Businesses accepting K£ from the public and of course other businesses can now use K£ to pay their Business Rates to the Royal Borough of Kingston Council.

We are very excited with this development as we are certain it will assist the wider circulation of Kingston Pounds throughout the borough and will encourage the council to seek out great local businesses to include in their procurement process.

Councillor David Glasspool, Cabinet Member with responsibility for Treasury at Kingston Council, said:

“The Kingston Pound is an initiative that the Council wholeheartedly supports – helping existing businesses and attracting new ones to the area by strengthening the local economy makes absolute sense.

“Similar ventures have been successful in Bristol and Lambeth, and there are currently 80 Kingston people and 30 local businesses taking part in the scheme, which shows that this project is already being adopted by our community.

“Currently the Kingston Pound is entirely electronic, which means that people can pay either using the app or Text2Pay, a system which allows people to pay by using their mobile phone. Plans are in place to develop a printed note, which is due to be ready next year.”

We need your help in recruiting more businesses and would appreciate it if you would spread the word and ask businesses to consider joining in. There is absolutely no downside to them and you can explain your own motivation for using K£ better than we could.

You can read more about this news on the RBK website.