Real Help Now
See the boxes on the right hand side of this page to see what help is available for individuals and businesses.
These are troubling times for everyone. Of course, there have been other periods of difficulty. The late 60s and 70s; the early 80s, and the early 90s recessions. None of these periods were much fun, to say the least, especially for those who were personally hit by them.
These were, however, principally domestic. The causes and the cures were to be found here at home. The experience of other countries was very different. Indeed we often looked to them for example. What makes this recession so unsettling and different is that its causes are overwhelmingly global, and - different again from the past - arise from a fundamental failure of the highly inter-connected international banking system. When we turn on the television, read the newspapers or websites there's little comfort from some dramatically better overseas example. No longer can we look to other modern economies - like Germany, Japan, the united States or the new "tigers" of China and India - because their economies are suffering from the same illness, the same virus.
The first responsibility of government is to intervene in this market failure, and help both to alleviate the hardship caused by job losses and business closures, and where possible to prevent it.
We want to use these pages to set out the practical help the government has put in place, and provide advice for people here in Blackburn who've been affected by the Global downturn.
