NI retailers highlight strain on businesses in meeting with MP

The Northern Ireland president of the Federation of Independent Retailers (the Fed) recently met with Jim Shannon MP to highlight the importance of small independent shops across the region.

Julie Brown, along with Fed representatives met with Democraic Unionist MP Jim Shannon in Comber at Livingstone’s Newsagents, the shop owned by Julie and her brother Jim Livingstone.

The shop is situated on Bridge Street, in the centre of the town near Strangford Lough in the Strangford constituency of the Westminster Parliament. The Fed’s membership services manager, Gwen Patterson also attended the meeting. During the meeting, Julie, Jim and Gwen highlighted the value of small independent shops to people across Northern Ireland and across the wider UK and Ireland, together with the social and economic role they play at the heart of their communities.

Following the meeting Jim Shannon MP described it as extremely positive.

“I was delighted to meet with Julie, Jim and Gwen from the Fed. I look forward to working with them in the future to highlight the work of the Fed and what we can do locally and what I can do as a Member of Parliament from Westminster to amplify this message.”

“We were pleased that Mr Shannon took the time to visit the business and listen to the points that I raised about the cost of doing business, as well as issues around theft and the challenges posed by rogue trade including the illicit trade of tobacco and what can be done to stop it,” said Julie.

“I will be happy to work with him in the future and to continue to work on the points we raised.

“We emphasised the danger that if the rising business costs I identified like higher taxes – particularly higher National Insurance contributions – and energy costs are not addressed they are likely to lead to shorter shop opening hours and cutting staff hours.”