|

Patrick McLoughlin encourages people to shop locally

West Derbyshire MP, Patrick McLoughlin, is encouraging people to support their local shops this Christmas in the face of the worst recession since the early 1990s.

Patrick is promoting the benefits of shopping locally to help small and rural businesses through the recession:

‘I want to encourage people to use their local shops. Clearly, if this continues, many shops will be forced to close.’

Indeed, figures from the federation of Small Business (FSB) in 2008 show that 2,000 local shops close every year.

Patrick has always supported local shops, and regularly uses them throughout the year, shopping in local butchers and green grocers.

However, he believes that it is even more important make the most of the benefits of rural shops over the Christmas period, especially considering the current economic climate. Patrick commented,

‘We are very lucky in Derbyshire to still have a wide variety of independent shops where you can find unusual presents. The atmosphere is usually more relaxed and friendly than shopping in big towns, too. We also have farm shops and farmers markets, not only for your Christmas food, but think about a practical present in these difficult times, such as food hampers or hand made crafts.’