Sneinton Business Forum

Nottingham Mechanics, North Sherwood Street, Nottingham (see a map)

The aim of this meeting is to help us start to think how, in the context of energy descent and the credit crunch, individuals and families, public and voluntary sector organisations, employers and trade unions can help and support the people of Nottingham with their economic problems as energy becomes ever more expensive.

That means helping us to think how we will produce essentials close to home – or borrow them from a local resource centre or resources library. How we will pay the bills; move on after redundancy; look after children and old people
on shrinking benefits; manage crippling debts with a declining income; get enough to eat; have a roof over their heads and stay warm, develop new skills, learn to mend and repair.

There are a huge range of issues and this meeting can only just start to give a general sense of them. The meeting will touch on some of the things that the local employing organisations will need to do to assess their vulnerabilities and options. It will look at the kind of production and services that will be more relevant in the future. It will include a discussion the contribution of local exchange schemes and community credit unions from participants in such arrangements and will also start to look at whether we should be considering developing a local currency.

Brian Davey

(Brian Davey is a freelance ecological economist living in Nottingham who worksclosely with the Dublin based Foundation for Sustainable Economics, Feasta. He helped developed the community garden and organic horticultural project
Ecoworks and is also one of the founders of Transition Nottingham).