ABSTRACT
Most studies of local government in Britain have concluded that business interests play only a small part in local politics. Shopkeepers, company directors, estate agents and others are, of course, found in significant numbers on most local councils, but this, we are told, is as far as business involvement extends. As Banfield and Wilson assert, 'No businessman would dream of giving leadership to a local council from behind the scenes. If he wanted to take part in local government he would stand for election, and if he won a seat he would regard himself as the representative of a public, not of the business community' (1966, p. 246). Such conclusions have been drawn, not only from studies of small towns (where it may perhaps be argued that there is little reason or incentive for business interests to become involved in the local political system), but also from research in large commercial cities such as Birmingham (Newton 1976) where the economic significance of commerce and retailing is as great, if not greater, as it is in Croydon, and where local policymaking in planning, roads and so on may be expected to have an important impact on the profitability of the private sector. From this
it would seem that in Croydon too, we should expect to find that local businessmen confine their initiative to economic affairs while keeping their political involvement to a minimum. As one informant told me early in my research in the town, 'These big firms are too big to piss around with local politics.'
