I confess to enjoying pies and cakes, and in my lifetime have eaten many of them, including quite a few from Greggs and even some from their original Gosforth store where they sell the wonderful Stotty’s. I would not suggest that their produce is the best in the country, but they are certainly enjoyable. When it comes to pastries I like to support local bakeries which in Brighton means Ravens at Fiveways or Forfars or Truffles in George Street Hove, and in Sussex more widely Forfars or Truffles. However outside of Sussex I would probably head for a Greggs unless I am in my home town of Crosby near Liverpool where Satterthwaites are the bakers of choice with a fantastic line of Pork Pies including one with Black Pudding and Cakes. In reality my blog this morning is not really about cakes, but priorities and influence. In March 2012 when George Osborne was being questioned by John Mann MP as part of a the Treasury Select Committee, he was asked when he last bought a pasty in Greggs, in a challenge on the so called pasty tax. Subsequently the Chancellor was filmed in Greggs buying a pasty with a colleague, and now here in Hove, the local MP, Mike Weatherley has put Greggs into the public eye with his comments in our local paper in a piece written by Anna Roberts, described as the papers Crime writer! . Mike has written to the chief executive of Greggs in a bid to get the bakery to keep a local branch open. Mike explained that following contact from local residents and businesses he was calling on the company to “strongly reconsider their decision to shut down their branch in George Street in Hove”. He said “Greggs is a major asset to the community and should not be closed down so readily. George Street is getting better all of the time and it seems just the wrong time to be leaving. I have offered to meet the Chief Executive of Greggs to see if the firm will reconsider.” As a pie and cake eater, I am delighted that Mike is showing this level of interest in a local bakers shop. However along with the near neighbouring Truffles Bakery which is a Sussex company, and therefore offering more social value than Greggs can achieve at least on face value, there are several cafes in George Street selling takeaway items along with others in Blatchington Road and Forfars in Church Road. It seems likely that Greggs have concluded with their commercial experience that they do not have the right location for this particular store.

Mike is well known for adopting causes that he prioritises, rather than necessarily what convention might suggest an MP would focus on. However despite this I am surprised that this focus on one bakery outlet has been reported within a few days of the passage of the Lobbying Bill. In an attempt to engage with Mike over this legislation I contacted him as did 38 Degrees. Both requests were attempts to set up meetings with representatives of the voluntary and community sector from the city. Mikes response to me was to explain he was happy for individual constituents to write to him, and he would then respond to their concerns. This was during a 6 week period whilst the Government were supposedly consulting on the Bill. As far as I know he simply ignored the invitation from 38 Degrees.

According to an estimate from 2010 an average Greggs store generates £9,000 per week or £468,000 a year, the majority of which would be lost from the area in which it was taken. All that is kept in Hove is the rent and the wages of the shop staff. By comparison a review of the voluntary sector from 2008 found that across the city as a whole it was made up of approximately 1,600 organisations who contributed £96 million to the local economy annually. The sector employed about 8,000 people assisting many of the most vulnerable people in the city. Whilst 43% of the income for this activity came from grants, 62% of these came from outside of the city, and a great deal of the other income also originates outside the city. In other words the sector has the economic impact of over 205 Greggs stores, but rather than the finances leaving Sussex, they travel into the city. There is no suggestion that the voluntary sector will close as a result of the lobbying Bill, but many believe it has the potential to hamper them in their activities. Yet Mike who refused to meet with leaders of the sector over the Bill he supported, has written to Greggs to ask them to meet with him over the loss of one shop which they have judged to be commercially unsustainable. Of course Mike was elected to make these sort of judgement calls, but perhaps he likes pies and cakes a bit too much, or there is some other motivation at work?