Cllr Shantanu Rajawat meeting with Sally Smith, Chief Operating Officer of Hounslow Chamber of Commerce at the Verdict, one of Hounslow’s and Brentford’s most popular bakeries.
Our borough is vibrant and cosmopolitan with over 250,000 residents and 175,000 jobs. Before Covid-19 we had the second fastest-growing economy in London. However, Covid-19 hit the borough hard. Prior to the pandemic, there were 13,300 active business in Hounslow and we know from a sample survey that an estimated 12,000 have suffered a negative impact from the crisis; 8,000 suspended their operations during lockdown and 3,000 are at risk and anxious about their ability to keep trading. These impacts are also being felt unevenly across the borough. Those who are lower skilled and lower paid are more likely to lose their jobs, with a major disproportionate impact in the west of the borough, felt heavily by small businesses, those with links to Heathrow and people from BAME communities.
With Challenges comes Opportunity As the old saying goes; with challenges come opportunities. We know the borough has strengths that we can build on: Hounslow is home to many multinational ICT and media-production companies; historically companies based in Hounslow are significantly more productive than the London average; and there are opportunities for growth, particularly in professional services and the Green Economy. New openings have arisen and we are ready to embrace them. Besides the obvious environmental benefits, bought about by the general reduction in travel and much greater prevalence of home working, there are a range
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of prospects that we will be taking advantage of as part of our recovery plans. We continue to be ambitious for our borough setting out our vision to: renew Hounslow’s economy;, design a place where clean, productive businesses can be created and thrive; and support existing businesses, to fully participate in new markets.
“This is an important moment for Hounslow and its economy. Our response to the devastating effects of Coronavirus, is to implement a resilient, green and inclusive recovery that allows Hounslow’s residents, businesses and places to thrive” This is a pivotal moment for the borough and its residents. The continuous negative impacts of Covid-19 on our local businesses, who are struggling to survive, is producing an increasing number of people claiming unemployment benefits. So far, over 15,000 additional persons in Hounslow
have applied for Universal Credit, since the beginning of Lockdown in March, with more expected due to the prevalence of our residents’ jobs in high-risk sectors. Our response to these devastating effects has to start with building resilience, developing an inclusive recovery approach that allows our residents and businesses to recover and thrive. We will use our recovery from Covid-19 to reimagine our borough as a place with a better long-term prospects for our residents, a future that not only improves their quality of life but our local economy, growth and regeneration across our borough.
The power of keeping it local The Council along with local businesses form a significant part of the local economy and together we can play a key role in economic recovery for the borough. We will therefore seek to maximise our positive impact by investing in projects that also have a social as well as economic return and ensuring that council contracts result in business, employment and training opportunities for local people.
Equally, we know that by unlocking the power of our local communities, commissioning can create better, more responsive services that reduce long-term costs and invest in the local economy. Whilst we know that not all services and works can be delivered locally, we recognise that our local businesses and communities play a unique role in the local service landscape - in particular, where this relates to working with people, including the most vulnerable, who find themselves a long way away from the labour market, or who face loneliness or social exclusion.
