Shadow minister joins Labour parliamentary candidate to discuss 'significant challenges' with Hartlepool businesses

Shadow business minister Bill Esterson visited Hartlepool to speak to independent organisations about the financial issues they currently face.

He was joined by Jonathan Brash, Labour’s Hartlepool parliamentary candidate, at Mrs C’s Patisserie, in Church Street, to hear from more than a dozen local companies.

According to the politicians, spiralling energy costs, high taxation and people’s lack of money were all cited as contributing factors towards the crisis, forcing many Hartlepool businesses to downsize or close.

Mr Esterson said: “We have a pro-business agenda because we understand if you don’t support businesses, you’re not supporting workers.

“In Hartlepool, like so many other towns across the country, the challenges faced by small, independent companies are severe.”

Labour’s strategy includes replacing business rates with a new system of taxation to shift the burden away from small high street firms.

Councillor Brash, who represents the Burn Valley ward, added: “Everyday we hear more and more heartbreaking stories from people who just don’t know how they are going to keep going in the current crisis.

“Independent businesses are the lifeblood of our local economy and I really worry that we will look back in a few years time and wonder where they all went.”

Conservative Hartlepool MP Jill Mortimer previously said she’s been working with the Government to help town businesses deal with the cost-of-living crisis.

Elected with an almost 7,000 majority in 2021, she stressed the importance of continuing to support small firms such as through the energy bills price cap.