A continuing crisis

It is tempting for someone without a degree in high finance to turn off the radio and television, put ones head under the duvet and wait for it all to blow over. In truth there is little we, here in the local community, can do at this stage to affect happenings on the world and national markets. We have to trust those in elected positions and hope that they take wise counsel and act accordingly. I am, as a Liberal Democrat, pleased to see that our Treasury team, led by Vince Cable, are amongst those offering counsel and indeed that they are being listened to.

There are, however those in our local community who will be very worried about both the long and short term effect on their daily lives. I am fairly confident that our local economy is strong enough with its numerous small businesses to ride the waves of what in some places seems like a tsunami. Small businesses with lower overheads and small borrowings are in a better position in financial down turns.

Rising prices affect those on low and fixed incomes first and we do have a high proportion of both of those here in our corner of the South East, in Bexhill and in the rural areas.

There are already systems in existence to catch those who fall into difficulties and the current crisis will test many of those systems to the extreme. Elected Leaders of our Local Communities will need to keep a constant watch for those in difficulties. Calm leadership will be needed to ensure support and help is in place and available to those who really need it.

This could start with housing. Liberal Democrats have said that it would be wrong to try to prop up house prices. These still have some way to fall to restore affordability. A better approach would be to use the 8 billion the government has committed to social housing for social landlords to buy surplus land and property at the hefty discounts currently being offered. A large programme of social house building and property acquisition would help to reduce housing need and revive the sheltered house building industry. This will, of course, have the added benefit of creating a public sector asset.