As featured in the late The London Paper, on the 17th of September, the Brixton Pound has launched in South London. John Dunne reports that the B£ is being launched to “boost fortunes of businesses affected by the recession”. The Brixton Pound will be accepted at 70 local shops, pubs and cafes and over 700 residents have already signed up to exchange their sterling cash for the new currency. The B£ has a 1 to 1 exchange rate with sterling and comes in B£1, B£5, B£10 and B£20 notes. The currency cannot leave the area nor can it be banked to gain interest, so organisers hope that the cash will keep tills ringing in the area. It’s the first time an urban area in Britain has created its own notes and follows on from the Totnes Pound, which launched in Devon in 2007. More on that can be found here. Lewes in Sussex also devised their own currency scheme. The BBC reports on that here. Olive Morris, a political activist, James Lovelock, an independent scientist, CLR James, the Trinidadian historian and Vincent van Gogh who moved to Brixton at the age of 20, and reportedly returned to Holland a changed man after seeing the impacts of poverty in the area all feature on the designs of the B£ notes.

After being in London for several years and living near Brixton, it’s not London’s worst area but it does have it’s fair share of problems such as poverty and crime, so schemes like the B£ being introduced I think can bring real benefit to the local community. The only problem is that it seem quite exclusive, would people visiting Brixton really want to bother changing their sterling in B£s? Perhaps London councils could group together to create new currencies, but then it may end in everyone going back to the £. Then of course, we have the issue of the EURO which is a whole another story. The UK has stayed independent by not giving in to the EURO, but now specific areas don’t want to be part of what is really independent to the UK – the pound.

I think schemes helping out local communities like the B£ are brave initatives, so I guess we will have to wait and see what happens with it. If local residents can help local businesses, great, but don’t businesses need to reach a wider audience as well? The Brixton Pound blog can be found here.

http://www.thelondonpaper.com/thelondonpaper/news/london/the-brixton-pound-launches-in-south-london