Rising costs weigh heavy on Burnley fitness fans’ minds

Customers at a family-run vitamin and health supplements shop in Lancashire have been speaking out about their thoughts on the forthcoming general election.

It is part of BBC North West Tonight’s Talking Shop series, which aims to find out more about what matters to people in the run up to the poll on 4 July.

We have been visiting a different high street every week and this time we went to Iceberg Supplements shop in Blackburn, which has 25 years of experience in the health and fitness industry and is a popular spot for gym fans.

The struggles of the cost of living is weighing heavy on customers’ minds.

Owner Abaid Hussain, who is known by the nickname “Ice” to customers, said he wants more support for “microbusinesses” like his who have been hit by the impact of the Covid pandemic and then spiralling costs.

He said those factors had been “the downfall for a lot of businesses, especially health businesses because the first thing people are going to knock on the head was supplements”.

Mr Hussain said it had been a “constant battle” to try to stay afloat and called for more support.

“Every penny I’m making is going back into the business. Do we see any support or anything? Not for micro businesses,” he said.

He called for politicians to “come down and actually spend a couple of days in our shoes and see what we go through”.

“They haven’t tasted poverty and there’s been days when we can’t go home, and can’t put anything on the table,” he added.

It will be the first time 18-year-old Aadil Khan-Dyer can vote in a general election.

The engineering student said he was not “massively into politics” but his main concern was rising costs.

“My general concerns are for everyone who is struggling personally,” he said.

He said he would like more help given to students as “everything becomes a lot more expensive”.

“You hear all the good times my parents had at uni and it is not the same,” the teenager said.

“It’s a bit stressful.”

He said helping people get on the housing ladder was important to him, too.

Even though it was a few years down the line, he said it was “nerve-racking” to think about it.

He said he was voting although he is not entirely sure yet what party he will choose to back.

But he said he would be considering “the majority” on polling day “instead of thinking solely around myself”.

Brad Mount, a printer, said he was “still sitting on the fence” about who to vote for.

He said he was looking at buying a home soon and would like to see mortgage rates come down and a cap on interest rates.

Danny Hantov is a security response officer for the NHS but is hoping to retrain as a nurse.

He said he also wants mortgage rates to drop, adding: “I’d like to see everything come down, not just mortgages.”

Mr Hantov said his bills were “just about manageable”.