Manufacturing output for May 2012 up 1.2% on the month, down 1.7% on the year
Commenting on the manufacturing output figures for May, published today by the ONS, Tracey Howard, International Trade Director at the Norfolk Chambers of Commerce, said:
“While most expected the latest manufacturing output figures to record stagnation or a decline, they show resilience from manufacturers despite a difficult economic climate and a crisis in the eurozone. Taken together with the latest trade statistics, they show that pessimism about the UK’s economic prospects is unwarranted.
“Longer-term trends in manufacturing are still disappointing, and the global economy shows signs of slowing. Manufacturers are adjusting to a new reality with weaker growth prospects while the government continues with measures to reduce the deficit. But British businesses have considerable potential to make progress, even in tough circumstances. It is down to the government to help them realise this.
“The economy can move from a vicious to a virtuous circle. The government must create confidence and growth through aggressive deregulation, infrastructure spending, and the creation of a state-backed business to increase lending to new and growing businesses.”
Business leaders gathered last night to hear Vicky Pryce, Chief Economic Advisor and Board Member at the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) outline her views on the future of the UK economy.
Norfolk Chamber and Norse Commercial Services hosted the gala dinner at Langley Abbey, which was attended by a wide range of businesses from traditional engineering companies, such as KLM Engineering to Rainbird, an innovative tech firm.
Ms Pryce presented her thoughts on how the UK economy had fared since the triggering of Article 50, through to how she thought it would progress after the post-Brexit transition period. She went on to note how interest rates and consumer spending could potentially impact on the economy and that the continued uncertainty of Brexit was impacting on business confidence.
Leaders in East Anglia are being invited to attend a major conference which will put wellbeing at the heart of leadership in the region. The ‘Leaders in Wellbeing’ event – taking place during Mental Health Awareness Week – is aimed at chief executives, senior managers and HR directors and will showcase the latest thinking from speakers who are leading the way in wellbeing in the region.
Taking place from 9.30am – 1.30pm on Tuesday 15th May at The Space in Norwich, the free event will focus on the role of leadership in wellbeing. It will include personal stories from leaders as well as ideas about practical ways to role model wellbeing, and how to embed it within organisational culture.
Stuart Rimmer, Chief Executive of East Coast College who will be charing the event explained: “Coming together to discuss wellbeing in leadership creates space to consider innovation and better ways to run our businesses for the twenty first century.”
Also speaking at the event will be Andy Wood, Chief Executive of Adnams. He said: “We take this issue extremely seriously at Adnams. It makes great business sense as the first line of serving our customers well is a happy and well-motivated workforce that knows if they need help in their lives the organisation is there for them”.
There will also be personal testimony from Nigel Cushion, Founder of Nelsonspirit, Ian Hacon, Founder of Yellow Brick Road, and Michelle Gant, Director of The Engaging People Company.
Aviva’s recent experience of delivering a widescale wellbeing programme will also be in the spotlight with Katherine Billingham-Mohamed and Gemma Sandwell on hand to share their knowledge and experience. Katherine said: “Wellbeing is quite a buzz word at the moment, but essentially healthy and happy employees generally result in happy customers! It’s about helping people to make small steps to change behaviour, be that in their mental, physical or any other aspect of wellbeing”.
The event has been co-organised by Tim Handley, an education consultant who heads up TEDxNorwichED. And, underlining the emerging importance of wellbeing as a leadership and workplace priority, both New Anglia LEP and Norfolk Chamber of Commerce have pledged their support. Charlotte Purves of New Anglia LEP said: “This is a really important issue to address if the East is going to stand out as the place to live and work. Wellbeing should be top of the agenda for every business and this event will provide business leaders with tools to embed this in their own organisations.”
Chris Sargisson, Chief Executive of Norfolk Chamber added: “Wellbeing and the culture of wellbeing starts at the top and should always, always include the valuable and influential people at the top. By doing so means organisations can genuinely lead by example in the building of brilliant, healthy, high performing places of work.”
At a breakfast meeting at Norwich City Football Club, Norfolk Chamber hosted John Holland-Kaye, the CEO of London Heathrow Airport, who came to talk to local businesses about the economic benefits and the opportunities available as a result of expansion at London Heathrow.
Mr Holland-Kaye outlined that Heathrow were looking to become the best connected airport in the world, with more flights and a new runway by 2025. The £14 billion privately funded project will open up supply chain opportunities across the UK – including here Norfolk. He also noted that the Heathrow expansion project was not governed OJEU (Official Journal of the European Union) and that their preferred option was for a predominantly UK based supply chain.
He also advised that Heathrow was looking to take the lead in a new way to deliver large scale infrastructure projects by building their key components away from the airport and assembling them locally. This is a method that is becoming more prevalent internationally, which the UK has not fully adopted yet. To achieve this, they will be creating four logistic hubs – for which Great Yarmouth is one of 65 bids from across the UK. Heathrow has already committed to one of the logistic hubs being located in Scotland, however the other three hub locations have yet to be decided.
To help develop their supply chain for the Heathrow expansion, they will be holding a series of Business Summits across the UK – the nearest one to our region is being held at Colchester on Tuesday 17 April 2018 and is free to attend.
There will be speed-networking sessions to improve networking opportunities and connectivity. Also in attendance will be Heathrow’s Commercial and Procurement teams, to answer questions about business opportunities available at the airport. To date, Heathrow have advised that an estimated £93.4 million of new deals have been won by businesses as a result of the partnerships formed at their Business Summits.
Why Attend?
The Heathrow Business Summits each provide a great platform for SMEs to get a foot in the door and capitalise on the business opportunities available at Heathrow
Promote your business to Heathrow’s supply chain through face-to-face appointments on the day
Meet and network with other businesses visiting the event.
Meet with the Department of International Trade to explore exporting opportunities
Meet and network with exhibitor partners including the Local Councils, Chambers of Commerce, Local Enterprise Partnerships, and the Department for International Trade.
Meet local colleges and universities to support your skills and recruitment needs.
All exhibitors actively support and guide businesses on how to connect and build trade relations into new supply chains at Heathrow
At the beginning of the week, Norfolk Chamber, the EDP and Norfolk County Council, together with MPs, political leaders and the business community hosted a visit by the Roads Minister, Jesse Norman MP in King’s Lynn and launched our ‘Just Dual It!’ campaign
The event, held at the Town Hall in King’s Lynn was to highlight to the Roads Minister that Norfolk is no longer prepared to wait for much needed improvements. It was a chance to garner the support of local MPs and for the business community to highlight the benefits that a dualled A47 could bring to our local economy.
Respondng to the calls for a47 improvements, Mr Norman said “I can only admire the steadfastness the energy and perseverance of everyone working together to make a collective case for action.”
The Just Dual It campaign is backed by the A47 Alliance and is looking for a commitment from Government to fund dualling the entire length of the A47 from Lowestoft in the East to Peterborough in the West by 2030. How well we make the case for dualling the entire length, is up to us as a business community. We need your support to join us to make the business case for the A47 improvements.
Commenting on the need for county-wide support, Nova Fairbank. Public Affairs Manager for Norfolk Chamber said: “To access further funding, we have to work within the Government’s frameworks and back that with the support of the business community and general public. We need to have a strong clear and consistent message and keep going until we achieve the full dualling of the A47.”
How can you help?
We need to hear from you about what benefits a fully dualled A47 will make to your business. Could it help create more jobs; enable your business expand; make it easier for your clients to visit you; or would you be able to move your goods more easily?
We need you to be specific in your responses, which will help build the overall business case. The more support we can garner and the more specific we are in the benefits; the more compelling our case will be.
Buy today’s EDP (Friday 23 March 2018) which includes with a Freepost postcard on which you can send your message to government
Pick up a postcard from the Chamber offices in Whiting Road, Norwich; the EDP’s offices, Rouen Road, Norwich; Norfolk County Council, Martineau Lane, Norwich; Great Yarmouth Town Hall; or West Norfolk Council offices in King’s Lynn
The British Chamber of Commerce’s energy survey goes live today.
The survey will help us better understand the impact of volatile energy costs, the measures businesses have taken to reduce their energy usage, and the relationship between businesses and their energy suppliers. It will also test the perception of recent government regulations. We can use this knowledge to put continued pressure on the government to support businesses in this area.
The survey only takes 10 minutes to complete. To take part in the survey click here.
“It is encouraging that two MPC members voted against the £50bn increase in QE”, says David Kern
Commenting on the MPC minutes published today by the Bank of England, David Kern, Chief Economist at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said:
“While most commentators expected the recent decision on an increase in QE to have been unanimous, we are encouraged that two members of the committee voted against this move. The argument for increasing QE was questionable in our view, although the impacts of the eurozone crisis on the financial system make it understandable. The new funding for lending scheme could potentially be more important for businesses as long as the banks pass on the lower cost of funds to their customers. However, we are convinced that a state-backed business bank is necessary to allow viable businesses with growth potential to obtain funds on reasonable terms.
“No further QE increases should be considered for the time being unless the UK financial system faces new major threats. QE is not risk free and the longer-term inflation dangers associated with it cannot be ignored. It should certainly not be used to try and prevent inflation from falling temporarily below target next year. After a long period when above target inflation has heightened the squeeze on businesses and consumers, lower inflation will now support domestic demand in the economy and this should be allowed to continue.”
Great Yarmouth Borough Council have extended their deadline for receiving comments on their Housing Strategy to 15 April 2015.
The purpose of the survey is to input into their Housing Strategy, to ascertain whether there is a need for a specific type of housing in the Borough to attract or retain people, or whether housing is a small part of a much larger issue.
They want to discover if the supply of housing has a direct impact on your business, and if so, what type of housing you feel would help address this issue.
Annual CPI inflation down from 2.8% in May to 2.4% in June
Annual RPI inflation down from 3.1% in May to 2.8% in June
The biggest downward pressures on prices came from clothing and footwear
Commenting on the inflation figures for June 2012 published today by the ONS, David Kern, Chief Economist at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said:
“Inflation fell in June, which is positive news for the economy. If these trends continue, the squeeze felt by businesses and consumers will ease, and improved disposable incomes will boost demand in the economy. Lower global energy prices and the strong pound against the euro have contributed to these downward pressures. The rise in sterling could adversely affect competitiveness, but this is likely to be offset by increased demand as a result of lower inflation.
“There is a chance that towards the end of the year or in early 2013, inflation will temporarily fall below the 2% target. This will follow a prolonged period of above target inflation, and should not be a cause for concern for the MPC. While austerity measures are putting downward pressure on demand, there would be nothing wrong with allowing below target inflation to support consumer spending. With this in mind, we believe there is no need for further increases in quantitative easing.”
Do you have some interesting business news you would like to share or shout about? Maybe your company or a member of your team has recently won an award or achieved something fantastic. Our printied magazine,The Norfolk Voice is a great place to share this news. All we need is some information from you and a high-quality photograph to accompany your text.
It’s not too late to make this edition May/June, and we would love to feature your news or a detailed article in the magazine. If you could get some information to us before Monday 9 April please get in contact with Dominique Bivar Segurado our Marketing Coordinator [email protected]. Alternatively upload our news/blog to Members News section of our website to be automated considered for inclusion. You can find out how to upload Member News with our step by step guide here.
Vattenfall’s Supply Chain Information Pack has been launched today and gives lots of early information on the background to the project for Norfolk Vanguard and Norfolk Boreas windfarms. It outlines the timelines for construction, the range of opportunities available and links to sources of support and advice for local companies interested in getting involved with the project.
Initial focus on the 60km onshore cable route works means exploring a wide variety of opportunities, ranging from landscaping, composites, plant hire, waste management, fabricators and farmers to transport, accommodation and safety supplies.
Commenting on the launch of the Supply Chain Information Pack, Nova Fairbank, Public Affairs Manager for Norfolk Chamber of Commerce said:
“Norfolk Chamber believes that Vattenfall will help deliver skills and local jobs for the future generations both onshore and offshore in our region.
Vattenfall can offer supply chain opportunities to a diverse range sectors and more importantly, they are keen to ensure that their investment remains within the region. This investment, together with their support to create a future skilled workforce, will help support greater economic growth and prosperity and long term sustainable relationships with the Norfolk business community.”
You can now register your business interest with Vattenfall by completing their online form – click here to complete it now.
If you have any immediate questions about the supply chain opportunities at this early stage, you can contact Vattenfall direct.
On Friday 20th April 2018, several of our region’s MPs will be launching new job campaigns for their regions.
Elizabeth Truss MP and George Freeman MP will be launching a new campaign, Breckland for Jobs in conjunction with Breckland Council and in West Norfolk, Sir Henry Bellingham MP will be launching the West Norfolk for Jobs campaign.
Both initiatives are in partnership with The DWP and are aimed at helping young people aged between 18 to 24 secure work, which will help our local economy and build better communities.
Can you help?
Could you support a young person by offering mock interviews, CV advice, information and advice on your industry? The initiatives will also be able to help you find suitable candidates to apply for any apprenticeship or jobs you need to fill.
West Norfolk for Jobs King’s Lynn 8.30am
Breckland for Jobs Dereham 10.30am
Thetford 2.30pm
If you would like more information and to attend the launch event and meet your MP, please contact Nikki David on email: [email protected] to confirm your official invitation to join us at the launch of this exciting campaign.