Features

How is Woking coping with the credit crunch?

Unbelievably, we are already six months through the year and, as the national media regularly points out, we are fully immersed in an economic downturn. But how is the current economic climate affecting Woking? The Woking Magazine asked four familiar faces from the business community for their thoughts on what's been happening and what we might be able to expect in the future.

Tim Keeping, Centre Manager, Peacocks Shopping Centre

"There has inevitably been an impact on some occupiers of the Peacocks - the demise of Woolworths, Zavvi and Principles, and the decision by Marks & Spencer to close their store in the centre, haven't gone unnoticed. That said, these were national failures, and decisions that did not necessarily reflect the performance of the stores in Woking. The overall retail pattern for the centre as a whole has been, by and large, fairly buoyant. Although some stores have seen like-for-like sales fall away from the all-time-high of early 2008, those retailers that have a strong and attractive offering to the shopping public continue to perform well in these difficult times.

"In common with many other businesses, we have been working extremely hard to identify cost savings, in order to reduce the impact of occupancy costs to our retailers. This has been partly driven by a significant reduction in our overall service charge costs, which is, of course, very welcome news to retailers in the face of many other inflationary costs outside of their control.

"I believe Woking is well placed to survive and recover from this recession quicker than many other towns and cities. It is blessed with being compact and well connected, and with a very pro-business local authority. All of these factors should set us well ahead in the game of recovery, as and when it begins."

Shahid Azeem, Chair of the Woking Asian Business Forum

"Everyone is talking down the economy, and the media does not help with bad news every day, leading our customers and members to fall into the trap of starting to believe in the doom and gloom. We have to have the self belief that life still goes on. Now is the time when we should be positive and, above all, take a lead in making things happen.

"We are helping to identify and encourage our members and customers to make use of the opportunities that are out there, such as marketing, networking, and managing cash flows, and pointing to government schemes such as the European Finance. Guarantee (see www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/enterprise/enterprisesmes/ )

"Without wanting to sound too cynical, I believe that the next six months will be very similar to the past six - slow, tough, and challenging. There will also be the added worry of trade slowing down over the summer (as usual) which may cause people to panic even more. We would advise everyone to look at their past trading history and to see how much of percentage drop has really occurred."

Louise Punter, Chief Executive, Surrey Chambers of Commerce

"The doom and gloom playing out through the media is not quite as bad within the local membership of Surrey Chambers. We have many good news stories, with a number of our members almost apologising for doing better than they did 12 months ago! Part of the reason for this, is that businesses who work on promoting themselves and taking advantage of the help available and opportunities to network, do tend to be the ones more likely to prosper. Unfortunately, there is an underlying loss in confidence which has affected the risk businesses are prepared to take, and this will inevitably affect the economic growth, even in our relatively buoyant area.

"We are running special `weathering the storm' events, where we bring together all the organisations offering support, to make sure that businesses are benefiting from the free help available. These events include free business reviews from Business Link, funded training from Skills South East, redundancy support from SEEDA, and peer support from our many professional members. Whilst the support from government agencies is free, we all pay for it in taxes, so we really try to encourage our members to make the most of it. We are keeping our eyes and ears to the ground, to ensure we are up-to-date with all the initiatives on offer.

"Providing that businesses plan realistically for the next year or so, take advantage of available help and grasp every opportunity to promote themselves, then there is a very positive outlook. Whilst we like to see our members selling outside Surrey and indeed internationally, we would urge them to try and procure locally and work with other businesses within Surrey, to help boost the overall productivity of Surrey. Now is not the time to retrench but to look at different ways of doing things, and support our own business community.

Paul Webster, Executive Director, Woking Chamber of Commerce

"The downturn has meant that a few of our members have gone under and a few more are finding it tough, meaning that they either reduce staff numbers or introduce salary cuts. However, others are holding their own and the majority are coping reasonably well. Of course, sales will be down a few percentage points for some but I think that people are more concerned about what might happen rather than what is really happening.

At Woking Chamber, we are talking to Woking Borough Council and other local organisations, to see how we can best help as a group, whether that means setting up seminars, offering advice and information wherever possible, or simply connecting people.

In the coming months, we need to be doing more of the same. We need to encourage people to be more confident, as even those doing quite well are not spending or investing because of the uncertainty.

What is Woking Borough Council doing to help?

In February, Woking Borough Council agreed an innovative four-point action plan to stimulate the local economy and help to provide much-needed homes in the Borough.

The four points are as follows.

To continue work on developing a Surrey-wide Credit Union (or community bank) which would provide affordable financial services for local people from April 2010.
To explore with existing and potential new businesses how town centre shopping can be improved, ensuring it continues to be attractive to both retailers and shoppers. Proposals, including details of how the Council might help, will be brought forward for detailed consideration and agreement as they arise.
To help Registered Social Landlords bring housing schemes forward by offering the finance facilities that are not currently available from existing financial service providers.
To allocate an additional £7.5 million to the Council's wholly-owned housing company, Woking Borough Homes Limited, for it to invest in providing much-needed homes in the Borough.

To encourage new investment in the Borough, the Council has produced a guide to doing business in Woking. This includes a profile of Woking Borough, details about the facilities available to businesses and their visitors and an insight into the strategies that are at the heart of the way Woking does business.

In addition, the Council is currently developing a special website to help promote businesses in the Borough and encourage networking between them. It hopes to launch the site in time for the "Woking Means Business" exhibition in the autumn.

For further information about coping with the credit crunch, see the Woking Borough Council website www.woking.gov.uk