BNP Manifesto 2010 : Creating Local Economies

BNP Manifesto 2010 : Creating Local Economies

• The BNP would support local economies by creating a national network of autonomous credit unions.

• The BNP would investigate the viability of voluntary local currencies as a means of assisting local economies.

Credit Unions to Build Local Economies

The BNP supports the creation of local economies via the creation of a national network of autonomous credit unions.

These credit unions will be used to assist low income families to secure mortgages, allow individuals on low incomes to secure low interest and interest-free loans and to support the development of small local businesses.

They will also be employed to fund community and social re-development, provide housing projects specifically for local families and to invest in renewing the social environment in our communities by, for example, establishing youth and senior citizens’ clubs.

The credit unions will also be employed to undertake local environmental reclamation projects to improve both the local, natural environment and to instil a sense of civic pride in our communities.

We will encourage credit unions to assist with the creation of local farmers’ markets, community farms, local renewable energy production units, energy efficiency projects and to establish local recycling units that employ local people.

Can Local Currencies Boost Regional Economies?

In economics, a local currency is defined as a currency not backed by a national government and intended to trade only in a small area in what amounts to a formalisation of the barter system.

The BNP will investigate the viability of such schemes with the aim of assisting in the economic development of local economies.

Such an investigation will focus on the local currency experiments in Britain, Canada, America, Australia, France, New Zealand and Switzerland where they have been used to raise the resilience of local economies by encouraging re-localisation of buying and food production.

The BNP would like to see credit unions and, if possible, local currencies, work together to rejuvenate local economies at the community level, rather than via top-down direct state economic action.