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Listen to Business
What we want to know: What is being done to help south London weather the coming recession?
South London Business Listen to Business Newsquest

An open letter to the Mayor of London

Dear Mayor Johnson, At a time of unprecedented threat to businesses in south London, this newspaper demands to know what you plan to do to help save the livelihoods of our readers.

Billions of pounds are being pumped into banks across the globe, while the hard-working business community in your backyard has been left to fend for itself.

With the recession biting deeper every week, the impact is being felt by small, medium and large businesses across London. This is happening as we approach Christmas – a crucial time for many companies. They are also busy setting budgets and worrying about what next year may hold.

Our 12 south London boroughs have more than 100,000 businesses, most of which are small, but with almost 1,000 large businesses, all providing jobs and prosperity for south London and the capital as a whole. Many of these businesses, and the jobs and prosperity they bring, are under threat because of the uncertainty and recessionary pressures resulting from the banking crisis.

So we have teamed up with South London Business (SLB), which exists purely to support, and be the voice for, local business, to champion their cause.

We have seen bail-outs for City and Canary Wharf-based institutions, we see considerable investment going into other parts of London, but to date we have seen precious little directed additional action to support businesses in our area through these challenging times. What we need is a dedicated plan of action to protect our businesses and the jobs that depend on them. You’ve talked about your commitment to South London and understand the importance of the outer London economy. We also know that you understand that businesses do not just operate in one borough and so a wider approach is required.

Newsquest and SLB will work together in our Listen to Business campaign to highlight the concerns of businesses in south London and to find solutions, some of which are local, some regional and some national, to address the problems. However, to have any chance of success we are calling on you, as Mayor of London, to join with us and give this challenge the priority it so desperately needs. So, come on Boris, tell us what you will do to help the people of South London who put you in power.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Pledger
Chief executive South London Business 		Andrew Parkes
Group editor Newsquest South London

The time to act is now
We have launched a major campaign to help the businesses of South London survive the recession. South London has an extraordinarily vibrant and important business sector, with an economy as big as that of Wales.

While City fat cats have been paying themselves million pound bonuses and blowing up the financial bubble which has just burst around us, these businesses have been grafting away honestly and quietly, making a major contribution to the prosperity of the capital and the country.

Hundreds of thousands of jobs depend on those businesses, large and small, either directly and indirectly. And the health and wealth of our communities depends on them. Now the future of many of those businesses and jobs hang in the balance. For many years south London was overlooked by the ex-Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, whose focus was on the City and east London. But our new Mayor, Boris Johnson, promised to right that balance when he came to power. This week, as our businesses face up to the ever deepening recession, we are calling on him to honour that pledge.

With vast sums pouring from the Treasury into the coffers of City banks, we want to know what actions he and his team are going to take over the coming months to protect our shops, our businesses, our livelihoods.

We want to ensure South London gets its fair share of all the funding and support available, and that keeping our businesses going in these difficult times is a number one priority.

And we want to hear from you, whether you run a local business, or work in one. What challenges are you facing right now, and what do you want Boris to do to help? Please contact the newsdesk – see our 'Contact Us' page for details. Right across south London, our sister newspapers and websites will be working together on this campaign to protect local businesses.

The message to Boris from South London is clear – Listen to Business!

South London's economy



• 112,000 businesses

• 1,000 businesses employ more than 250 people

• £56.4billion annual Gross Domestic Product

• Has an economy the size of Wales

South London Business



• Formed in 1999 to represent south London's business community

• Conducts largest bi-annual survey specifically targeting south London companies

• South London Business visits over 200 companies each year

• Over 1,500 people use SLB's online property database every month

Newsquest



• 23 weekly newspapers

• 1.8 million readers each week

• 2 million visits on its websites each month

• Provides employment for 4,400 people

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