South Norfolk MP Richard Bacon brings Diss Express readers up to date with some of his recent work in the community.
The anger directed at Britain’s biggest banks is easy enough to understand. Our local branches are now working hard to regain people’s trust and to make sure people get the message that banks are lending to help new businesses get off the ground.
I popped into Barclays’ Long Stratton branch to learn more about what they are up to locally. Some people who apply for business loans have almost no idea of what lenders will expect to see in terms of a business plan, and the banks are making more effort to change this. The bank’s community-based business managers have good local knowledge and they have been running free Business Lending Clinics across East Anglia to provide advice how to apply for finance successfully.
I suggested that they should do more of this, perhaps even in public places like The Forum. The banks have a vital role to play in economic recovery by supporting budding local businesses.
Tesco for schools
Last week I was pleased to present a variety of equipment to Roydon Primary School and Diss Infants and Nursery School, whose parents collected Tesco vouchers. The schools received over 60,000 vouchers, allowing them to choose from expensive items such as camcorders, inkjet printers and binoculars as well as craft products and musical instruments.
Both schools said were looking forward to putting the equipment to good use. Tesco’s schools voucher scheme is just one of the ways the company helps the local community. As well as being one of the largest employers in Diss, Tesco run football clubs and an FA Skills programme for boys and girls and grants are also available for local projects. I am pleased to see Tesco putting something back into the local community.
Roundtable for farmers
I joined local members of the National Farmers Union last week for a roundtable to discuss a wide range of farming issues. Egg farmers are worried that their investment to meet tough new EU production standards may be undermined unless the proposed ban on eggs imports which do not meet the standards is policed properly.
There are similar concerns about pig meat. And, almost unbelievably, farmers have to face yet another round of reforming the common agricultural policy, which last time led to the fiasco of the Rural Payments Agency. Meanwhile, the crisis in the eurozone was a major concern since all payments under the EU’s common agricultural policy are made in euros.
One piece of good news is that mandatory country-of-origin labelling for meat is finally on the way.
18 November 2011
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