Cllr Mete Çoban promises to support BAME businesses

Hackney Council promises to support BAME businesses which feel ‘marginalised by gentrification’

Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) businesses located in Hackney said that they feel marginalised by the gentrification in Hackney, and some feel they get enough support from the council.

The town hall’s business scrutiny commission, chaired by Cllr Mete Çoban, arranged a business engagement meeting in July with 23 BAME traders in order to receive a better comprehension of the reasons why they are not engaging in the council’s business forums.

Some stated that they didn’t feel like existed, and took the chance to assert that they did not feel the complete advantage of the borough’s economic strength also that the council needs to do further communication work with them.

Cllr Çoban stated that he and others had now drawn up plans to act on the comments, and they would be revealed in the coming weeks.

He further stated:

“The plan was to make sure we spoke to businesses who don’t often get to have their say. We live in a time that’s very difficult for businesses and particularly SMEs. And on top of that if you’re a BAME business you may not be aware of some of the support the council offers because of language barriers or other issues.

We made sure the meeting was designed in a way that was useful for us to take away and learn from. We can use it to make a big impact.”