How many people in Sheffield have been 'hit' by the recession?

[jrowl 10]

I invested my money on a 5 year plan and in two years it has made nothing:mad:

[md25 10]

I had to leave Sheffield for the South East for work I don't like it down here

 

Most of the recession is over, but it was a big one, and there is a lot of bad news left to come. Big problem at the moment is that every person and every business with left over income is using it to pay off debt or stuffing it into savings. Gettings your borrowings back to a sensible level is fair enough, but hoarding cash at low rates isn't helping things.

 

When people start buying pointless crap again (and more importantly when healthy businesses start borrowing funds for investment purposes again) then things will be better. That takes a sense of national confidence which is at least nine months away, and probably longer if the next Government starts decimating public expenditure too soon.

 

Roll on 2011!

[rubydazzler 11]

Whatever business you're in, everyone is suffering right now. I don't understand why the Government reinstated the 17.5% VAT and increased the rates valuation for business premises right in the middle of the recession. Surely they could have left it a couple of years until we were well out of it?

[0114owl1867 10]

charge half price from 18 months ago for plumbing/gas work and have one third of the work we used to have up until that point, i dont think things are ever going to change at this rate, ps at half price we are still losing out to other plumbers, people dont want to pay anything or they'll get an odd job man who says he can do it, then make a mess of it for pennies - seen that a few times

[Grandad.Malky 11]

charge half price from 18 months ago for plumbing/gas work and have one third of the work we used to have up until that point, i dont think things are ever going to change at this rate, ps at half price we are still losing out to other plumbers, people dont want to pay anything or they'll get an odd job man who says he can do it, then make a mess of it for pennies - seen that a few times

 

That’s because people trot off to the training centre with their redundancy money and a month later think that they are a craftsman.

[Number Six 10]

Whatever business you're in, everyone is suffering right now. I don't understand why the Government reinstated the 17.5% VAT and increased the rates valuation for business premises right in the middle of the recession. Surely they could have left it a couple of years until we were well out of it?

 

The VAT change didn't make much difference to a lot of people I don't think - most shops didn't seem to put their prices down when it dropped, or back up again. Who was really going to pay staff to change the price of a £2.99 item to £2.93, knowing that they would have to change it back again?

 

The rates thing is just ridiculous. Rates and rent should reflect the size of your premises, the footfall, and the surrounding infrastructure, and nothing else. If your premises are the same size, and the infrastructure is broadly the same then they should be going down - there aren't as many people about, or at least that's what I'm finding - I presume you are finding the same?

[straylight_r 10]

I got made redundant last year, I managed to find a new job a couple of months later, but I had to take quite a pay cut. I was saving up to go travelling, but there's not a chance in hell of that now. I know I'm lucky to have a job compared to many still out of work though.

 

Also, my boyfriend had to take a 20% pay cut for a few months, which was a bit of a struggle due to mortgage payments etc. It was also a bit of a kick in the teeth to find out that some people in the office had not even taken the cut!

[crookesey 632]

Well had it not happened I would have retired two years ago. Everything that the wife and I have is invested in some form or other, our cash investments didn't go down, albeit we now receive around 50% of the interest that we were used to, and we can't top them up by much due to my earnings going down.

 

We have worked our way out of the recession, our investments are close to what they were in 2007, we didn't panic and left them where they were. We didn't have any finance or credit card debts, and we only have a £20K mortgage. We, for the first time, are not hiring a car during our forthcoming holiday, that will save us circa £300.00, plus we pre paid for our Euros three months ago, and are circa £200.00 better off.

 

So, things could be worse, but I will never get those two extra years of retirement back.

[jamiekerk 10]

i lost my job and lost my home when couldnt afford the rent now im back living with my mom getting less than 40 pounds a week to live on very good times

[crookesey 632]

i lost my job and lost my home when couldnt afford the rent now im back living with my mom getting less than 40 pounds a week to live on very good times

 

I'm sorry to hear this, but at least you have a roof over your head and your mom to help you until things start to improve for you.

 

Good luck.

[rubydazzler 11]

The VAT change didn't make much difference to a lot of people I don't think - most shops didn't seem to put their prices down when it dropped, or back up again. Who was really going to pay staff to change the price of a £2.99 item to £2.93, knowing that they would have to change it back again?

 

The rates thing is just ridiculous. Rates and rent should reflect the size of your premises, the footfall, and the surrounding infrastructure, and nothing else. If your premises are the same size, and the infrastructure is broadly the same then they should be going down - there aren't as many people about, or at least that's what I'm finding - I presume you are finding the same?

The VAT change made a difference to the buying price, though. And enabled me for one to keep my prices static, even though they were actually rising, especially plastics. I never thought it was intended to actually benefit the customer, being only pennies per item, but it was a help to the retailer obviously. I've now had to reluctantly start increasing prices having managed to hold them down for several years.

 

Regarding the footfall, on Woodseats it's like Death Valley some days. And at a cursory glance at the News, cos I only just got in from work, the Budget isn't going to help us either. Bad times!

[Number Six 10]

The VAT change made a difference to the buying price, though. And enabled me for one to keep my prices static, even though they were actually rising, especially plastics. I never thought it was intended to actually benefit the customer, being only pennies per item, but it was a help to the retailer obviously. I've now had to reluctantly start increasing prices having managed to hold them down for several years.

 

Regarding the footfall, on Woodseats it's like Death Valley some days. And at a cursory glance at the News, cos I only just got in from work, the Budget isn't going to help us either. Bad times!

 

The exchange rate was the big killer for us - so many good sellers just got too expensive. I guess the VAT change made a bit of difference but not too much because obviously there is less to offset as well.

 

Still looking for details on this scheme whereby small businesses will get rates relief from October - hopefully it's 'small' as measured by turnover, not by 'size of rates bill' - we are not a small business for rates any more simply because the recent 30% rise has put out rateable value just into the 'not small' category, meaning we don't get small business rates relief any more - which is nice :-(

 

Any ideas in what to do to encourage footfall?