Burnham tells Chorley pie shop owner ‘I’m listening’

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has responded to a Chorley bakery owner’s plea for action to support small businesses following the closure of one of his shops.

Paul Bowen, who starred in BBC’s Apprentice in 2024, revealed the decision to shut one of the business’s three outlets in social media posts directed at the PM.

He said the rise in employers' National Insurance was 'the tipping edge' to the decision to close the Bowen’s Pies’ shop in Market Street - despite it taking £100,000 a year.

Paul’s social media message to the PM has had more than one million views and has led to appearances on national television this week discussing the pressures facing businesses like his.

Paul, whose family business was founded in Adlington in 1994, said: “We were already trying to cover everything else going up. Then the government made it more expensive to employ people.”

He added: “Look around Chorley or your home town. How many shops have ‘To Let’ signs in the windows?"

“Years ago, this shop would tick over and pay its way. Now, with employer’s National Insurance, energy bills, business rates, wages and everything else, there just isn’t enough left.”

He asked Mr Burnham what he was doing to bring energy prices down and called on the government to 'scrap or significantly reduce employer's National Insurance for small businesses, reduce business rates, ease the VAT burden and get business energy costs down'.

He said: “Let us grow. Let us take people on. Let us have something left to put back into the business.”

In an online response, Mr Burnham told him: “I am listening and I’m sorry it has got to the point that you need to close your doors.”

He said: “You’re right that what you are seeing in Chorley is happening across the country.

“Empty shops, family businesses closing, and buildings that have been left neglected for too long.

“We’ve all walked past them and thought: ‘Someone should do something about that.’

“That's why, yesterday, I announced that we’re investing £210m to help bring neglected high street buildings back into use - turning empty spaces into community hubs, health centres, shared workspaces, cafes and the local services people actually want to see.”

The PM added: “I know people don't measure growth on a spreadsheet, they measure it on their high street. I'm determined to restore that pride.”