Swindon Borough Council Labour Group have released a statement regarding the future effects of Covid-19 and Brexit on Swindon and its economy. It states…
An independent report from the Social Market Foundation, has identified Swindon as one of the 10 areas that will be impacted the highest from a combination of Covid-19 and Brexit. This high impact stems for Swindon’s high employment rates in the finance, banking, and insurance, as well as the manufacturing sectors. A high impact in these two sectors obviously presents a concern to the town.
Labour has sought to build a consensus with the Conservative administration so that we can help assure Swindon’s future situation is not as dire as the predicted scenario. Sadly, so far, the Conservative administration has elected to decline our cooperation and insight at this time.
Jim Grant, Labour Group leader on Swindon Borough Council said, “Swindon faces an economic challenge bigger than the one it faced in the 1980s when the railway works closed. At that time, we had a council with the vision and courage to make decisions which transformed the economic base of the town. The time has come for a council with equal vision and courage to regenerate Swindon based on a green economic future. It will need not only to solve these immediate problems but also start to combat those future ones which will be caused by climate change”.
Swindon’s recovery from the pandemic in a post Brexit future will require activity from local government in the education sector as well as action from the national government to help local governments, such as Swindon’s, to protect their local economies and jobs.
The Labour group will continue to press for the widest possible engagement between ourselves, the public and the administration in the post Covid-19 recovery process.”
