Learning English using videos: The Brixton Pound.

Young black woman (Standard British/London accent):

I will definitely be spending the Brixton Pound!

Young black man (African accent):

Yes, for the first time, Brixton is going to have its own currency.

Young Sikh man (Standard British accent):

It’s a good idea.

White woman (Standard British accent):

Yes, I have heard about the Brixton Pound.

Tim Nichols (Standard American accent):

The Brixton Pound works like this: somebody will go into an issuing point, they will exchange pounds sterling for Brixton Pounds, they will then take those Brixton Pounds to a local shop, or to any place that they can find that’s a local independent supplier that accepts the Brixton Pounds, and use that money to pay for their goods, their services.

Rosie Lovell (Standard British accent):

I’d really like to use the Brixton Pound because I think that it’s really important to invest in your own community.

Blacker Dread (West Indian accent):

And we’ll accept it, as part and parcel of the day-to-day spending and the usage of money. 

Tim Nichols:

This is the first local currency in an urban setting. The goal is to create a… as liquid an economy… a local economy as possible. Currently, we have about 55 businesses on board. Businesses can give it as change, they can give it to their employees, if they wanted to pay them part of their wages, pay some of their local suppliers, if they do source things locally, or if they get services like plumbing from one of the local suppliers. If they need to, they can go back to an issuing point and exchange it back for pounds sterling. 

Rosie Lovell:

Having a Brixton Pound, it could really encourage people that live locally to spend their money locally, and the more good businesses that are independent that we have, in a community, the happier it is. 

Blacker Dread:

A lot of people earn good money and then they take it to the West End and it never circulates and comes back to Brixton. 

Tim Nichols:

If you go and spend 10 pounds sterling at a… at a company like Tescos, only about 10 per cent of any money that you spend in there is going to stay within the community. The reason that we want the money to stay within Brixton is to help preserve local jobs, help strengthen the local economy. The more diverse that a High Street is, with local businesses, the more resilient we are, as of escaping corporate supply chains, or international supply chains.

Rosie Lovell:

It’s really important to me that people that live in the area are putting back into the area.

Blacker Dread:

It’s changing Brixton from being infamous to famous.