Letter from Parliament - Simon Danczuk MP

Simon Danczuk MP welcomed Retail Ready People to Rochdale

News that our economy is shrinking again will not surprise many in the north. The GDP figures for the last quarter are poor, but they only reflect what most people outside of London already know: that we haven’t yet emerged from recession. London’s economy continues to overheat, spurred on by a £7billion Olympic subsidy, but the rest of the country is still trying to break out of a winter freeze.

This makes those businesses that are bucking the trend all the more impressive. In Rochdale there are many unsung business heroes battling hard to grow their businesses and create jobs. I think we should do more to celebrate these companies, because it’ll be their investment and innovation that helps our economy to grow and gives people opportunities to get on and build a future.

Take Zen Internet, for example. They’ve just posted improved pre-tax profits of over £1million and will be recruiting an extra 25 staff in 2013, as well as ploughing cash into a new data centre at its Sandbrook Park headquarters. This is a company that Rochdale should be proud of.

Another local company that’s performing well is Dresser Mouldings, one of the largest timber manufacturing plants in the UK. Rochdale has a long tradition in manufacturing and it’s important that this is maintained. I’ll be visiting their Rochdale plant later this week to hear about their investment plans to create new jobs.

But while we should celebrate innovative local companies, I also think it’s time that other companies did more for our town. The Bank of Ireland is the owner of the Wheatsheaf Shopping Centre, which is currently in administration. Since it went into administration it’s been in decline and it’s time the owners decided to either offload it to someone who can make it work better or invested in it to give it a future.

At a time when the Council are pouring £3.5million of taxpayers’ money into the Wheatsheaf, to move the library out and build a new entrance, I really think the Bank of Ireland should give something back and actively seek investment.

One person who certainly is giving something back to Rochdale is Keith Hill. I’m delighted to see him back at the helm at Rochdale FC and I wish him all the best in his second spell at the club. We enjoyed some good times under his reign last time and let’s hope the good times return to Spotland soon.