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April 2018 April 2018
DORSET TRADING STANDARDS
DORSET COUNTY COUNCIL REPORT
Dorset County Council Trading Standards Service check and
approve businesses so you don’t have to. I reproduce below and in full the letter sent from the
Minister for Local Government to all the Council
For more information visit www.buywithconfidence.gov.uk or
leaders in Dorset which announced his approval
call 08454 040506.
and go ahead for our proposals.
To report or seek advice about problems you have

experienced when dealing with a trader call 08454 040506.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN DORSET
I am writing to let you know that I have today
NOT SURE WHAT A LOAN
announced that I have decided to implement,
SHARK IS? subject to Parliamentary approval, the locally led
proposal submitted by Dorset councils to replace
If you can answer yes to one or more of
these questions you might be borrowing the existing nine councils in the area with two new
from a loan shark: unitary councils, one covering the areas of
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, and a second covering the rest of Dorset. I
•Did they offer you a cash loan? enclose a copy of my Written Ministerial Statement.
•Did they not give you paperwork? On 7 November 2017, I announced that I was minded to implement this locally
led proposal and invited representations to be submitted in the period ending 8
•Did they add huge amounts of interest January 2018. I also noted that further steps were needed to secure local
or APR to your loan? consent. Having carefully considered the proposal afresh alongside the
representations received, and the increased level of consent among councils, I
•Have they threatened you?
have concluded that there is a compelling case for implementing the proposal. I
•Are you scared of people finding out? am satisfied that the proposal fully meets our publicly stated criteria for
•Have they taken your bank card, benefit card, passport, watch or other unitarisation – namely that if implemented, the proposal is likely to improve local
valuables from you? government in the area, has credible geography and commands local support.
My assessments of the Dorset proposal against these criteria, which we have
To lend money lawfully you have to be authorised by the Financial Conduct undertaken to Parliament would be made in the round across the whole area
Authority (FCA). People who lend money without being FCA authorised are subject to the proposed restructuring, are described below.
breaking the law. They are known as loan sharks.
Improving local government, I am clear from the information available to me,
Loan sharks often work from home and start out friendly, but their behaviour including financial estimates from the work of independent professional firms, that
changes when establishing these new unitary councils has major benefits for service delivery, will
give greater value for money, and yield significant cost savings estimated at
payments are missed. Few advertise; they are often heard of by word of mouth. some £28 million per year. Such savings and the larger size of the councils will
Often little or no paperwork is provided and they will refuse to tell you how much increase financial resilience, help sustain good quality local services and cement
you owe, how long you will be partnership working in the area. The new structures will also facilitate stronger
strategic and local leadership across the area and enable a more strategic and
paying off the debt, or what the interest rate is. Many loan sharks will increase the
debt and add additional amounts and take items as security including passports, holistic approach to planning and housing challenges.
bank cards or benefit cards. Credible geography, I am also confident, having regard to the representations
that I have received, that there is a general consensus that the two unitary
They might also resort to intimidation, threats and violence. If you have borrowed
councils are structured around the natural and established sense of identity
from a loan shark you have not committed a crime, they have.
across the geography of the county. There is clear evidence that this geography

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