the council leader, is intent on replacing it with something more modest. No, Mr Fisher; that's a job for the private sector. And it will respond very well if you give it elbow room. What it will not do, of course (and this may be the crux of Mr Fisher’s problem) is peddle the council's political line.

I watched Croydon Business, the second incarnation of the council's so-called private sector company, turn down a succession of perfectly viable commercial proposals, many of which would have brought jobs to the Croydon economy. It took me a while to realise that the underlying difficulty was political rather than commercial. Died-in-the-wool local government officers passing judgement on these proposals knew little about business, but they were all experts at keeping elected representatives happy.

A former chairman of Croydon Business confided how hamstrung he felt by political considerations. There may have been a majority of private sector members on the board, he conceded, but the council paid the piper and relentlessly called the tune.

I repeat yet again my oft made point that economic development in Greater London is best done at sub-regional level by an organisation that has respected private-sector credentials. That means an organisation in which the private-sector is prepared to invest time and, crucially, money.

When it comes to stimulating inward investment, none of the suburban boroughs, not even the would-be city of Croydon, is well enough known to go it alone. Together, however, a group of neighbouring boroughs could arrange a programme of events leading up to the 2012 Olympics that would raise their international profile substantially.

It would require some pooling of borough sovereignty, of course, but I suspect we will see plenty of that in coming years as cuts in central government budgets take their toll. Come on Mr Fisher, take a back seat: stop trying to drive and give the private sector a chance to show what it can do unhindered by political considerations.

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Callam Column - Monday, August 2, 2010.

WICKED supermarkets are driving record numbers of small retailers out of business. So says another whingeing report; this time from the Federation of Small Business.

It bemoans the fact that 7,000 small shops have closed in Greater London in the past decade. I confidently predict we will lose a lot more too, unless each of those remaining gets its act together.

Anyone who watched the recent BBC television series Mary Queen of Shops will not be surprised that small shops are going to the wall. The examples shown suggest it would be difficult to find a more blinkered bunch of business people.

The wonderful, if sartorially challenged, Mary Portas offered the benefit of sound advice, but many of the shopkeepers still had the temerity to argue, even when the state of their books showed they clearly hadn't a clue what they were doing.

We are a nation of amateurs: we believe any fool can run a small shop. In truth it takes as much expertise as it does to manage a high street multiple. Household names train their retail sales staff assiduously: franchise operators are just as fastidious.

Large food retailers have moved into convenience stores – the open-all-hours sector – because they perceive unmet customer demand for lower prices and higher standards of management. In my neck of the woods Tesco Express is leading the way: long may it continue.

Innovative small shops will prosper whatever the competition. But those that fail to distinguish themselves will disappear without trace: good riddance, say I.

The FSB demands protectionist measures that would make it more difficult for the commercial property market to function properly. But it would say that, wouldn't it? It is merely acting as a trade union for its many members who are small shopkeepers.

Government must reject more restrictive planning measures. It must not allow itself to be blackmailed by sentimental nonsense about competition tearing the heart out of communities. This is business: leave customers to decide who stays and who goes.

And if the result is parades of empty shops, planning authorities must respond promptly by agreeing to changes of use so derelict buildings can be swept aside to make way for useful ones; like affordable homes.

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Callam Column - Monday, July 26, 2010.

CRYSTAL PALACE can recover its former glory, if it can find the money. I'm not talking about the football club, but the south London park: the open space created to enhance Joseph Paxton's 'glass house': his Victorian exhibition centre that burnt to the ground nearly 75 years ago.

The park has been in decline ever since. Like a much-loved elderly relative fallen on hard times, it remains immensely popular despite its shabbiness: a green lung for the many residents of a densely populated area.

It is fondly remembered as a place where fast cars and even faster motor-bikes hurtled around its racing circuit. And it is known around the world as an international venue for athletics and swimming, where the cream of Britain's talent trains and subsequently competes against all-comers.

But the park has seen better days: it bears the scars of municipal neglect that has been a common feature of its three most recent owners: the Greater London Council, Bromley Council and now the Greater London Authority.

There is a grand plan for the park's long overdue revival, but it has been seriously delayed by the actions of a selfish few. The idea is to rebuild the sports centre, repair the boating lake and plant 600 more trees. In order to offset some of the £70m cost, the plan includes a proposal to develop a small piece of the park as housing.

That suggestion alone has been enough to see the plans subjected to delaying tactics by a vociferous group determined to maintain the status quo whatever the cost to the quality of other people's lives or the ultimate fate of the park. The plan would actually increase the size of the park by 40 acres, but that cuts no ice with narrow-minded protestors. Their enforced delays make it more difficult to raise the money now as government unveils plans to cut public sector costs.

I hope the protestors are pleased with their victory; they may have succeeded in frustrating an initiative that would otherwise secure the future of the park. But I also hope their petty-mindedness will ensure that long overdue changes to planning regulations are introduced more quickly. 

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Callam Column - Monday, July 17, 2010.

THE WANDLE VALLEY runs 20 miles through south London, from Croydon to Wandsworth, where it meets the River Thames. The River Wandle is a chalk stream that, in my life time, has been little more than an open sewer for the factories that lined its banks.

As a teenager I remember standing on a bridge in Merton and watching the river foaming pink beneath my feet as it attempted to deal with the effluent from one or more of its noisome neighbours. At that time the Wandle was dead: no flora or fauna could withstand the regular doses of toxic chemicals.

But now, thanks to legislation and many years of hard work by volunteers, the river runs clear and has established populations of healthy fish. Parts of the Wandle benefit from newly created riverside walks: quiet havens among the noise and bustle of a densely populated area.

And there is more to come as conservation groups, local authorities and the Greater London Authority combine their expertise to turn the existing Wandle trail into a linear regional park for the benefit of those who live and work in south London and those who might be tempted to visit the area.

Proposals for the park are about to be published in a single document for the first time. They include reinstatement of the pond at the head of the river in Wandle Park, central Croydon; and a new park on the site of Beddington Farm that will link Mitcham Common and Beddington Park to create a vast new open space for the area.

They also include an ecology centre at Morden Hall, provided by the National Trust, which owns the historic house and grounds; and new riverside walkways and extra footbridges across the Wandle in Wandsworth – part of a multi-million pound redevelopment of the former Ram Brewery.

The money for some of these improvements will be tricky to find in the present economic climate and that will delay progress. But the fact that all the initiatives are gathered in one place will make them easier to monitor going forward.

A regional park will be a hard sell, but as opinion-formers become convinced of the economic benefits of improving the environment it will be helpful that south London already has a viable plan.

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Callam Column - Monday, July 12, 2010.

WELL done South Africa. You have managed to confound all the gloom-mongers and xenophobes in the British media who insisted the World Cup 2010 would be a disaster.

As a British referee’s final whistle confirmed Spain as world football champions, you were entitled to blow your own vuvuzalas long and loud. The worst Britain's media could conjure up was condemnation of a dismal performance by the England team.

The mayhem predicted by so-called pundits failed to materialise: there were no mugged and murdered supporters; no unfinished stadia; no pitch invasions; no serious security breaches; and no excesses by South African police.

Those of us who have visited South Africa ourselves found it difficult to recognise the picture painted by journalists in the build-up to the tournament and during the group stages. Cosseted British hacks obviously couldn't be bothered to spend any length of time in the townships: maybe they were too frightened by their own copy.

Of course there is poverty in South Africa and a degree of violence – you don't recover from the social and financial effects of centuries of racial discrimination in a decade or two. But there are plenty of examples of positive initiatives if British media proprietors and news editors have any interest in balanced reporting.

Sadly, like the Dutch in the final, the British media prefer spoiler tactics: they criticised South Africa's president for his domestic arrangements during his state visit to London earlier in the year. And they chose to continue the attack with unfounded suggestions about how anarchic the tournament might become.

These self-styled seekers of truth have not made friends or influenced decision-makers in South Africa: people who will ultimately decide how successful British exporters are likely to be in their quest for additional trade.

The World Cup tournament 2010 was well organised, well run and is a credit to the people of South Africa. With a little luck, all the positive television exposure will result in a significant increase in the number of tourists visiting the country and a resulting uplift in the economy from which the whole Rainbow Nation will benefit.

We can only hope that London will do as well in two years time when it hosts the 2012 Olympics. Meanwhile, we might be wise to ignore media predictions.

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Callam Column - Monday, July 5, 2010.

ROAD pricing is inevitable in Greater London, however much Boris Johnson rails against it. The Mayor of London has vowed it will never happen on his watch, so that rules it out for the next two years. But it will take longer than that to finalise details of a workable scheme.

As government become more strapped for cash it casts covetous eyes over the droves that drive through the capital twice a day going to and from homes in the countryside or by the sea and workplaces in central London.

Roads are becoming more congested by the year and there is no chance of widening them: the mere suggestion of major road works spawns a vociferous protest group. Unless government does something radical the busiest roads will grind to a halt as morning and evening travel peaks extend until they merge.

The RAC Foundation, normally the motorists’ friend, recognises the problem in a new report: surprisingly, perhaps, it also endorses road pricing, seeing it as a possible replacement for road tax, though it seeks guaranteed levels of service in return for additional charges.

Initiatives for Greater London have already been aired: creating park and ride facilities around the M25; restricting motorists who drive further to specific routes to prevent rat-running and the avoidance of road pricing; and taxing long-stay parking spaces to make them prohibitive to use.

The initiatives were originally intended to be tax neutral with additional revenue used to make rail travel more attractive, but government may find the prospect of additional cash too tempting to resist. Nevertheless, it should become the norm for those travelling into Greater London to consider how much of the journey they can do by public transport.

Whatever Mayor Johnson says in public I suspect his traffic planners are already working on strategies to alter the mode of travel in favour of public transport all over Greater London.

Boris can afford to be bullish: by the time road pricing is introduced in the capital he will be back in the House of Commons turning his mind to national and international matters as he challenges David Cameron for the leadership of the Conservative Party.

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Callam Column - Monday, June 28, 2010.

FAIRFIELD is no longer viable. It must make way for an entertainment complex more in keeping with the needs of the 21st century.

Croydon Council cannot afford to spend millions of pounds it doesn’t have on a sentimental revamp of the south London arts complex. The present building is long past its use-by date. Its rigid structure makes it unsuitable for today’s needs.

The theatre's stage facilities are such that pre- and post- West End tours no longer visit. Producers prefer to take their shows to Bromley or Wimbledon. Fairfield's assembly room was designed, like the rest of the building, to meet the needs of a bygone age. And the concert hall, while it boasts a world-renowned acoustic, is about 500 seats too small to be viable in today's market.

In its time Fairfield has played host to some of the biggest names in showbiz: the Beatles; Cliff Richard and the Rolling Stones have all appeared in the concert hall. Each has generated queues around the block as eager fans waited patiently to buy their tickets.

Like so many others, I have enjoyed memorable performances at the Fairfield, from artists as diverse as Nigel Kennedy and Mick McManus, but that was then and this is now. Today's top acts play arenas with 20 times the capacity of the concert hall. Even yesterday's stars - nostalgic names like Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen - can fill 10,000-seat arenas with ease.

Arnhem, Croydon's twin town in the Netherlands, boasts a 40,000-seat arena with a roll-in, roll-out sports pitch that allows it to host a premier division football match one day and a rock concert the next.

The council needs to find a private-sector developer to fund a new complex: an arena-style structure to be built close to East Croydon station on the site of the long-stay multi-storey car park behind the existing Fairfield Halls. This is one of the best sites in Greater London for such a development, with its close proximity to a major rail, tram and bus interchange.

If the council is careful it might even make some money from the deal to help it fill the hole in its coffers presaged by George Osborne's austere budget.

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Callam Column - Monday, June 21, 2010.

GRIM REAPER Jon Rouse has been stalking Croydon Council corridors looking for costs to cut. And the chief executive's gaze has fallen on Croydon Economic Development Company, my spies tell me.

I do hope they're right. As a council tax payer in the south London borough I can think of few services whose passing would cause less concern.

Originally set up as Croydon Marketing and Development, this ill-conceived scheme was designed to sell the borough to all and sundry – residents as well as those beyond borough boundaries. Since then, local politicians of both major parties have spent millions of pounds of public money, mostly on staff and premises, with little apparent benefit to the borough economy.

Despite grandiose promises about stimulating inward investment, Croydon is no better known around the country or around the world than it was previously. On trips abroad I have learnt a more cost-effective way to answer the question: where do you come from? I start with London and then qualify it by saying I live and work south of the River Thames.

Sporting references are useful because they are far better understood by the man on the Cape Town omnibus or the Warsaw tram than the concept of London boroughs. I say I am based between Crystal Palace (athletics) and Wimbledon (tennis); east of Twickenham (rugby) and south of The Oval (cricket). For those less interested in sport a mention of my proximity to Biggin Hill, Kew Gardens, the London Eye or Shakespeare’s Globe sometimes elicits the all-important smile of recognition.

Economic development is a job better done in London at sub-regional level – a south London initiative can boast all the landmarks I have mentioned earlier. It is a far stronger marketing concept than that of any individual borough.

It is finally time, after 45 years of Greater London government, for Croydon to give up its pretentions to municipal independence, with all the additional costs that would incur, and throw in its lot with its metropolitan neighbours.

I look forward to seeing the budget for the new slimmer, trimmer Croydon Council: more power to your scything arm, Mr Rouse.

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Callam Column - Monday, June 14, 2010

WILL England win the World Cup?

That was the question posed in an opinion poll commissioned by the BBC last week. And despite all the ballyhoo on television and radio, and the acres of twaddle in the popular press, a representative cross-section of British people retained a proper sense of perspective.

You will note the question asks 'will' rather than 'should' or 'could' or any other evasive phrase designed to allow the respondent wriggle room. Faced with this unflinching challenge, a mere 13 per cent of those questioned said 'yes'. At a time when realism is our most important asset, I'm delighted with this phlegmatic answer. It shows our ability to cut through all the hype and make a judgment based on cold hard fact rather than raw emotion.

People who know far more about football than me – some of whom have played or managed at international level – say England will need to perform 'out of their skins' to reach the later stages of the competition. And despite the efforts of Fabio Capello, there has been no sign of that so far.

In European terms England is not in the same league as Germany, Holland, Italy, Portugal or Spain. The team is light-weight by comparison with some South American sides too. None of this says England can't win, only that the prospect looks unlikely to all but those who still yearn for the return of 'Roy of the Rovers'.

Before the World Cup winners are known, Britain has another reality check to face in the form of what promises to be a seriously tough budget. There has been lots of media blather about that too, as we are systematically softened up for eye-watering cuts in public spending.

Some of those cuts, particularly the military ones, may force us to re-assess our national position in areas beyond sport. We have been deluding ourselves for years about our status as a world power.

The time has come to be realistic and accept our new role – as a middle order state, a first among equals, working closely with allies to achieve our chosen ends through the European Union.

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Callam Column - Monday, June 7, 2010.

THE DEAL is done and Crystal Palace Football Club lives to fight another season. But Selhurst Park is still a singularly inappropriate place to develop a 21st century soccer business.

The south London site is too small to accommodate the needs of today's supporter. It is poorly served by public transport with buses brought to a standstill after the game by the crush of people using a wholly inadequate road network to leave the ground.

The area around Selhurst Park is densely populated, making redevelopment unlikely due to local opposition and the sheer cost of compensation. Without more capacity and better facilities the Eagles will struggle to take full advantage of the conference business that is an increasingly important aspect of life at venues such as the Emirates and Stamford Bridge.

There is a strong commercial argument for outer south London being able to host a club that is a regular player in the upper echelons of British football - the Championship, or better still the Premiership.

And there are good reasons why that club should be Crystal Palace. Its longevity and its high profile are just two. So, where should it play?

Some years ago Ron Noades, the last person to own both club and ground, floated the idea of Crystal Palace playing at Crystal Palace - specifically in the arena at the National Sports Centre.

On that occasion Bromley Council was less than enthusiastic, but Crystal Palace Park and the sports arena are now under different management. As athletics prepares for the sprint to Stratford it makes even more sense to use the old arena as a home for a major south London football club.

The club's new owners should be prepared to invest in the arena in return for a long lease at a low rent. The club would have oodles of parking on site and East London Line and Southern Railway services available next door. It would also have easy access to a major south London bus interchange at Crystal Palace Parade.

A new venue could be just the fillip the club needs to catapult it high enough in the rankings to satisfy the ambitions of even its most loyal supporters.

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Callam Column - Monday, May 31, 2010.

DELIGHT is not much in evidence at Selhurst Park as Crystal Palace Football Club struggles to stay afloat commercially. But there were plenty of business people wreathed in smiles as they wandered around the south London sports stadium last week.

The occasion was the annual South London Business Awards, which attracted more than 400 entries for the various categories. Organiser South London Business seems surprised by the awards’ popularity at a time of economic gloom – I find it entirely understandable and highly reassuring.

Entering for a business award is a good way to take stock of a product or service: you will need to answer a questionnaire about what you do and how you do it. If you are short-listed, you will be asked more-detailed questions by a team of canny judges – valuable feedback that might otherwise cost a fortune in consultancy fees.

And if you reach the final you will have a great opportunity to market your business as a leader in its field.

I find the awards’ popularity reassuring because south London is the most apposite forum in which to be judged –individual boroughs are too small for any distinction to be meaningful, while capital-wide competition is invariably distorted by the presence of larger businesses from central London.

South London has some fascinating firms – as evidenced by an award short-list that includes architectural and fabric designers, a theatre company and a selection of gourmet caterers and restaurants.

In particular, let me congratulate three businesses I know well, having written about them in the past.

Croydon Business Venture offers invaluable business start-up advice in a series of informative free courses. It won the customer service award.

SLE dominates the British market in life-saving monitors for premature babies, working closely with the medical profession. It won the international trade award.

RBI is a worldwide repatriation specialist, which, among other things, organises the dignified home-coming of our fallen troops. Named best medium-sized business, it also won the coveted overall Business of the Year award.

Britain’s commercial future depends upon the ingenuity and flexibility of small and medium-sized firms – clearly, south London is already rising to the challenge.

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Callam Column - Monday, May 24, 2010.

THE LONDON Overground has arrived at West Croydon. The extended East London Line, part of TfL, the Mayor of London's transport network, connects Croydon and Crystal Palace with The City and Docklands.

This long discussed refurbishment has been taking shape for three years - the upgrade of a quaint branch line that originally started in the south-east London twilight zone at New Cross and trundled north to shabby Shoreditch.

Now the line is reinvigorated with modern signaling, new and refurbished stations and swanky air-conditioned trains. I'm delighted to see Croydon more closely stitched into the colourful tapestry that is Greater London.

A cursory glance at a map of London’s metropolitan railway network shows a dearth of services south of the river and nothing going as deep as Croydon. We have been making the argument for added tube lines in south London for many years, so far without success.

Now we have an Overground service - much more cost-effective because it uses existing track and stations. If this is a popular line - and TfL expects a fivefold increase in travellers – we can press the case for upgrading south London's other metropolitan lines. Some have had no investment since they were nationalised after the Second World War.

I know we don't have any public money and probably won’t have for years: that just means we need to be more creative about funding.

On that point, I’m disappointed we haven't taken the chance to create a new southern terminus for the East London line - West Croydon station is long past its use by date, as is the area around it.

The original plans promised a high-rise landmark building towering above a two-storey transport interchange and incorporating a re-sited bus station above the tracks. But the credit crunch has restricted preparatory work to a lick of paint and the display of a few London Transport roundels.

This is a sadly missed commercial opportunity to use private-sector money to develop executive apartments. Surely our high-flying property entrepreneurs know a winner when they see one? Canary Wharf is just 20 minutes from West Croydon on a clean and tidy new train.

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Callam Column - Monday, May 17, 2010.

COALITION is nothing new – it is a regular feature of British politics.

Every government in the past 50 years has been an amalgam of centre left or centre right – in some cases with fault lines far wider than any that so far exist between the two parties now in power. We are simply being presented with a more honest and open expression of those differences, which is just as well, given our general distrust of politicians.

Harold Wilson had fundamental disagreements with the Labour Party of the 1960s – there were many members who questioned whether his beliefs made him a suitable person to lead what they saw as a socialist government.

Ted Heath was heartily disliked by the grander members of the Tory party for his Grammar School education and one-nation politics. James Callaghan was a mirror image of Mr Heath – the socialist tribe thought ‘Uncle Jim’ was much too posh to be a man of the people.

Margaret Thatcher generated acres of newsprint about the fate of the so-called ‘wets’ in her cabinet – they were too left-wing for her and eventually, despite support on the back benches, they were ousted from government.

Geoffrey Howe’s resignation speech as Foreign Secretary, containing a systematic demolition of Prime Minister Thatcher, was hardly an example of united government. Then there were the supposed colleagues who provoked the mild-mannered Sir John Major to describe them in an unguarded moment as ‘bastards’.

And finally, there was the 13-year scrap between the Blairites and the Brownies as they jostled for influence, briefing against each other up to and throughout the most recent General Election campaign. Indeed, both factions of the Labour Party – the social democrats and the socialists – will be fielding candidates for the election of a new leader, so the feud goes on.

Meanwhile, the British people seem finally to have risen above all these childish spats to force a formal coalition between the more moderate elements of the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats. Thus, Cameron, Clegg & Co should be able to resist less helpful tribal demands and take difficult decisions in the best interests of the whole country. Let’s see if they do.

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Callam Column - Monday, May 10, 2010.

STREATHAM was once the epitome of chic. In the 1960s it was the place for us discerning south Londoners to shop and to enjoy the most sophisticated forms of leisure and entertainment.

We could ice skate, or indulge in the recently imported pastime of ten-pin bowling; we could practice the latest dances, or try the many exotic cuisines on offer in the area’s wide range of restaurants. I had my first pizza in Streatham and my first spaghetti that didn’t come from a tin. It was far more up-market than Balham, where my family did most of our shopping.

Over the years that edge has dulled, to the point where Streatham has become another down-at-heel secondary shopping street – albeit the longest in Europe – squeezed commercially between the West End and Croydon.

Much-needed relief is at hand in the form of two substantial developments at either end of the High Road. Tesco, the nation's favourite grocer, will build an urban village facing Streatham Common, which will incorporate a new ice rink and swimming pool. And Glentoran Ltd, a property developer, will replace Caesar’s and the Megabowl with 240 flats and a parade of shops.

It has taken three years and four revisions for this developer to gain planning permission from Lambeth Council. It has been opposed at every stage by a vociferous group of local residents.

These ad-hoc groups may be unrepresentative of residents as a whole, but they are able to delay decisions and by so doing add tens, even hundreds, of thousands of pounds to development costs without being held financially responsible for their actions. I have fulminated before about the need for fundamental reform of the planning system – I will not repeat myself.

But I will add that in most cases the buildings we demolish are less important than those we put in their place. Concepts illustrated in architects’ impressions and computer-generated graphics are not always born out in practice. Instead of fighting to preserve some now-defunct edifice, those who care about an area would do better to ensure the replacement is subject at every stage to the highest standards of local authority building inspection.

Leave developers to their own devices and everywhere will look like central Croydon, with 40-year-old, rain-stained concrete boxes already long passed their use-by date.

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Callam Column - Monday, May 3, 2010.

THE BALLOT box beckons, but I’m still not sure which political party would be best for Britain in these tricky times. I listened intently to all three leaders’ debates: I found them remarkable for what they didn’t say.

How did we allow our major political leaders to fill four-and-a-half hours of national air time and still not answer the most basic questions? My final decision on Thursday will be made more in hope than expectation, since I am not in full possession of the facts.

If I acted similarly when choosing a house or its contents, you would rightly berate me for buying a pig in a poke. In this case I did my best to sort fact from innuendo and to avoid being side-tracked by innumerable red herrings.

Despite a distinct lack of candour from candidates nationally, things are a little clearer locally, in my home constituency of Croydon South, where I will definitely not be supporting the Conservatives in Thursday’s poll. The Tories are represented by incumbent MP, Richard Ottaway, a man whose conduct over the previous Parliament is, I believe, unbecoming of the term ‘honourable gentleman’.

Mr Ottaway claimed thousands of pounds of tax-payers’ money for the upkeep of a second home that isn’t even in the constituency – something he is keen to point out was entirely within the rules. He’s right of course. The electorate made the mistake of believing that the pompous forms of address used in Parliament – the honourable this and that – mean the individuals we chose to represent us there have high ethical standards.

Some do: the MPs for two adjoining constituencies – Andrew Pelling (Independent, Croydon Central) and Malcolm Wicks (Labour, Croydon North) – more than meet the criteria. Neither charges the public for a second home, both make the sometimes difficult 40-minute journey to work in Westminster and claim only modest expenses.

Mr Ottaway, on the other hand, has betrayed our trust with his claims for a house in deepest Surrey. In my view, Croydon South Conservative Association is thumbing its nose at the electorate by endorsing his candidature for a further term. He is an inappropriate person to hold public office and I hope the voters of Croydon South will do their duty on Thursday and send him packing.

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Callam Column - Monday, April 26, 2010.

BIG society is the big idea being touted by David Cameron in his campaign to win the British General Election for the Conservatives. But his writ doesn’t seem to run the mere 12 miles from party headquarters in Westminster to the south London borough of Croydon.

While Mr Cameron waxes lyrical about the importance of volunteers and charitable donations in a Conservative Britain his cronies in Croydon are pulling the rug from under many of the borough’s voluntary organisations – jacking up charges by 300 per cent.

The charges relate to fun fairs that support a wide range of long-established local charities in their annual fund-raising efforts. The usual arrangement is that a showman meets all the council’s charges for the use of a park and makes a donation to the organising charity in return for being allowed to run a fair.

I should declare an interest at this point: I spent more than 20 years working for various charitable causes in Croydon and throughout that time my colleagues and I came to rely on the expertise and advice of John Coneley, one of the showmen most affected by Croydon Council’s mean-spirited and apparently anti-Cameron stance.

In my experience, John and his wife Maureen offered a great deal more than just a donation to charitable funds – welcome as that always was. I can remember occasions when John’s expertise allowed us to continue to run shows that we would otherwise have had to abandon – and as those shows were our principal source of income, his wise counsel was infinitely more valuable than the cash donation alone.

I am not naive: I realise that John Coneley is a business man and that he has made his living, in part, from the fun fairs he has run in Croydon over the years. But he has also done a great deal for the charities with whom he has worked.

All of that is now in jeopardy thanks to a myopic decision by a cash-strapped Conservative local authority to treble the showmen's fees. Mr Cameron continues to tell us that his party is the only harbinger of real change for the British people. If this is the kind of pettifogging he has in mind, he must not be surprised if large numbers of voters choose to look elsewhere.

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Callam Column - Monday, April 19, 2010

THE SWAN & Sugarloaf in South Croydon has called last orders – possibly for the last time – and about time too. Like a once respected relative, fallen on hard times, this barn of a south London pub has run to seed, with nobody able to offer the help it so obviously and desperately needs.

The present building dates from 1896 and has a splendid Victorian frontage facing Brighton Road at the junction of what were once the higher and lower roads to the south coast. Over time the building became a well-known landmark, particularly to tram and bus passengers, for whom it was a terminus. But a bevy of alternate hostelries in the vicinity – I count six within a few minutes’ walk – have long since sounded its death knell.

As a nearby resident of 30 years I have never been tempted to cross its threshold – there have always been cosier places for a convivial tipple. What’s more, I can’t think of anyone I know – either neighbour or work colleague – who is or was a regular there.

The Swan must be decades past its ‘close by’ date, finally following in the footsteps of the nearby Blue Anchor, a similarly imposing building, diagonally opposite, that has evolved into a restaurant and night club.

Now the Swan’s owners can turn their attention to finding a long-term future for this stately edifice. My suggestion is a hotel, though it will need significant investment and a clever architect to make it viable.

Creating a 40-bed hotel would mean demolishing the adjoining showroom – once the coaching inn’s stables – to make way for a multi-storey dormitory block. The hotel could use the refurbished original building as its reception area, with a restaurant and bar that would be open to non-residents.

A simpler, but less satisfactory alternative is to demolish the whole building and replace it with yet another anonymous block of flats. That would be a sad end for a landmark with a facade and a history that’s well worth preserving, but it is infinitely preferable to allowing this once prosperous business to decline any further.

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Callam Column - Monday, March 29, 2010.

LOCAL newspapers in Greater London are crying foul, but they only have themselves to blame.

A single-minded determination on the part of journalists to make the most of bad news has encouraged the growth of rival publishers at a time when circulation is already falling like a stone. The latter-day ‘Murdochs’ are borough councils who publish professional-looking, in-house journals – in some cases selling ad space in direct competition to beleaguered local newspapers.

Commercial publishers complain that these council journals are propaganda sheets – peons of praise for local authorities and all their works. Councils retort that local papers are reluctant to publish good news from the town hall, but can always find a lobby group to pour scorn on any initiative. According to councils, newspapers give such groups prominence in their reporting, even when they are just a few disgruntled residents.

One south London borough council has increased the frequency of its in-house publication to fortnightly, funding the cost by selling space. In the process, it is reputed to have halved the local newspaper’s advertising revenue.

I should declare an interest in that I have written for the Croydon Council journal on a number of occasions. It is edited by a former newspaper colleague; a man for whom I have the highest respect. I apply the same standard of journalism to his pieces as I do to those I write for any other publication – I don’t think he would expect, or accept, anything less.

When I wrote for local newspapers, I could never understand why the workings of the borough council were dismissed as ‘boring’ – there is no such thing as a boring story, only a lazy journalist who can’t be bothered to find an interesting angle.

Council debates can be somewhat turgid – the blind leading the partially-sighted; and all of them vying to see who can make the most ill-informed or childish remarks.

But the work of officers in a wide variety of disciplines should be meat and drink to any self-respecting local newspaper – an endless source of in-depth features. The council is a multi-million pound operation; the biggest spender of readers’ hard-earned taxes in any local newspaper’s circulation area.

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Callam Column - Monday, March 22, 2010.

A PLEDGE agreed between Croydon Council and Business Link for London last week is a small but significant step in the right direction.

It gives greater prominence to a superb range of free training courses to which Croydon firms have always had access. And hopefully it lessens the impression that Croydon politicians and others like to give of the borough being ‘the special one’ in south London.

I can particularly recommend the Business Link networking sessions, which are brilliantly organised, with advice and support targeted at the many smaller firms that find it difficult – even daunting – to promote themselves in a room full of people.

The practical help is important, but so is the opportunity to meet potential business partners from all over the capital, not just those in your home borough. Croydon is undoubtedly a commercial diamond, but like so many precious gems it benefits substantially from its setting.

Nestling on the southern fringes of Greater London, just 20 minutes by train from The City or the West End, the borough’s smaller firms are superbly positioned to treat the entire capital as their oyster.

Croydon entrepreneurs have easy access to one of the most diverse markets in Europe, if not the world, and working with Business Link will give them the chance to develop a better sense of place.

It will broaden their horizons and help them appreciate the commercial insignificance of borough boundaries. Politicians and local government officers constantly bicker about territory, but the rest of us cross from one bailiwick to another without giving it a second thought.

My most recent experience of a Business Link course was a half-day sales training seminar in central London. The speaker was superb and I had the chance, during the coffee break and over lunch, to network with other small firms from across the Greater London area.

There is no cost, direct or otherwise, for any of the Business Link events. Nobody will be asked to become a partner, a stakeholder, or any other euphemism for charging a membership fee.

Croydon firms have nothing to lose and everything to gain by taking advantage of the pledge and I look forward to seeing more of them at future Business Link events.

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Callam Column - Monday, March 1, 2010.

AT last we have an accurate forecast of the financial storms that are likely to beset Britain later this year. A BBC survey of local authorities across the country suggests they are preparing for a 15 per cent cut in services as a result of reduced funding from central government.

Tony Travers, a much respected local government expert at the London School of Economics, anticipates staff reductions of about 100,000 as a consequence. Some of those will be vacant posts left unfilled, but others may involve redundancies.

The contrast between these specific figures and the vacillating half-truths of national politicians couldn’t be starker. Ministerial and opposition platitudes are particularly unhelpful as we approach a General Election, because they beg the question: what else are these untrustworthy people dissembling about?

We are all convinced that the next government will need to take difficult decisions in the months following its election – indeed, the competitors for our votes admit as much. But they steadfastly refuse to be drawn about what those decisions might be.

We have been tossed a few titbits by both major parties, but they are a drop in the ocean compared with the real cost of balancing the books. We are being plied with warm words by people too craven to be more explicit. And yet they expect us to trust them to make those difficult decisions when the time comes – these snake-oil salesmen must think we are all complete idiots.

Local government has led the way with some refreshingly candid admissions at a time when many of their politicians are also seeking re-election. In that respect they are a shining example to the weasels of Westminster. 

In the coming weeks I suggest we all take every opportunity to demand straight answers to straight questions. We now know that leisure centres and libraries are likely to close as local councils attempt to reign in their spending.

What is central government going to do? Can we expect lesser nuclear deterrents, cancelled aircraft carriers and fewer military commitments overseas? Will government be seen to be economising, with fewer ministers touring the country in chauffeur-driven cars? Will MPs finally agree to overdue reforms that restrict their expense claims?

Should we beware of low-flying pigs?

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Callam Column - Monday, February 22, 2010.

MAYDAY University Hospital will be down-graded in new proposals for healthcare in south London. The Thornton Heath hospital, which serves most of Croydon, will play second fiddle to St George’s, in nearby Tooting, and in due course will lose its 24-hour accident and emergency (A&E) department.

Or so we are led to believe by people with strong vested interests who claim to have seen a ‘top secret’ report with the words ‘final draft’ emblazoned across its cover. Health Service management says there are no firm proposals and the future of hospital provision in the area is still being discussed by professionals.

Someone is being disingenuous. Does this ‘final draft’ really exist? If so, it would seem that most of the ‘discussions’ are done. On the other hand, if the report is a figment of someone’s fertile, pre-election imagination then health service management should say so, unequivocally.

I suspect two sets of half-truths are doing the rounds – and the only people being kept in the dark, as usual, are those who pay the bills. That’s you and me. The proposals – good, bad or indifferent – are part of a larger London-wide review that has already spawned reports of hospital closures north of the river.

Personally, I’m not wedded to the 1948 NHS model. I would fight to keep healthcare free at the point of delivery and offered entirely on clinical criteria. But I don’t care whether the building belongs to central government, a public trust, or even (shock, horror!) the private sector.

I want to be treated quickly by fully-qualified staff using state-of-the-art techniques and equipment, but it is a matter of supreme indifference to me who employs them.

So, if there is a sound medical and economic case for consolidating some services on one large site I’m happy to listen. If we can divert resources from patching-up and heating drafty old buildings to providing better healthcare; let’s do it.

But if this is a political ploy to save money for a cash-strapped government that still refuses to tax bankers until their pips squeak; I’ll see you on the barricades.

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Callam Column - Monday, February 8, 2010.

IT’S not the money; it's the principle. Those British members of parliament who claimed more generous allowances and who strove manfully to keep their creative efforts from the public gaze have done nothing criminal.

But they have shown themselves to be a shallow-minded shower looking for a way to support a lifestyle to which they think they were entitled. Too spineless to tell the tax-payer that they are worth more than they are being paid, honourable members embarked on a labyrinthine scheme to extract about another £25,000 a year each from the public purse.

Of course there are temptations: our elected members are regularly wined and dined by some of the most successful businesses in the country – banks in particular. A day’s sailing or a night at the opera; a week-end in the country at a fashionable spa – all are regular invitations.

And I can tell you, from personal experience of the more modest end of the hospitality scale, that they are very enjoyable. Who wouldn’t want to indulge in such pastimes in one’s own right? But they are eye-wateringly expensive. Okay for some media people (no, not me) or those at the top of their professions, but not for common-or-garden members of parliament.

I have been hearing the oft-repeated line from MPs interviewed on radio and television that only a tiny minority have done anything wrong. That depends on how you define ‘wrong’. So far just four have strayed sufficiently to have their collars felt, but more than half the house has been asked to reimburse tax-payers’ money.

Whatever mitigation they may put forward – sweet talk is their stock-in-trade remember – I find their actions indicative of less noble intentions. And I don’t want such people making decisions about the future of the country.

At the imminent General Election I suggest we put party political considerations aside in favour of taking the chance to sweep the Westminster stables. We must refuse to vote for any incumbent who has been asked to repay money.

Never mind the whingeing: those who lose their seats will be generously compensated. We must do what any self-respecting private-sector employer would have done months ago - give them the sack.

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Callam Column - Monday, February 1, 2010.

TONY BLAIR is a consummate performer. I spent a large part of Friday watching him weave his magic around his inquisitors at the Iraq War Inquiry in central London.

By the end of the afternoon he had made a half-decent attempt to explain away his role – the dodgy dossier; bamboozling Parliament; his close proximity to George W Bush; and most of all, his tacit support for regime change, regardless of imminent threat to this country.

He implied that the United Nations was hamstrung by global politics and was totally incapable of making a firm decision – one with the kind of consequences that might persuade Saddam Hussein to give up his desire for nuclear weapons.

He told us that the horrifying events of 9/11, while not directly connected to the Iraq issue, had changed his assessment of the degree of risk involved in allowing a bellicose and unpredictable head-of-state to remain in power.

Having consulted a small number of trusted colleagues, he gave the impression that he knew better than anyone else – certainly better than the House of Commons – what was in this country‘s best interests. And he left political pundits chattering about the morality of his position.

Is any war moral, unless you are defending your own land from possible imminent invasion, as Britain was in 1940? Or was Lord Palmerston right when he said of British foreign policy: “We have neither friends nor enemies, just interests. If so, are we entitled to defend those interests, by force if necessary? And in that case, was the Iraq war immoral?

The electorate created the greasy pole that Tony Blair successfully scaled to become prime minister and, by acquiescence at least, we gave him the right to take us to war without first seeking the explicit approval of Parliament.

If we don’t like that arrangement we need to change it. Given the parliamentary reforms in the offing this may be a good time to do so. If we demur, sooner or later, one of Mr Blair’s successors will make a similar decision, if he or she thinks our interests warrant it, or possibly because it seems politically expedient at the time.

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Callam Column - Monday, January 25, 2010.

KRAFT is buying Cadbury – big deal.

Well, yes, there’s a lot of money involved and the buyer will borrow a high proportion of it against the assets. That is a genuinely worrying aspect of the sale, but it has been largely overlooked in favour of xenophobic twaddle from people who should know better about the sale of a British institution to Johnnie Foreigner.

I’ve lost count of the number of references to Kraft as a ‘plastic’ cheese-maker –unfortunately there’s some truth in the accusation, but it’s also true that the company sells tangy vintage cheddar under the name Cracker Barrel. And it owns Suchard, a respected Swiss chocolatier.

At this point I should declare an interest. I find so-called British chocolate cloyingly sweet, so I opt for a continental style. My current favourite is made in Italy from beans grown in the Dominican Republic. It is sold as a premium own-brand by one of Britain’s major supermarkets.

I digress: a few years ago, you may recall, the European Union earned the ire of the Daily Mail newspaper and other Little Englanders when it suggested that British chocolate was too inferior to carry the name. Common sense prevailed and Europe’s confectionery manufacturers continue to make the kind of chocolate that suits their customers. Kraft would be commercially daft to ignore the demands of a substantial British market.

We live in a global economy where British companies are bought by foreigners and vice versa. We should reject the thinking of protectionist nations that put up artificial barriers to the sale of businesses to the highest bidder – according to the French government; yogurt-making is a strategic industry.

You will see no difference in the products offered under the Cadbury brand as a direct result of the sale. Nor will there be any change to the sickly taste, unless the market for chocolate in Britain dictates it.

But there could be a degree of financial indigestion as lenders put pressure on the new owner to cut costs. This is an area where a strong government would consider what intervention – in the form of undertakings from the buyer – might better secure the Cadbury jobs left in this country.

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Callam Column - Monday, January 18, 2010.

BANKERS are greedy. And if British taxpayers are ever to recover the billions of pounds we have spent subsidising them we must be just as avaricious.

We cannot afford to be diverted by their weasel arguments about paying the going rate for talented staff. These people are not talented. They are parasites who lined their pockets in the good times. When their greed brought the system down they demanded that we support them, whatever the cost.

Bankers produce nothing; they buy and sell shares, in some cases in fractions of a second, and pocket the profit. If they work for others – like pension funds – they charge hefty fees. And they expect eye-watering bonuses for this work, threatening to go elsewhere if we don’t reward them.

When we finally pluck up courage to impose a modest tax on bonuses they find ways to avoid it. If we continue down this path we will spend years – and millions of pounds – chasing these people, without success.

We need a different tactic. I suggest we simplify matters. Let’s start by increasing the prime minister’s salary to £250,000 a year – this is not an argument for or against the competence of the incumbent; merely one that recognises the complexity of the job and seeks to use it as a benchmark.

Then we can impose a higher rate of tax – 60 or 70 per cent – on all income received in excess of that. At the same time we can hire bright accountants on substantial salaries to close loopholes that allow well-paid people to avoid their financial responsibilities.

As well as bankers, such legislation would catch film stars, footballers, television talent, directors of public companies and many of the senior executives at the BBC. Is that such a bad thing? The country in which they live and/or make money is in deep financial trouble. Why shouldn’t they contribute appropriately to its recovery?

Some will choose to leave rather than pay – far fewer than threaten it, I suspect. But so be it. Good riddance to those who go. We will grow the talent we need to replace them.

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Callam Column - Monday, January 11, 2010.

MY SUPERMARKET now gives away copies of a national daily newspaper in a promotion designed, I assume, to boost flagging circulation. The paper is the Daily Mail.

In the past, I have only used it to cover a drying kitchen floor, but last week I decided to glance through it. Is this a news source from which the British electorate might obtain an unbiased reflection of the country and the suitability of its competing politicians to govern? Or is it a propaganda sheet?

The front page headline reads: Lessons in being a parent at just 14, and goes on to accuse the government of ‘encouraging teenage pregnancy’. This opinionated piece masquerading as news blissfully ignores the fact that Britain already has some of the highest teenage pregnancy figures in Europe. Instead it compares a deprived inner-London borough with the well-to-do Cotswolds and ‘reveals’ the blindingly obvious – that the former has a higher rate of teenage pregnancy.

The second page headline reads: Brown crackdown on Yemen terror is exposed as just spin. The full story, as gleaned from alternative sources, is that the prime minister has ordered the introduction of whole-body scanners at British airports, despite the fact that they are not fully effective. But the paper fails to mention that they are more effective than the present system and therefore, surely, a step in the right direction.

Elsewhere in the paper there is a picture of the Conservative Party leader cuddling a baby under the headline: Cameron’s health pledge to poor. There is also a full page devoted to the opinions of Peter McKay. Forgive my ignorance, but I’ve never heard of Mr McKay and I am therefore unable to judge whether I should give his views more weight than those of a bigot on a radio phone-in.

There is more in similar vein scattered throughout the 88-page paper, but I think you have a flavour of what’s on offer. The word that keeps coming to mind is ‘comic’ – as in Beano.

Each of us must find our own trusted sources from which to obtain unbiased analysis of the choices before us in the forthcoming General Election: personally, I will be giving this pointless publication a very wide birth.

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Callam Column - Monday, January 4, 2010.

WOMEN journalists of a certain age working in British broadcasting have become something of a cause celebre.

The BBC was roundly – and rightly – condemned when it dropped Moira Stuart from news-reading duties on Sunday morning television in 2007. Some three years later the director-general has agreed to appoint three older women to read bulletins on its 24-hour rolling news channel – presumably this is the kind of epoch-making decision for which we pay him nearly £1m a year.

I dislike ageism intensely – I’m an appropriate age to do so – and I dislike sexism even more. People should be employed solely on their ability. For me, that would preclude women-only policies, whether in politics, journalism, or anywhere else. They are the evil of two or more lessers.

Picking an older woman to present a news programme just because she’s older should be seen for what it is – a genuflection to correctness. I have only to think of the hysterical performances of Kirsty Wark on Newsnight or Martha Carney on the World at One and my hackles begin to rise.

I prefer my interviewers to ask difficult questions and keep doing so regardless of how uncomfortable they make the politician concerned – John Humphrys, Andrew Neil and Jeremy Paxman are shining examples of the genre. I have no doubt there are women journalists who will equal and then exceed these three past-masters, but I know of none that does so at present.

Anita Anand and Ritula Shah are both strong contenders, but heaven preserve us from the fawning performance I heard Kate Silverton give in an interview with Gordon Brown on BBC Radio 5 Live on Sunday morning.

We have a particularly important General Election looming; one in which each party will want to talk about its opponents’ shortcomings rather than its own perforce unpalatable proposals. If we are to separate fact from fiction we need incisive, no-nonsense interviewing from people with the experience to make every question count.

As things stand that is a men-only club. We must make sure that by the time of the next General Election that situation has changed. But please can we do so on merit, not age or gender.

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Straight Talk 49/09 - Monday, December 28, 2009.

WE SPENT our first Christmas at home for many years and, for me, it reaffirmed the wonder of the wireless.

Browsing through the bumper Yuletide edition of the Radio Times, Britain’s best listings magazine, I was appalled to find daytime television awash with children’s programmes.

I was subsequently fascinated to note that nine of the most popular Christmas Day programmes were on the BBC – the most watched was Eastenders and the only ITV entry, at a modest number seven, was Coronation Street.

We gave the whole lot a wide berth. My teenage boys clocked up a huge alien death toll in their World of Warcraft battles, while I retreated to the radio. For me, the broadcasting highlight of the morning was Ed Stewart’s Junior Choice on Radio 2 – a couple of hours of pure nostalgia, starting with my favourite seasonal pop anthem; Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody.

As Stewpot ploughed his way through much-loved favourites such as Two Little Boys, Runaway Train and My Bruvver, I wondered which songs today’s children would remember fondly – some X-Factor dirge, no doubt.

In the afternoon I was able to escape the dull chill of mid-winter Britain for the vivid warmth of Botswana with a double dose of The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency on Radio 4. I had high expectations of this audio confection, conjured by Alexander McCall Smith, and it lived up to every one of them.

As I contemplated preparing Christmas dinner I was amused to hear Precious Ramotswe suggest that women do all the important work, while men sit around setting the world to rights – I wish.

In the evening I caught up with the doings of Detective Superintendant Roy Grace of Sussex County Constabulary. The Brighton-based policeman is the invention of best-selling author Peter James, but the settings are real, which is a huge bonus for those of us who know the seaside city. The latest novel, Dead Tomorrow, was my Christmas gift to myself. It’s a rattling good yarn and I thoroughly recommend it.

We spent the rest of the day talking to relatives and friends – near and far – on the phone and cooking and eating a traditional family meal. We had a fantastic Christmas. I hope you did too.

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Straight Talk 48/09 - Monday, December 21, 2009.

CHRISTMAS is coming and supermarket shareholders are getting fat on the prospect of bumper profits.

I have just returned from festive fridge-filling, done this year at two well-known food and beverage suppliers. I bought the ‘grub ordinaire’ from Britain’s favourite grocer, where levels of naked aggression are similar only to those generated by global-warming summits.

Shoppers glare at each other, using tactical trolley-craft to impede others’ progress and achieve home advantage at the meat and cheese cabinets.

The shop contains its usual quota of the terminally bewildered, who frequent such places to keep warm and dry. They stand in the middle of the aisle, gazing into space – I wonder if they know who they are, let alone where they are. In this season of ill-temper they are yet another obstacle, akin to the supermarket’s own shelf-stackers, to be negotiated with much huffing and puffing. Fortunately, these poor souls are oblivious to it.

All this potential carnage is accompanied by a seasonal selection of music; from ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’ to ‘Silent Night’ – strange how pagan and sacred alike are overlaid with unalloyed fury to engender an atmosphere that is the very antithesis of a ‘season to be jolly’.

But I did meet a charming checkout lady. She was coming to the end of her shift when I arrived and is a credit to her employer. She deserves some kind of award for keeping her cool when many around her were losing theirs.

My chauffeuse deserves an award too, for negotiating her way safely out of the car park, avoiding idiots who think it good practice to sit in the middle of the lane and wait, vulture-like, for someone to vacate a space. Once free of this mayhem, it’s on to supermarket number two – never knowingly undersold – for the festive extras.

What a difference. This time there is plenty of room at the inn for shoppers and trolleys in the capacious aisles – all wise men and no asses. But you pay the price for luxury shopping – literally – with a significantly larger bill, albeit for a perceived higher level of quality.

I wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and, if possible, a prosperous New Year.

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Straight Talk 47/09 - Monday, December 14, 2009.

THE WHITEHALL farce that was Britain’s Pre-budget Report has generated hours of television and radio chatter and acres of comment in newspapers. But it has told us nothing we didn’t already know from stage-whispered leaks about the state of the nation’s finances – your political career; it’s behind you.

The object of this cynical exercise in non-communication was to let everyone in the pantomime keep their hoariest old gags for an even bigger production that takes place next year – the General Election.

So we were forced to endure the spectacle of Alastair Darling – a man who makes drying paint look interesting – delivering a series of half-truths, followed by Gideon ‘Ossie’ Osborne assuring us that his Bullenden Club buddies had better ideas.

Only the Liberal Democrats were prepared to be candid about what they would do in the medium term, maybe because they know they have little chance of putting their policies into practice, even in a hung parliament.

Politicians will tell you privately that none of them wants to be too specific about likely expenditure cuts at the moment because they don’t trust the electorate. As they see it, once inside the polling booth we will reject economic reality in favour of warm words – so they will win more seats if they treat us like children and distract us with noisy arguments about class and competence.

Behind the scenes there is a consensus that we need to find newer and cheaper ways of providing public services, but the ideas are still at the evaluation stage and will not be ready for next year’s post election reckoning.

Indeed, there is a strong economic case for holding an election as quickly as possible, so the new government can tell us the whole truth about how frugal it really needs to be. But we are bedevilled by party politics.

With the old government consistently behind in opinion polls, fragile egos to sooth and the date of a General Election in the gift of the prime minister, we will continue to sacrifice long-term economic progress for short-term political gain.

It was Winston Churchill who said: “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those others that have been tried”. He’s right, of course, but I wish we didn’t always get the politicians we deserve.

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Straight Talk 46/09 - Monday, December 7, 2009.

BONUSES are essential if we are to retain the services of the cleverest players in the British financial services sector. Or so we are led to believe by directors of major banks who have a vested interest in saying so, if only to justify their own inflated salaries.

Even the multi-tasking Pooh-bah Mandelson seems reluctant to be forthright with the banking fraternity, declining to express a robust opinion in favour of reminding them of their responsibility to ‘encourage restraint’. The bankers’ situation puts me in mind of one that occurred ten years ago in sports television.

Some of you will remember Des Lynam – the face of football and other sports on BBC Television. Mr Lynam had learned his trade in radio, influenced by the likes of Eamonn Andrews and Raymond Glendenning. Des was the consummate professional and a sporting occasion of any moment was unthinkable without him. ITV thought so too and along it came, offering a better deal – money was talking and Des was listening intently.

Sections of the British press wrote gleeful editorials about the pending decline of BBC sports coverage – what would the corporation do without Des? In fact, the BBC did very well, promoting a former England football captain turned potato-crisp salesman named Gary Winston Lineker.

Today, Gary has readily assumed the mantle of BBC face of football, while Des Lynam has returned to obscurity, with occasional recognition as one of yesterday’s sports presenters. Des’s downhill journey began when he left Match of the Day.

As it is in television so it must be in banking. If greedy bankers don’t want to work for a reasonable salary and a bonus that reflects their use to the bank, let them go forth and multiply their fortunes elsewhere, risking someone else’s money.

At long last the government seems ready to stand up to these greedy parasites and hit them where it hurts most – in the pocket. As a result, I understand many of these people may go abroad to work – good riddance. Politicians keep saying our economy needs to rely less on financial services; here’s a wonderful opportunity to put their rhetoric into practice.

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Straight Talk 45/09 - Monday, November 30, 2009.

WOULD you take advice from an illiterate lawyer, or an innumerate accountant? I suspect not.

And would you seek business support from a company that appears incapable of managing its own business? I refer to the lamentable failure of Croydon Economic Development Company (CEDC), which appears to have ‘mislaid’ something between £1m and £2m of its income.

In fairness, I should declare an interest in this matter. I have been railing against the notion that the company was a private-sector entity, truly independent of Croydon Council since it was formed. Croydon Marketing and Development Ltd was the brainchild of an officer of the council, who invited me to lunch to tell me all about it.

I remember how excited he was about this arms-length company that was going to transform the council’s relationship with private-sector business across the borough. And I remember how crestfallen he became when I asked who was funding it and whether they wouldn’t want a big say in how it was run.

Over the years, the original company and its successors – Croydon Business and CEDC – have made numerous attempts to demonstrate their independence from Croydon Council. Fortunately, despite regular charm offensives and more than a few ‘free’ lunches, most of the borough’s business community has seen it – more or less correctly – as just another council department.

So have some senior executives of the council – who expect it to deliver the support of the business community for council policies – and many of the employees, who have joined the company on secondment from the local authority.

The council has spent millions of pounds of council-tax payers’ money propping up the company since its inception, only relieved in recent years by grants from central government as part of the Local Enterprise Growth Initiative (LEGI).

It might have been better to scuttle this leaky, rust-bucket at birth. Croydon Council could then have spent the money more wisely on joint initiatives with organisations like Croydon Chamber of Commerce or the Federation of Small Business, who had then and still have far greater credibility with the private sector.

And as for economic development – in Greater London that is best managed at regional or sub-regional level by organisations with the budget and the expertise to do so properly.

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Straight Talk 44/09 - Monday, November 23, 2009.

CROSSRAIL is an extravagance that London can no longer afford and we should postpone it now, before we do ourselves any more financial damage trying to pay for it.

As a perennial advocate of public transport and one who has argued strongly for the new line, I find it difficult to contemplate any further delay, but I believe we need to face economic reality.

The case for the east-west underground link is based on passenger predictions made before last year’s financial crash. Thousands of jobs – mostly in banking and allied areas – have disappeared from central London and at the moment nobody knows how many will return and over what period.

There is good reason to believe that a combination of tighter financial regulation and a reluctance to allow the economy again to become so dependent on this one sector will result in a significant permanent reduction. A more sustainable employment model is emerging, creating jobs closer to where people live – in London towns like Hounslow and Romford; Barnet and Croydon.

But politicians are still keen to see their names on the unveiling plaques of grand projects, regardless of the damage they may do to the capital’s ponderous recovery.

So far we have sacrificed the improvement of existing tube stations and reluctantly accepted a New Year rise in tube and bus fares and cuts in suburban bus services.

From next April larger businesses across Greater London will be compelled to pay a two per cent rate levy – threatening the future of neighbourhood improvement initiatives like Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) across the capital..

And all of this is being done so we can find the cash to meet London’s share of the bill for what could yet prove to be a white elephant of woolly mammoth proportions.

Next year’s incoming government will have a number of pre-recession capital projects to review. I can only hope it will be prudent and suspend Crossrail, at least until it becomes clear what demand there might be for such a line in a new-look London economy.

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Straight Talk 43/09 - Monday, November 16, 2009.

JOY is unconfined in some quarters at the prospect of one train operating company returning to public ownership – albeit temporarily. But is it significant in terms of national transport policy?

I think not. Indeed, in my view the more significant development is the revelation that train drivers’ conditions of service are still subject to oversight by the Ministry of Transport. The revelation came in a BBC interview about the lack of a discernable service on Capital Connect trains between Bedford and Brighton because drivers could not be induced to work rest days.

The interviewer asked whether drivers’ terms and conditions should reflect the fact that the company was contractually committed to a seven-day service schedule. A company spokesman agreed and then dropped his bombshell about continuing government interference.

And that begs the question: has the railway network actually been privatised, or is the commercial veneer as thin as the dodgy paint job on some of the carriages? In reality many of the senior managers who ran our decrepit public railway are still in post.

Their salaries are much higher, but they still have no idea of passengers’ needs. They think it acceptable to run four-car trains at the busiest times and retain rolling stock so old and poorly maintained that it breaks down regularly. And when it comes to salary negotiations they are still too weak to stand up to the trade unions who have secured an average £38,000-a-year wage for their members.

The Canadians, the Danes, and the French run extensive rail networks with computer-controlled, driverless trains. London Transport introduced such technology on the Underground 40 years ago: on the Victoria Line the man at the front of the train just closes the doors and on the Piccadilly Line he does the same, except on Sundays.

The Docklands Light Railway is driverless too, but despite substantial investment in rolling stock and upgraded track on the national rail network, management has so far succumbed to Luddite pressures not to introduce such new-fangled ideas more extensively.

Transport policy is properly a matter for government, but we need to know how extensively civil servants are micro-managing the train operating companies - and why?

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Straight Talk 42/09 - Monday, November 9, 2009.

OBESITY and all the medical complications that flow from it are not as rampant as we previously believed, according to statisticians. Apparently the British are still getting fatter, but not as quickly as we feared.

And for a government with little positive to brag about, that is cause enough for celebration. Ministers believe their constant urging of us to eat a balanced diet and do more exercise is finally having an effect, despite the millions of pounds being spent by the food and drink industry to sell us less healthy fare. And maybe, just for once, there is genuine justification for ministers’ optimism that transcends the usual manipulation of figures to suit political ends.

I was impressed to see that Veolia, the firm that empties the dustbins in Croydon, has opened a wellness centre for its staff. Previously the company has distinguished itself only by the sickly purple colour it has chosen for its corporate livery. But now, in a particularly far-sighted move, it is making exercise facilities and nutritional information available to staff at its depot in the town.

Undoubtedly, this is enlightened self-interest - fitter employees are likely to have less time off sick with everything from colds and flu to more serious illnesses. They are also likely to be more productive at work.

And yet I am not aware of other public-sector employers doing the same thing. Most local authorities run sports facilities for residents, but I don’t think they give their staff free access to them - indeed, if they did I have no doubt some myopic pressure group would be missing the point and demanding an end to such largesse.

A number of private-sector firms offer corporate membership of gyms to certain grades of staff, but the practice is far from universal. And the tax man has yet to recognise gym fees as a legitimate business expense - maybe the chancellor will be minded to put our money where the government’s mouth is and do so.

Somehow I doubt it - as much as Mr Darling may wish to improve the health of the nation, I suspect he is more concerned with the exchequer’s financial well-being in the period immediately prior to a general election.

In the meantime we can only hope that other employers will follow in Veolia’s footsteps.

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Straight Talk 41/09 - Monday, November 2, 2009.

THE BRITISH postal dispute holds a particular fascination for me – it’s like a time warp, carrying me back to the early 1970s.

In those days I was an enthusiastic trade unionist, a member of a local negotiating team in an inner London borough council. I put aside my ideological differences with some politically colourful characters – many of them deepest crimson – so we could turn our collective fire on our employers.

The rules of the game were intricate – like playing blindfold chess – and the timescale was lengthy – we explored every avenue thoroughly – but the possibilities of creating confusion and using it to our own advantage were immense.

I thought such Machiavellian manoeuvrings were ancient history but as the veil lifts a little in the current Royal Mail dispute, I realise the old game is alive and well and, if anything, even more complex.

I heard the perspicacious Clive James suggest on Radio Four on Friday evening that a strike is always a failure of management – a view I first heard expressed back in the 1970s. I agreed with it then and I still do.

In this case it is not clear whether Adam Crozier and his highly-paid chums are entirely to blame, or whether they are being hindered by political machinations – we should not ignore the fact that the trade union is a significant contributor to the Labour Party.

We know that 60,000 postal jobs have disappeared in the past year, but only one of them was compulsory. The rest were a mixture of unfilled vacancies, early retirements and voluntary redundancies.

They were all relatively painless since those involving people – as opposed to the manipulation of statistics – were sweetened with significant golden goodbyes.

And thereby lies part of the solution to this dispute. As BT proved when it went through a similar slimming exercise some years ago, if you offer a large enough bribe you will need to beat off volunteers with a stick.

So why are we jeopardising the future of the postal business when we can recover the cost of a more generous severance agreement quickly from a modernised Royal Mail.

Could this be privatisation by the back door? If so, shouldn’t we be more candid? Does it really matter who delivers our post – Royal Mail, DHL or TNT?

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Straight Talk 40/09 - Monday, October 26, 2009.

THE CZECHS are ready to remove the last obstacle to the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty. I won’t be cracking open the champagne, but I will certainly be raising a glass of something more modest.

This is yet another step on the long road to creating a meaningful grouping in which the nations of the United Kingdom can operate effectively in coming decades. And we have achieved it despite the vociferous opposition of sections of the British press and of politicians and others who seem to think we are still an imperial power.

But we have some way to go if we are to stop spending money we can’t afford on grandiose projects we don’t need. We are determined to replace our US-dependant nuclear deterrent, albeit slightly scaled back, and we are glibly racking up huge debts for two – yes, two – aircraft carriers.

Such things might have been appropriate when Britain was a world power – you really must have a spare gunboat, old boy. But like European neighbours Germany, Holland and Spain we now need to come to terms with reality.

On our own we cut a ridiculous figure, desperately clinging to Uncle Sam’s coat tails. As part of the European Union we have a role to play, but we will have to learn the gentle arts of persuasion and compromise.

Tony Blair dragged us into wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to please George Bush, now Mr Bush’s successor has difficulty understanding why we lay such emphasis on the so-called special relationship. President Obama is more interested in dealing with us as an Anglo Saxon voice at the heart of the European Union and can’t see why we have problems with that role.

If we stopped trying to impress the United States we would have far fewer fallen soldiers to mourn and a lot more money to spend on essentials like decent housing and worthwhile education.

I’m sure the United States would allow our prime minister to assuage his political ego by sharing the red carpet with its head of state – but we might need to accept the presence of others too, like the French president and the German chancellor.

Would that really be so bad?

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Straight Talk 39/09 - Monday, October 19, 2009.

TURKEYS have voted for an early Christmas. They have been misled by an out-of-touch trade union that is gambling their futures on old-style government intervention.

I refer to postal workers who will be hammering another nail into their collective coffin if they choose to strike later this week. There is a popular myth that Royal Mail is sustained by millions of us making occasional use of its services: the truth is precisely the opposite.

Most of us use the post less with every passing year: it is a small number of large-scale industrial users that cushion the decline. If they find alternative carriers they will not return to Royal Mail at a later date.

This government or the next will be forced to put house-to-house deliveries out to competitive tender and in the present economic climate it may have to strike a delicate balance between service and cost.

It may conclude that a daily postal delivery to every address in the country is a luxury we can no longer afford – more remote residents, based on population per square mile, could be asked either to collect their post from a central point, have it delivered once a week, or to pay a cost-based premium for a daily service.

Whatever the final contract terms, firms like DHL or TNT, already highly mechanised, will always be able to do the job more cost-effectively than manual Royal Mail. The union has been warned time and again by the employers and by government that sticking its finger in the dyke of progress will not prevent it being inundated.

Some of the staff will possibly find jobs with the new contractors, doing similar work – we can’t yet mechanise the actual delivery process – but they will be offered lower wages and very different conditions of service.

The change is as inevitable as those that took place in the newspaper trade and the coal mining industry. Strikes in both cases made lots of workers considerably poorer, but had no significant effect on the final outcome.

In this case, industrial action could harden public opinion and therefore government attitudes towards any final settlement. Without tax-payers’ money life will be much harder for former Royal Mail employees.

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Straight Talk 38/09 - Monday, October 12, 2009.

PUBLIC transport in London sustained another swingeing blow this week. The Mayor of London, who says he can’t afford to extend south London’s tram network, slashed a further £2,600,000,000 off the bus and tube budget, bringing total cuts over the next three years to £5 billion.

Boris Johnson says the money will come from efficiency savings and not from front-line services. But he’s a politician looking forward to a General Election – he would say that, wouldn’t he.

In reality, transport experts suggest that tube stations long overdue for renovation will have to wait even longer and fares will have to rise above the level of inflation, making the whole network that much less attractive. I have railed against this kind of false economy before. It is blatantly obvious to me that anything that discourages people from using public transport makes London that much less competitive as a commercial centre.

Ours is an old city, where narrow streets restrict travel. They are built for the horse and carriage or cart, not the motor car or commercial vehicle. Taxi-drivers in central London travel no faster than their forebears did in horse-drawn Hansom cabs. The solution is better rapid mass-transit systems, like the tube, light-rail and dedicated busways.

But politicians prefer compromise. They should tell motorists that efficient public transport allows everyone to negotiate the most congested areas quickly; instead, they pander to the car lobby at everyone else’s expense.

We have some of the worst air quality in Europe; a statistic that will bring fines from the European Union and cause embarrassment when we host the 2012 Olympics.

We could cure the problem by preventing unrestricted use of roads that quickly become choked with exhaust-emitting cars. We need to curb the type of vehicles we allow on London’s narrower streets to those that are emission-free. And we need to restrict the private car severely, in favour of frequent, efficient, 24-hour public transport, with car parks at railheads on the M25.

None of this will materialise overnight, but it won’t happen at all if short-sighted politicians introduce short-term fixes to impress their political cronies.

Shame on you Boris.

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Straight Talk 37/09 - Monday, October 5, 2009.

CONGRATULATIONS to all involved in winning first prize for Croydon in the Britain in Bloom competition.

Many people will be surprised by the success of the south London borough, given its image as a crime-ridden concrete jungle. Certainly, Edinburgh, runner-up in the competition, wasted no time in making this graceless point.

But I have some sympathy for our Scottish cousins – in their ignorance they are only following the lead of lazy journalists who have repeated the stereotype parrot-fashion over the years. Croydon does have concrete high-rise blocks in the town centre, most of which are mediocre examples of 1960s architecture, but they cover a minute area of land compared with the parks and other open spaces in the borough.

In fact, Croydon has more public open space than any other borough in Greater London. It also has some fine historic buildings dating back to the Tudors as well as close historic links with monarchs and the Church of England. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, lived in the borough and wrote some of his detective stories here.

Over the years Croydon has hidden its light under a very expensive bushel, entrusting its marketing to a quango that has failed to deliver anything of consequence. I’m tempted to spend the rest of this piece castigating the box-tickers who have wasted so much time and money on so little - manipulators of arcane statistics who could teach the wiliest politician a trick or two. But it would be better to look forward.

Croydon has won a prestigious award based on an independent inspection of the borough. Now it needs to make the most of that. The borough must challenge every negative portrayal of Croydon immediately on publication, preferably with the editor, or, if necessary, the publisher. It must also develop and market a programme of events to reinforce its aspirant positive image.

There is a good tale to tell, including exciting proposals from renowned architect Will Alsop to ‘green’ the town centre and reduce the dominance of heavy traffic.

Come on Croydon - let’s start spreading the good word.

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Straight Talk 36/09 - Monday, September 28, 2009.

TRANSPORT planning is a contradiction in terms in relation to some of south London’s bus services.

The object is to create a fast and convenient alternative to the car, so motorists will be persuaded to use public transport and thereby reduce the general level of road congestion. But Transport for London, the body charged with doing so, keeps shooting itself – and its potential passengers – in both feet.

I have complained before about the dysfunctional nature of bus interchanges in central Croydon, south London, the fact that none of the north south routes stops at East Croydon railway station. I have also complained about the chaotic arrangements that force passengers to hover between stops for a selection of services going in the same direction.

I have wondered whether middle managers at TfL get out as much as they should, and when they do, whether they are too cocooned in cars and taxis. Do they have bus passes? And if so, do they use them? There is precious little evidence to suggest so in some of their daft decisions.

And it’s important that TfL makes buses as easy to use as possible, because a more convenient public transport network is the only practical means we have to prevent total gridlock in the capital over the next decade or so.

The latest manifestation of bad bus management is evident a few miles north of central Croydon. Some bright spark has contrived to move northbound bus stops further away from Mayday University Hospital, the borough's district general hospital in London Road, Thornton Heath.

The distance isn’t great for those of us who remain reasonably able-bodied, but it could cause serious problems for those with walking sticks and frames who, by the very nature of their disabilities, are regular users of the hospital’s out-patient clinics.

Their understandable concerns will persuade caring relatives and friends to offer them lifts to the hospital instead, putting added pressure on an already inadequate car park and generally adding to road congestion in and around the hospital.

Well done TfL – for some no-doubt arcane reason, once again you have contrived to do precisely the opposite of what you are supposed to do.

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Straight Talk 35/09 - Monday, September 21, 2009.

PRIME-TIME British television has a newcomer and older hands are not happy. That’s the gist of remarks made this week by ITV, about the BBC’s decision to schedule Strictly Come Dancing directly against The X Factor.

The hard-pressed commercial broadcaster seems keen to paint this as a ratings war in which its public service rival is being deliberately provocative. As a BBC shareholder – like you, I have a license – I see it differently.

Prime-time is so called because it is when most people find it most convenient to sit down and watch a programme or two. In that respect I’m part of the majority and on a Saturday evening. I’m happy to be entertained with some glamour and glitz. At that time I prefer it to news, current affairs or highbrow arts programmes – all of which have their place elsewhere in the schedule.

And I’m in a significant minority, it seems, in preferring Strictly to The X Factor. For me, it’s a matter of production values. Strictly is quality entertainment based around well-known faces from other disciplines showing how well, or otherwise, they can dance.

John Sergeant, who confounded last year’s judges, is a highly-regarded journalist who once toyed with the idea of becoming an actor. He is no stranger to making a spectacle of himself and by his own account enjoyed the Strictly experience hugely.

In contrast, The X Factor exploit’s the dreams of self-deluded people who think they have talent – the modern equivalent of laughing at lunatics in Bedlam.

Since Sir Michael Grade migrated to ITV as executive chairman I have heard him say that ‘content is king‘. I assume he means the stuff between the ad breaks is important, though you would never guess so from watching some of it.

Now ITV would like to restrict the BBC’s ability to place its most popular, and in many cases most expensive programmes in the best time slots. Surely that would be a waste of television license-payers’ money?

I have a better idea – commercial television could compete: it could spend the amount needed to make something even more appealing than Strictly. Then more of the fickle television audience, myself included, would retune immediately.

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Straight Talk 34/09 - Monday, September 14, 2009.

THE TERMS ‘Post Office’ and ‘business’ make uncomfortable bedfellows – they are as credible a combination as ‘open’ and ‘government‘. But Post Offices have impressed the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) as suitable places in which to establish government-run business advice centres.

My nearest main Post Office, in central Croydon, south London, has queues from the time it opens until it closes, and yet apparently it still makes a loss.

That suggests that Post Office management has negotiated too low a price for all the paperwork it has to shuffle for government departments and others. And yet, government has taken a number of services away from the Post Office, saying it can find cheaper alternatives.

The FSB is the largest business membership organisation in Britain, but it still comes up with some quaint suggestions at times, of which this is one. It thinks a network of business centres would make the owners of smaller firms feel less isolated – it wants the network to offer advice to those who need it and to act as a meeting place for firms, both in a social sense and as somewhere to talk to potential customers.

The FSB ignores the Post Office’s un-business-like image and the fact that networking is already being done very well by chambers of commerce and a myriad of competing business clubs – all of which require no public subsidy.

At a time when government-funded business support organisations like Business Link are becoming ever more Internet-based to give tax-payers the biggest possible bang for their buck, the good old FSB wants to turn the clock back.

Sadly, the Post Office is trying to meet the needs of a bygone age by the use of yesterday’s technology. Like its stable-mate, Royal Mail, it has been overtaken by the speed, convenience and economy of the Internet.

The Post Office is in terminal decline and the quicker we switch off its expensive life-support system, the better. Unless the FSB is offering to meet the cost of it's proposed business centres – which, somehow, I doubt.

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Straight Talk 33/09 - Monday, September 7, 2009.

EDINBURGH and Glasgow will be less than three hours journey from south London if Network Rail succeeds in building the first of two high-speed lines north from the capital. In a carefully argued case that has taken 12 months to prepare, the successor to British Rail sets out its case for a £34 billion investment that it expects to repay with interest over 60 years.

We are still playing catch up to the French, Germans and Italians, among others, but at least we are facing the fact that rail travel is environmentally more friendly than flying and with high-speed lines shorter journeys are just as quick overall.

But in masterful piece of botched timing London Midland, one of Network Rail’s principle franchisees, chose yesterday to cancel Sunday services because it didn’t have enough volunteers to drive its trains. This is precisely the kind of short-term management that used to blight our publicly run railways.

It makes me wonder how much has really changed since privatisation, beyond the garish livery of the trains. How can you credibly claim to run a seven-day-a-week service if you’ve only hired staff to work six days? And why was this company ever paying drivers double-time for Sunday working?

How many other train operating companies are similarly encumbered with these bow-and-arrow agreements. As I recall, many of the ‘more creative’ terms and conditions of employment were introduced during public ownership to circumvent political obstacles – government policies and the like.

But all that disappeared when we de-nationalised the railways, didn’t it? That was the start of a new era, with entrepreneurs like Richard Branson making their commercial presence felt, wasn’t it?

Train drivers must be properly paid, with good conditions of service, including a decent pension scheme, that reflects their increasing importance to an ever more mobile society. They should not need to work regular overtime to make ends meet.

But in return they must accept that they are required to work anti-social hours – including week-ends – as part of their basic terms of service. That’s the only deal on offer – take it or find another job. There are plenty of unemployed people who would be delighted to replace you.

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Straight Talk 32/09 - Monday, August 31, 2009.

TWO P or not two p: that is the question? Is it nobler for south London businesses to pay a rate levy to support the building of Crossrail or to look for an alternative solution?

Let me start with a little clarification: the vast majority of businesses in south London will not be affected by a levy. The £50,000 rateable value threshold ensures that any payment will come from the largest companies: department stores and supermarkets; regional headquarters of banks and other national and international corporations; and central and local government, whose spacious offices are already paid for out of tax-payers’ pockets.

How would this new railway line benefit south Londoners? It would dramatically improve the journey time to Heathrow, cutting it from an hour or more, even by car, to just 40 minutes by train – Bob Crow and his union comrades permitting. Heathrow would be just one change (Farringdon) from many places in south London, using Capital Connect (formerly Thameslink) and the new line.

But should south London be supporting this fixation with Heathrow – a 60-year-old planning mistake that will never be as well connected to the rest of the country as Gatwick, with or without Crossrail?

Perhaps, south London would do better to throw its collective weight behind a campaign to persuade BAA to sell Gatwick quickly, allowing it to compete directly with the wicked witch of the west. An independent Gatwick, with an extensive inter-continental network, would be far more convenient for businesses from day one because the rail and road infrastructure is already in place.

This is particularly true for businesses in south London, but also applies to those in other parts of the capital because Capital Connect already offers excellent and improving connections with so much of the Underground and Overground network. And a better developed Gatwick would bring more international inward investment to south London than Heathrow ever could, creating a flow of quality jobs for decades to come.

In my view south London’s businesses should demand that next year’s incoming government gives serious reconsideration to Crossrail funding. And that it puts further expansion at Heathrow on the back burner for at least a generation.

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Straight Talk 31/09 - Monday, August 24, 2009.

AUGUST is the silly season – a period when newspapers struggle to fill wide open spaces and turn to yarns that would normally end up on the spike. But I have heard few taller business tales than the distinctly fishy one I came across last week.

A market trader opened and closed a seafood stall in what remains of the street market in Surrey Street, Croydon, all in the space of a few days. Apparently he decided to cut his losses after failing to take enough money to pay the wages - let alone the rent.

In the midst of a recession it seems this entrepreneur had thrown caution to the winds and simply taken a punt on the idea with little or no market research. Clearly it’s true: there is one born every minute.

With the plethora of business advisory organisations – many publicly funded and all looking for work – I thought we had long abandoned this typically British fly-by-the-seat-of-the-trousers approach to commerce.

A market stall may not involve a huge financial investment, but surely someone at Croydon Council is responsible for making sure the business is viable? Isn’t it in council tax payers’ interests to ensure that traders can pay the, albeit modest, charges?

And isn’t in the town’s wider interests to encourage a diverse and commercially successful street market? It could be exactly the attraction Croydon needs to balance the formulaic approach of its shopping malls with their parades of high street multiples.

But a street market would have to be as professionally managed as a shopping mall, with a wide variety of stalls - not too many selling sub-supermarket fruit and vegetables. Maybe it could include speciality outlets catering for the mind-boggling range of world cuisines featured on the many television cookery programmes.

A comprehensive Internet presence might encourage more shoppers to visit the town centre and others to buy on line, boosting traders’ turnover – Borough Market has one, as has Petticoat Lane and Portobello Road.

A market stall is a fantastic way to start a business, providing the initiative is commercially sound from the outset.

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Straight Talk 30/09 - Monday, August 17 2009.

CONGRATULATIONS to the far-sighted firms in central Kingston in south London who have voted to renew their Business Improvement District (BID) for a further five years.

The decision requires eligible firms to pay a levy of one per cent of ratable value into a fund administered by Kingston First to be spent on previously agreed improvements in the town centre. At a time of recession it must have been tempting to vote ‘no’ and pocket the extra cash, but those concerned took the view that the investment would pay dividends.

Kingston was the first area in the country to introduce a BID and is therefore the first to renew - it did so with a higher turnout and a larger majority in favour. That suggests firms are happy with what Kingston First has been doing to make the town centre more attractive and to promote it to a wider audience - which is borne out by reports of increased footfall.

I am delighted the experiment has proved a success thus far and I hope sililar initiatives will be seen as equally worthwhile in other town centres across south London. Kingston is a good model, particularly in terms of the absolute independence of the BID management company. It allows BID officers to have a proper dialogue with the local council and other public authorities.

Not that BID members are at loggerheads with any of these bodies, but there are times when priorities differ and on such occasions each side can argue its case free of undue influence from the other. The small disadvantage of a levy is more than made up for by the ability to call the tune because you are paying the piper.

Industrial estates across south London have adopted BIDs with some enthusiasm, while Croydon and Waterloo are among the town centres that have followed Kingston’s lead. Retailers in district centres who are seeking help from central or local government are surely in for a long wait - helping themselves through a business rate levy to be spent locally might be a more sustainable course of action.

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Straight Talk 29/09 - Monday, August 10, 2009.

THE PUBLIC transport network converging on central Croydon makes it one of south London’s most convenient destinations for rail, tram and bus passengers. But once they arrive it’s a different and much less welcoming story.

The present road layout was planned – I use the word advisedly – in the late 1950s, when the car was king. The six-lane highway that cuts a swathe through the centre is part of a never-completed ring road, intended to link the town swiftly to the M23 that would snake close to Croydon on its way from Wandsworth Bridge to Brighton.

The northern section of the motorway was never built: according to legend, people with homes in its path and friends in high places said: “not at the bottom of our back gardens”, and there the enterprise perished.

Croydon was left – so near and yet so far from the national motorway network – with its medieval street layout and an even greater reliance on public transport. Forty years later, the town has yet to come to terms with this major change of fortune.

It still favours the motorist to the detriment of the pedestrian, despite the fact that its present and future prosperity increasingly depend on encouraging as many visitors as possible to travel by public transport. There are moves afoot to reduce the six-lanes of Wellesley Road to a mere four, but that is still some years hence.

Meanwhile shoppers leaving the Whitgift Centre with the bags of goodies we are all eager for them to buy are faced with a daunting task. If they need to catch an eastbound tram or a southbound bus they face a trek to both stops via stairs or ramps and an uninviting underpass.

Standing outside the Wellesley Road exit of the shopping centre they can see the bus stops directly opposite. It would be a few moments’ walk across the road, if safe passage were not barred by waist-high barriers and an onslaught of heavy traffic.

Surely it cannot be beyond the wit of Croydon planners to devise a more convenient solution – maybe a re-sited tram stop in the middle of the road and light-controlled surface access from both sides.

I suspect the biggest problem is that town planners, shopkeepers and those who make the political decisions never travel by public transport.

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Straight Talk 28/09 - Monday, August 3, 2009.

BOB NEWHART is an American comedian. He made his name in Britain in the 1960s with his ‘Button-down Mind’ series of albums featuring quirky monologues.

In one of the most popular, he imagines how American bus drivers are taught to be so inconsiderate to their passengers. Instructor Newhart describes how easy it is to use a combination of accelerator and brake to send standing passengers, particularly those carrying bags, backwards and forwards along the bus until they eventually lose their balance.

More than 40 years later, I am often reminded of his acute observations as I travel on buses around Croydon, south London, but the situation is no longer funny because I and my fellow passengers are the ones being propelled up and down the bus.

Those who provide south London’s bus services will tell you their drivers only break hard in emergencies. Twaddle: at best this is the wishful thinking of oleaginous public relations people who wouldn’t be seen dead on a bus.

The modern passenger-carrying vehicle is a sophisticated piece of kit, more than capable of delivering smooth acceleration and being brought to a gentle halt, but only if it is used properly – frustrated boy- and girl-racers are not its intended drivers.

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, has ruled out any extension to south London’s tram network in the foreseeable future – the world-class public transport solution, sacrificed on the altar of Crossrail. The best Boris can afford is the bus. And it is imperative we use it, if south London is not to grind to a halt as a result of sclerotic levels of traffic.

As part of this makeshift offering, the least the Mayor can do is to insist on driver re-training to rid the fleet of the 'Strictly Come Dancing' syndrome. Otherwise, selfish bus drivers will intimidate tentative passengers back into their cars. And to enforce his edict, the Mayor can introduce a squad of ‘secret travellers’ to report back on infringements that would lead to heavy fines for companies whose drivers continue to offend.

A bus service fit for an Olympic city should not require passengers to be athletes.

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Straight Talk 27/09 - Monday, July 20, 2009.

TOWN planners have done more damage to central Croydon than the Luftwaffe. Just look at the ranks of uninspired and prematurely ageing concrete boxes that line Park Lane and Wellesley Road – indeed look at the eight-lane highway itself that so effectively bisects the town.

It is hardly surprising that many people are opposed to all forms of development and determined to delay it as long as possible. And the larger the scale of proposals the greater the threat those people perceive.

And yet, the townscapes we admire most are ones where sensible development over many years has replaced the mediocre and retained the excellent. We are in danger of preserving buildings that have long since served their purpose, or the spaces between them, just because they exist.

The technicality that robbed the people of New Addington of overdue improved amenities is surely a mistake. It may please the person who achieved it – a victory for the individual against the system – but at what cost in terms of extra jobs and improved quality of life for thousands of others.

The delay in approving plans for the Gateway site adjoining East Croydon station will result in a less ambitious development for the town centre. Likewise, the delay in approving plans for the Park Place shopping complex.

And the delay in approving plans for a housing development on the edge of Crystal Palace Park may make refurbishment of a popular open space that much less viable.

South London is in competition with every other area in Britain for inward investment to create more jobs. Long and acrimonious squabbles over every attempt to build more housing or better amenities will persuade potential employers to go elsewhere.

Of course we need safeguards to protect us from those who would exploit the area for their own short-term gain, but we cannot allow that to blind us to the innovative ideas of people with possible solutions.

High-density housing, improved public transport and better managed open spaces will all cause inconvenience to someone – its part of the price each of us pays for the privilege of living in such a vibrant community.

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Straight Talk 26/09 - Monday, July 13, 2009.

THE CHILDREN are scrapping in the Town Hall nursery again – this time they’re talking rubbish, literally. Waste disposal is apparently an emotive subject in the borough of Croydon, which suggests that people don’t have enough to occupy themselves.

For too many years we have foisted our unwanted detritus on others, paying them a pittance to bury it in landfill sites well away from south London. Now the government is threatening to impose swingeing taxes on local authorities who continue this anti-social behaviour.

The prospect of having to increase council tax to pay the additional charges has concentrated councillors’ minds wonderfully. We have already seen worthwhile initiatives to encourage us to recycle more, but that still leaves us with the problem of the remaining waste.

Fortunately, our Scandinavian cousins, whose ‘green’ credentials are infinitely better than ours, have devised a number of environmentally friendly and cost-effective ways of doing the job. Principal among them is incineration – a fully-controlled process that generates heat and electricity and releases the residue as ‘scrubbed’ smoke that is cleaner than the air with which it mixes.

You might think our local politicians would welcome such a tried and tested system from such a scrupulous source, but you would be wrong. They see some short-term political advantage to be gained by polarising public opinion. They do so by implying that incinerated rubbish will result in clouds of toxic fumes rolling across the Purley Way, stopping traffic and killing children on contact.

I exaggerate, but only to make my point. There is plenty of evidence to support the argument that burning rubbish in properly designed incinerators is the best way to dispose of it – whereas burying it in landfill sites is the worst.

This party-political game of ‘scare thy neighbour’ is likely to delay any decision, costing us even more money. And it may ultimately result in a ‘political compromise’ that will be less effective and therefore more expensive than the obvious solution.

I would be less irritated if I believed these politicians were sincere in their concerns. Sadly, I think the majority are simply attention-seeking, with at least one eye on the coming General Election.

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Straight Talk 25/09 - Monday, July 5, 2009.

BEHOLD the sight of Croydon’s district centre shopkeepers grasping at straws.

The secondary south London parades in which they trade were relatively short of shoppers before the recession began to bite. Now the footfall has fallen further. So the shopkeepers are blaming supermarkets and demanding reductions in business rates to help them through these straitened times.

But the rise of the out-of-town supermarket is not some fiendish plot, nor is it a passing fad. Rather, the outstanding success of these temples of retail is entirely driven by the demand of an overwhelming majority of the population for maximum convenience. We want to drive to the shop; we want to park outside - preferably without charge; and we want the keenest possible prices.

Supermarkets spend huge sums on sites large enough to allow extensive single-storey parking – increasingly other retailers are following suit by leasing units that include free customer parking in the service charges.

Anyone who tells you quality and service are more important than price and free parking is in denial - especially at the moment. If you doubt me just look at the relative success of Tesco over the past few years compared with Sainsbury. Both offer a similar level of service and convenience, but Tesco’s prices have been significantly lower. As a result it now enjoys about twice the turnover of what was once its commercial equal.

Now let me turn to business rates - they are set by central government; collected by local authorities on behalf of central government; and redistributed under the direction of The Treasury. Like excise duty, stamp duty, death duties VAT and all the many and varied forms of licensing, business rates are just another form of taxation - a relatively easy way for a penniless Chancellor of the Exchequer to bolster the public coffers.

Does anyone seriously believe that a British government of any political persuasion will be giving that money back to business any time soon? The billions ‘invested’ in the nation’s banks on the dubious grounds that they are crucial to the economy means the government has even less to spend elsewhere.

There are a number of advisory services available to smaller businesses across the borough; there are even a few modest grants on offer in specific circumstances. But basically Mr and Mrs Shopkeeper you’re on your own – and the quicker you face the fact and act on it, the less likely you are to find yourselves in the commercial mire.

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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.

ENDS

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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.

ENDS

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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.

ENDS

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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

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