Gareth Thomas MP is calling on Harrow West’s small shopkeepers to enter the Best Small Shops Competition, celebrating the creativity of small shops and the central role they play in their local community.

The Best Small Shops Competition is open to any small shop* operating in the UK. The competition is free to enter and all shops who enter will also be promoted to consumers through an online Indie Retail Directory.

Shopkeepers can nominate their businesses until Sunday 9^th September via www.bestsmallshops.co.uk. A shortlist of 25 of the most impressive applications will be shortlisted by a panel made up of established representatives from the independent retail industry.

The judges will be looking for evidence of a small shops’ entrepreneurial spirit, ways that they have been innovative in their business and what they have done to have a lasting positive impact on their community.

The shortlisted small shops will be invited to a Parliamentary Reception on the 13th November 2018 to meet their Member of Parliament and find out who will be crowned the Best Small Shop for 2018.

Commenting, Gareth said: “This is a great opportunity to recognise the role that many small shops play for residents in Harrow West. There is a wide array of small businesses within our constituency, and I encourage local shopkeepers to put themselves forward for this award.”

Submit your entry

The entries for 2018’s Best Small Shop competition are now open. Submit your entry at www.bestsmallshops.co.uk.

Entries close on Sunday 9th September 2018.

*For the purposes of the competition, a small shop is defined as a non-corporate business selling goods or services to the public for use or consumption rather than for resale, from a business rated premises in the UK.

The 2015 Best Small Shops Competition was won by Hunters of Helmsley, and was featured in the Daily Mail here: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/smallbusiness/article-2968372/And-winner-Britain-s-best-small-shop-family-run-farm-deli-Yorkshire-helped-village-beat-recession.html