Private Sector Campaign of the Year (V)

WINNER British Property Federation - Campaign against 'Empty Rates'

On 1 April 2008, the Government removed a long-standing tax relief for commercial properties at an estimated cost of £950m per year.

The campaign against ‘empty rates’ fell naturally into the lap of the British Property Federation (BPF), representing those that own, manage and invest in UK property. The BPF quickly realised that its calls would fall on deaf ears in Whitehall, unless it could relate the heightened tax burden to everyday individuals – pensioners, small-business owners, and localities in need of regeneration.

By bringing together voices of business including the Federation of Small Businesses, the CBI, the British Chambers of Commerce, and the British Retail Consortium, the BPF began collecting evidence, through a campaign ‘hotline’ and the established networks and channels of the other campaign partners, about pensioners losing all their savings, demolitions of perfectly good buildings, and laudable regeneration schemes being scrapped.

The BPF led the campaign via three routes: press/media, Parliament and Government. Its efforts achieved more than 500 articles in the print media, more than 150 interviews in the broadcast media, support from more than 125 MPs from all political parties (including the Government’s chief whip, Nick Brown MP), and more than 5,500 signatures on its Number 10 petition.

The campaign gained the support of Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), Urban Regeneration Companies, the Mayor of London, various councils, Property Week and the Daily Mail. The BPF put together a letter to the Chancellor along with Property Week that included signatures from McDonalds, British Airways, Asda, British Land, Prudential, Westfield, Tesco and Nokia. Lastly, the BPF with support from Asda, developed a campaign website aimed at empowering all businessmen to become part of the campaign by writing to their MPs and signing up to the Number 10 petition.

In the Pre-Budget Report the Chancellor increased the exemption on empty rates for one year, which will help more than 70 per cent of properties.

While a success, the other 30 per cent of properties are in much need of help during these woeful economic times and the campaign therefore continues, refocusing its energies on the longer term and a possible conservative government.

Federation of Small Businesses - Finance Guarantee Scheme

When the banking crisis deepened last autumn it became apparent that small businesses were among the hardest hit by the fall in access to finance.

It was against this backdrop that the FSB’s £1bn Small Business Survival Fund, subsequently adopted by Government and renamed the Enterprise Finance Guarantee, was born.

The FSB’s proposal was simple and relatively easy to implement: if banks refused to lend to viable small businesses, the Government should offer to guarantee 75 per cent of the loan.

The launch of the proposal attracted national headlines and achieved the FSB’s first campaign objective, which was to respond to the crisis with speed and authority.

The FSB’s main objective was to have the Small Business Survival Fund adopted in the Pre-Budget Report (PBR).

It ‘recruited’ sympathetic voices to lobby on its behalf, including national and local press, Regional Development Agencies and MPs. This was supplemented by a drip-feed of polling data revealing the dire situation facing small businesses to create a ‘wall of sound’ with a clear message that the proposal should be adopted.

Following a successful press launch, the FSB distributed a ‘template letter’ for every FSB area chairman to send to local and regional newspapers. This resulted in editorial comment around the UK endorsing the proposal.

The FSB arranged for every MP to receive five emails from FSB members in their constituency demanding the adoption of our proposal. This triggered a chain reaction leading to the Chancellor receiving a large number of letters from MPs expressing their concerns.

At one point the proposal risked being overshadowed by problems elsewhere in the economy. So the FSB commissioned advertisements in national and regional newspapers calling for the Chancellor to adopt the proposal.

Timed to appear in newspapers on the morning of Prime Minister’s Questions, the ads catapulted the proposal back to the top of the agenda.

The Small Business Survival Fund was adopted in the PBR, renamed the Enterprise Finance Guarantee, and introduced on 14 January. Since then the fund has loaned £145m to small businesses.

British Amusement Catering Trade Association (BACTA) / Politics International – Saving the Seaside Arcades

2007 was a bad year for members of the British Amusement Catering Trade Association (BACTA), the UK’s largest gaming trade body. Bad weather, the smoking ban and the Gambling Act precipitated a 25 per cent nose-dive in average revenues and 170 seaside arcade closures.

The industry concluded that the solution was to increase stakes and prizes and to make traditional arcades more attractive destinations and more effective rivals to betting shops and online gambling.

Working with the consultancy Politics International (PI), BACTA identified three principal objectives for 2008: first, the Government to bring forward a review of seaside arcade gaming machines; second, significant increases in stakes and prizes; and third, securing parliamentary support for the first and second objectives.

In the wake of the ‘super-casino’ furore, persuading Government to liberalise gambling further was a daunting proposition.

However, many arcades are located in marginal parliamentary seats. PI therefore advocated a campaign that effectively pitted Labour MPs and Conservative candidates against one another in a bidding war to support their local economies. PI developed messages stressing the decline in the sector and the damaging consequences for local economies. Arcade owners applied considerable pressure on Ministers and local MPs.

On a ‘lobby day’, 100 arcade owners attended a rally addressed by Conservative and Liberal Democrat spokesmen. An Early Day Motion was signed by 159 MPs and an adjournment debate was led by Stephen Ladyman MP.

In addition, the culture select committee visited an arcade and the issue was raised in parliamentary questions (once at PMQs, twice at DCMS oral PQs and 34 written questions).

Adverts were taken out in the Times and Daily Mirror and dinners held for Labour and Conservative MPs. Coalitions were built and Ministerial and Opposition spokesman were briefed.

The campaign achieved its three objectives: in June, the Government announced an early review of stakes and prizes; in December, it agreed to allow a doubling of permitted stakes and prizes; these developments were welcomed by all three of the major political parties

The editor of Coinslot – the arcades’ trade magazine – described PI as “decisive in getting the Government to agree to a doubling of stakes and prizes”.