Jim McMahon’s Keynesian business legacy at Labour Oldham Council

A recent freedom of information request shows that 628 Oldham Commercial properties which became empty and unused under Jim McMahon’s tenure as Labour Oldham Council leader are still empty this April. These include Card & Party on Oldham’s independent quarter at 52 Yorkshire St, which closed after less than a year and Jim McMahon’s Oldham Council social enterprise “Our House” at 6-8 Albion Street, Tommyfield Market. “Our House” was advertised as a fair credit alternative to BrightHouse but closed after only four months at an undisclosed cost to Oldham Council. Todays rateable value for the 628 empty properties is £9,358,161. In total as of 12/04/2016 Oldham has 1158 empty commercial properties with a rateable value of £12,074,671. Clearly the former Council leader who spent tens of millions of Council reserves and borrowed a whole lot more to build yet more commercial properties follows the ‘pay a man to dig a hole and then fill the hole back in’ Keynesian mentality. In simple terms followers of Keynes believe that investments drive the circular flow of income and put money into the economy. The trouble is in the modern UK all the EU and large numbers of other migrants have the ability to access those investments and take the money out of circulation and out of the local economy and even the Country as happens with both salary and benefits.