As part of the relaunch of our business coverage we have teamed up with the local branch of the federation which represents more than 1,500 businesses in the Preston and South Ribble area and 8,000 throughout Lancashire and Cumbria.

National campaign manager Andrew Cave welcomed the LEP's bid to help fight to support and said that along with campaigns across the country it could speak with "a united voice" to the Westminster decision-makers.

He said: "The traditional English high street is losing 2,000 shops a year, 40% of all high street bank branches have shut since 1996 and now it is our Post Offices which are being attacked, all of these are small businesses and their loss has a huge impact.

"It is a fact that 50% of the turnover of your average small business is spent within their local community compared to just 5% for a supermarket, so small businesses breed success for other small businesses."

The leader added that he wanted to see small independent traders put at the heart of Preston's £700m Tithebarn redevelopment.

He said: "It is wrong to say that big national firms cannot work alongside small shops because they can drive footfall for each other and I would like to think that in Preston there would be a percentage of the floorspace dedicated to independent traders."

Cuthbert Culshaw, chairman of the FSB in Lancashire and an independent financial advisor in Fulwood, said that the county had seen a "steady erosion" of small businesses in recent years.

He said: "People say we are in a global economy now and we have to look beyond our own front door, but if you do not keep an eye on your front door you could wake up one day and find it is not there anymore."

Ken Williams, manager of The Mall St George's, also welcomed the campaign. Around 40 of his shopping centre's 91 stores are taken up by independent local traders.

He said: "We have to be supportive of their businesses and we have done a lot of work with those who find it difficult."

The Keep Trade Local campaign has six aims:

* Planning - holding local councils to account when their policies fail to support businesses on their doorstep;
* Parking charges - fighting spiralling parking prices which are driving customers towards supermarket's and out-of-town retail park's free car parks;
* Business Rates Relief - tackling government rates which are five times more expensive for small businesses as a proportion of turnover than they are for large companies;
* Crime prevention - halting the 20% of crimes which are committed against business costing UK firms £12 billion a year;
* Post Office closures - stemming the tide of shutdowns of Post Offices which generate much needed footfall to local businesses;
* Public procurement - ensuring that small firms get an equal opportunity to land contracts off local and central government.

>> Vote in our latest web poll