During a visit to Burlington Arcade in Mayfair, where shopkeepers are seeking to prevent owners from ‘inappropriate’ redecoration having successfully prevented ‘modernisation’ last year, Green Party Mayoral candidate Jenny Jones said:
"Burlington Arcade is one of London’s treasures.
"I’m proud to live in a city where traditional, old fashioned, unusual or interesting outlets can preserve a clientele among our capital’s diverse community without resorting to the homogenising methodology of big brand retail.
"Green Assembly Members have already introduced planning protections for small shops through two major investigations at City Hall, and by electing more AMs next month, London can give communities and councils more power to keep jobs and money in their local economy and protect and re-develop the traditional High Street."
In its 2012 London elections manifesto, the Green Party has made solid commitments to protect independent retailers and prevent the homogenisation of our high streets, including:
1. Using planning policy to ensure that by 2020 all neighbourhoods will have a range of essential local services such as chemists within walking distance, and we will use planning policy to achieve this.
2. Increasing small business representation in the community by ensure micro and small businesses are properly represented on London’s Local Enterprise Partnership.
3. Working with boroughs and trade bodies to Encourage Londoners to "buy local" and commission research into "buy local" schemes.
4. Ensuring small and local businesses aren’t disadvantaged by congestion and parking and consulting them on the future of the congestion charge and a ‘pay as your drive’ scheme, which would reduce time and money spent in traffic jams.
5. Preventing the construction of purpose-built car parks for supermarkets wherever possible and ensure local shops aren’t disadvantaged by parking standards.
6. Lobbing the Government to give local authorities much stronger powers to prevent chain stores taking over independent shops, and to control the saturation of certain business types such as takeaways, betting shops and payday loan companies.