the local way to a global future
keeping us out of the red
Hay-on-Wye
written by seb lansdowne
An alternative local currency (designed by bwa) that is actually helping to reduce climate change is really taking off in our town.
Hay Vouchers is a scheme that makes sure people buy local. You buy into the scheme at Pughs@Londis and you get an exchange rate of 1:1 but you can only spend them at businesses in Hay-on-Wye (95% of businesses within the town are signed up). The person with the original idea was Debbie Davies who said "Although many shops in Hay offer their own vouchers, I thought it would be good for shoppers to also have the option of a voucher that could be used anywhere.” Most businesses in Hay are independent so keeping this money within the towns economy is hugely beneficial to the town.
Available in £5, £10 and £20 notes they were designed by bwa to reflect the history of the town, while also connecting to the current Book Town status.
The original hopes of the scheme in 2015 was to ring fence £15,000 to be spent in the town. 7 years later there have been 3 editions of these notes which have kept many times that amount within Hay, and money kept within a local economy has a much larger impact, being reinvested into other local businesses – having a snowball growing the towns economy.
Spending local is hugely important to our environment as independent local businesses, more often than not, also source their products locally. The scheme has reduced food miles for those shopping in the Deli, Londis and other bakeries and cafés, plus reduced the need for transportation to larger commercialised shops and cities, all while investing in local farms who do much restorative work for local wildlife.
"It’s a great way for the chamber to invest in the town – by spending £400 on the vouchers, we’re ring-fencing £15,000 to be spent in local businesses.”
Andrew Williams, chairman of Hay Chamber of Commerce
bwa is incredibly proud to support such a successful scheme – we like to give back to both the local community and the wider world by reducing impact as much as we can. This project has very similar aims to that of our project for the Ministry for the Climate Emergency against advertising, where we encouraged people to buy from independent stores rather than following advertising that glorifies carbon wasteful choices.
