On our own we are vulnerable but by building our membership, together we can see through our crucial Commercial Rent Manifesto for a sustainable recovery.  

We don’t lack the ideas to make rent fair for small businesses or to support a sustainable recovery, we just need more people power. That’s why we’re crowdfunding to raise money for a Community Organiser. From experience, we know that organising small businesses to work together with a skilled member of staff is the only way to build the collective power we need to compel change.  

UPDATE 24TH MAY: TOGETHER WE DID IT! Last Monday night we surpassed our goal. Vast and sincere gratitude to all our backers, and a big warm welcome to our new members! With your help, we are now able to continue to level up the work of the Guild and hire desperately needed additional member of staff to support recovery in East London. We will keep the crowdfunder rolling and the 'pay what you can' offer going until 30th June. 

UPDATE 9TH MAY: Congratulations to Sadiq Khan on being re-elected as Mayor of London. We'll miss the Spitalfields City Farm animals but we're excited to make progress together on our Manifesto at City Hall in November.

UPDATE 2ND MAY: Both the Labour Candidate & the Green Party Candidate back our Commercial Rent Manifesto!

On May 6th, the new Mayor of London will be elected. Thanks to the collective power we built since our founding assembly in 2012 we won commitments from two of the top three candidates - Labour's Sadiq Khan and the Green's Sian Berry to work with us on our Commercial Rent Manifesto proposals if they are elected.

Shaun Bailey from the Conservative Party declined to meet with us.

The latest polls say that Sadiq Khan is in the lead, followed by Shaun Bailey then Sian Berry and Louisa Porritt in joint third place. 

The East End Trades Guild is strictly nonpartisan. We will never tell you who to vote for. We hope you will consider where each candidate stands on our manifesto proposals in East London when you turn up to vote this Thursday 6th. And help us to fight for our neighbourhoods by joining or supporting the Guild with whatever you can afford. 

With the lead candidate in support of our work we are definitely going to need another member of staff to see it through.

Any small business, social enterprise, freelancer or self-employed person can join as a member through this crowdfunder.

UPDATE: If you join one of the affiliate groups below you can contribute whatever you can afford to pay for your first year as a member. This offer is open until 17th May only.

Simply click on one of the affiliates listed that makes the most sense to you or hit the yellow "Support Us" tab on the top right to pay your reduced subs. 

If you’re a member of the public who’d like to help you can enter our EETG lucky dip as a big THANK YOU and receive a beautiful product from one of our members. 

Links to affiliates to join with whatever you are comfortable for your first year:

EETG Bethnal Green

EETG Blackhorse Lane Makers District

EETG Brick Lane

EETG North Hackney & De Beauvoir

EETG Clapton

EETG Leyton

EETG London Council Commercial Tenants

EETG Shoreditch & Spitalfields

EETG Waltham Forest Industrial Tenants

Small businesses are facing the worst global recession on record exacerbated by Brexit, pre-covid rent levels and an outdated business rates system. Despite being forced to close by the Government during 3 national lockdowns, demands for exorbitant rent levels continue.

Small brewers like London Living Wage employers Hackney Brewery require larger premises and are therefore over the threshold for Government grants, yet lost 90% of their customer base when pubs closed.  

Important High Street retailers like The Brokedown Palace also fall through the cracks of Government support due to grants being tied to a chaotic business rates system based on pre-covid rent levels.  

The Moratorium on Commercial Evictions will finally come to an end for good this year. This is a deadline that fills businesses like these with dread, as many landlords will use legal action to recover rent businesses simply cannot pay. Last year we raised 10k for legal fees to support our members, this will help but it won't create the policy changes we need for a long term sustainable recovery.

Unless urgent action is taken, the East End will remain a ghost town long after restrictions are over. Local people will lose their homes due to job losses in the neighbourhood. Community hubs will close their doors, impacting the young and elderly in equal measure. More and more people will find themselves isolated and vulnerable, even when COVID-19 is defeated.

It doesn’t have to be this way; our members are an essential component for a sustainable recovery. Together with our partners the New Economics Foundation, we present pragmatic solutions for the next Mayor of London to take forward. 

We know we can be successful because we’re scaling work we've already achieved with two local Mayors who publicly support our Affordable Workspace Manifesto.

In 2018 and 2019 we brought our members together in a public forum to ask the Mayor of Hackney and the Mayor of Tower Hamlets to support our affordable workspace initiatives. You can read the full story here.

Through this action, we won many important achievements including:

-  A new cap of £8 per square meter for new affordable workspace and the council’s own units in Hackney Wick

- 4000 sq meters of affordable workspace in two pilot sites in Homerton and Haggerston, in total aiming for 10,000 sq meters within garage and undercroft space more broadly

- Reduction from 80% of market rent to 40% in Hackney’s local plan for Shoreditch and 60% in the rest of the borough

- Funding to research our London Working Rent proposals from the LEAP at the GLA, LBTH and a fully-funded PhD Studentship with QMUL

- A commitment to rental transparency with both Hackney and Tower Hamlets funding RENTCHECK, our revolutionary web-based app helping members find fair comparable rental evidence in rent negotiations. RENTCHECK will be launched in June this year and will be essential to anchor rents at the low end of the market.

- Long term commitments to work and meet with the Guild regularly

Joining now helps us scale this work from the local elections to the London Mayoral election and, importantly, enables us to recruit the vital extra staff member we need to make our proposals a reality

We’re looking for a minimum of £17,000. With this, we can fund half a year's salary for a skilled and experienced Community Organiser. 

Not only do new members help us to fight the good fight to make the commercial property sector a friendlier place for small businesses, membership to the Guild gives you:

A POWERFUL VOICE - through growing the membership we make sure there is always a seat at the table for small businesses guaranteeing that policies for a sustainable recovery are co-produced by both policymakers and the small businesses they are meant for

RENTCHECK this revolutionary new app will be rolled out as soon as we have the paid member of staff to support its development through this crowdfunder

ACCESS TO OUR LEGAL FUND for members most severely affected by the pandemic, this will be important when the moratorium ends in June

KICKSTART JOB PLACEMENTS we are a Government Kickstart Gateway saving you paperwork on applications and supporting with training providers we process your new fully funded job placement, helping young people at risk of long term unemployment back into work

121 BUSINESS PLANNING & SUPPORT help from successful entrepreneurs to plan to pivot for success in difficult times first session free with discounts thereafter

EAST END TRADES GUILD STORE where our members can sell their goods and services 

BLACK POUND DAY increasing visibility of our Black members 

GUILD MARKETS events at Old Spitalfields Market

MEMBER EVENTS gatherings for peer to peer solidarity, enabling members to connect, share information and help each other through trading collaboration and mutual support

OUR TEAM

Abi Abimbola, Franceskka Fabrics, Petticoat Lane - Tower Hamlets

Tayo Abimbola, Franceskka Fabrics, Petticoat Lane - Tower Hamlets

Claire Ashbriedge Tomlinson, East London Brewing Company - Waltham Forest

Wendy Clerck, TCO - Hackney

Ella Doran, Ella Doran Ltd, De Beauvoir  - Hackney

Paul Gardner, Gardners Bags, Spitalfields - Waltham Forest

Robert Gardner, Gardners Bags - Waltham Forest

Qusai Jafferji, Newmans Stationery, Bethnal Green - Tower Hamlets

Shamil Jumoon, Armstrong Audio - Waltham Forest

Rheanna Lingham, Luna & Curious - Spitalfields - Tower Hamlets

Guljar Khan, Gram Masala - Tower Hamlets

Dee O'Connell, The Brokedown Palace - Hackney

Juliet Quintero, Dallas–Pierce–Quintero - Hackney

Ahmed Salim, Beligi - Newham

Robyn Simms, Square Root Soda - Waltham Forest

Lee Sargent, Calverts, Bethnal Green - Tower Hamlets

Paul Voought, Yonder - Waltham Forest