While I am sure we have all been trying to keep cool in the warm weather over the Bank Holiday weekend and into this week, with Parliament on recess and as my work continues, I have also been reflecting on an incredibly insightful meeting I attended recently.
Last Tuesday I attended a cross-party meeting in Parliament hosted by the Textile Services Association, where I was able to catch-up with local laundry company Johnsons Hotel Linen. From agricultural tradition to records on the racetrack, Bourne has many things to be proud of. Perhaps often overlooked, Johnsons is certainly one of them.
We rightly hear a great deal about key sectors of our economy that the public engage with, such as hospitality, food production, or key services like the NHS. But we hear far less about the industries that make all of these possible behind the scenes, like commercial laundry. Every clean hospital bed, freshly pressed hotel sheet, or pharmaceutical factory worker’s garment starts somewhere. In our case, much of it starts right here in Bourne.
As the first hotel linen factory purchased by Johnsons in February 2014, their site on Cherry Holt Road in Bourne is one of the largest standalone processing facilities in the country. I have previously been delighted to visit to see for myself the impressive scale of their work. More than 500 people there service hotels and other commercial users across the East Midlands and beyond.
Nationally, the commercial laundry industry provides roles from frontline laundry management and engineering to logistics and driving. Without businesses like Johnsons, the knock-on effect would be immediately felt up and down the country. Most hotels would have to close within a few days. Hospitals, food manufacturers, and factories in sectors like pharmaceuticals would run into issues after just 24 hours. This is not a niche industry; it is critical national infrastructure maintained by the skills of workers and businesses right here in our corner of Lincolnshire.
But, like many, the industry does face its challenges. Energy costs are higher in Britain than in almost all comparable countries. The Government’s decision to raise employer National Insurance, the minimum wage, and bring in costly new employment regulations all at the same time has piled on the costs for businesses such as Johnsons and others who provide local jobs. Because of their central position in our economy, pressures felt by their clients in sectors such as hospitality, that I have written about before, can be contagious for the laundry sector.
Despite this, the sector was left out of the Government’s industrial strategy last year. It was no surprise therefore that, at our meeting recently, the industry specifically asked that they be recognised and backed by the Government. Whether through inclusion in resilience planning for crises and pandemics or in schemes aimed at supporting energy intensive industries essential to our economy, I have raised their key requests directly with the Government and asked for Ministers to explore what might be possible.
Whether our pubs, farmers, or manufacturers, I am always eager to help back local businesses and employers to succeed wherever I can. As well as representations to government, that should always include recognising and celebrating businesses such as Johnsons who play a quiet but essential role in our wider local and national economy.
