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Press Release - 30th June 2010 - "Carlisle Economy - John Calls for Local Government to be Proactive..."

Member of Parliament for Carlisle John Stevenson has called on the local council to take a pro-active role in helping local business recover from the recent recession and develop further in the future.

John said “This has been a long hard recession which we are only just emerging from. It is quite clear that there is going to be little public money available and therefore it is important that we do everything to ensure that the private sector is allowed to grow and expand.  The role that local government and the public sector can adopt is to ensure that everything is done to encourage investment and help local businesses create jobs.”

John has highlighted the fact that there is unlikely to be any major public schemes in the near future. He believes we must therefore encourage lots of smaller private and public schemes. The accumulative effect could be a very powerful driving force for the economic regeneration of the city.

John has already called for efforts to expand the city believing that an increase in the population will benefit the Carlisle economically.

John said “The private sector is undoubtedly going to have to take the lead and therefore it is vital that the local authorities and central government support them wherever possible.  It is imperative that local officials are pro-active in their approach to supporting business and ensure that planning applications are dealt with in the most efficient and most constructive ways as possible and requests for help are given the maximum amount of encouragement.”

John highlighted issues that have concerned him:-

• Renaissance- it’s successor- John has called on it to concentrate on fewer projects and these should be primarily regeneration schemes
• Disappointed at the slow progress with the Sainsbury’s application
• A concern over the delays with the airport development.

In these difficult economic times, it is vital that we all play our part to ensure the maximum amount of investment is attracted to the area, so that Carlisle develops in a positive way creating jobs and bringing prosperity to the city.

- Comments? Please get in touch with us via e-mail on office@johnstevensonmp.co.uk or by phone on 01228 550684