Our Local Economy

Our local economy should be just that – ours, and local. At the moment, the people of Flintshire produce a lot of value – profit – in our work that is extracted from our county to benefit shareholders, sometimes in London, often abroad. In this way, money leaves our local economy, but the main source of investment into it is through government spending. In other words, taxpayer’s money is spent here, it circulates for a bit, then is extracted to the bank accounts of billionaires or, in the case of some companies, the foreign governments that own them. You fund them.

This kind of model isn’t good for local people, and it isn’t sustainable either. These companies will always go where there’s most profit, and they won’t hesitate to close factories in Flintshire if they can get away with paying workers less somewhere else. We’ve seen the consequences of this too many times before. Betting the future prosperity of our county on big businesses being nice to us is reckless and dangerous.

There is an alternative. Flintshire People’s Voice will, every single time any taxpayers money is spent, prioritise locally owned suppliers. Where possible, these will be employee owned, spreading the profits more widely in the community and rewarding those who do the work. We will support the establishment and growth of these businesses, completely transforming from the current Labour administration’s strategy of bribing big businesses to open with promises of letting them off their taxes. We will do everything we can to keep money in Flintshire and North Wales, building the wealth of the community, and we will work with other public bodies, such as community councils, the health board, fire service, and North Wales Police to do the same. We will prioritise local businesses for tenancies in council owned business units. We will focus high street regeneration away from trying to coax big-name takeaway chains to providing a distinct, local offering which cannot be outcompeted by giant online retailers. We will build a genuine local economy from the bottom up – one that actually works for you.

Public sector spending can make a huge difference. But it’s only the start. With that bedrock to build on, locally owned businesses can expand, taking in consumer spend locally, and supplying other councils and companies nationally – bringing wealth back into our community, rather than shipping off profit elsewhere.

Can this really work? Yes, and the proof is Preston. Preston City Council has developed exactly this model, and transformed their town and the lives of people in it. They have been bold, they’ve been ambitious, they’ve not taken “it’s too difficult” or “it’s too expensive” as answers. Given a choice between accepting managed decline, making peace with the idea that the high street will die, public services will get worse, and you’ll pay more for them, or breaking the mould, they chose to do things differently and it’s worked. No knight in shining armour is going to come and save our communities. It’s our choice whether we want to do it ourselves, or sit and watch them die. FPV are not the sitting and watching types.

As well as transforming ownership of our local economy, we will grow it by taking responsibility for doing the basics right. Fixing the roads, maintaining the pavements, tackling litter and dog fouling, providing benches and bins that aren’t decaying – these make a difference to high street spend and takings of rural shops. We will stop the rot of our public space.

People won’t spend money if they can’t get there to do it either. We will fix public transport, as set out here, to ensure that high street shoppers can get to the high street.

We will also prioritise local infrastructure to ensure businesses based here are not at a disadvantage – that means working nationally to secure the delivery of enough electricity grid capacity to Flintshire, and the rollout of world-class broadband across all our communities – levelling the playing field for rural businesses.

The council is a powerful institution. It’s time for it to use that power for good, to put our local economy at the service of local people. The alternative is decline, and young people moving away for better jobs. We must not let that happen.