Business owners ‘feel abandoned and ignored by out of touch Executive’

Michael Stewart also said the NI Executive has a “job to do” if it wants to restore the trust that has been lost between Stormont and a large number of business owners.

“This is too small a place with too many challenges for elements of business to be made feel like it’s the enemy,” he said.

Mr Stewart said the Boris Johnson government’s backing for Brexit “prioritised sovereignty over ease of doing business” which has brought added cost and complexity to trade which has been detrimental to both companies and consumers.
“Locally we’ve, bizarrely, witnessed business organisations being blamed for the outworkings of Brexit and, perhaps less appreciated, is how, last January, the new Executive de-prioritised jobs and the economy, unlike its predecessors who had explicitly made it their number one priority.
“That sense that the economy has slipped down the political pecking order has been compounded during the crisis created by Covid-19.”

Mr Stewart said his role involves engaging with businesses from all over our city, and knows how much they are struggling – and looking towards the Executive “for help and hope”.

He said: “Increasingly, I am finding that business owners feel abandoned and ignored by what they see as an out of touch [NI] Executive.
“Businesses that have been closed since Boxing Day have absolutely no idea when they will be able to open their doors again.

“That gives shopkeepers, publicans, restaurateurs and others no ability to properly plan for reopening. And they are looking enviously at counterparts in Great Britain who have dates in early April when they can start trading again.

“On 12 April a person in England will be able go shopping, get their hair cut or have a drink in a beer garden. In Belfast, on the same date, we will only be able to use click and collect in ‘non-essential retail’, barbers and hairdressers will stay
shut and we’ll still have no idea when we can have a drink or a meal inside or outside a pub.”
Mr Stewart added: “The Executive’s abject failure to offer businesses here even indicative dates is not simply frustrating, it is extinguishing a sense of hope that was growing as we started to see infection rates drop and the vaccine roll-out exceed all expectations.”

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