On Monday 24 April between 10.30am – 11.30am the Chamber network will be holding a webinar discussion on the impact of Brexit on business with Lord Bridges, Under Secretary of State at the Department for Exiting the European Union
Norfolk Chamber members will have the opportunity to submit questions to Lord Bridges, and watch the discussion live. The British Chambers of Commerce, Director General, Adam Marshall will host the event.
We will share details of how to log into this debate very shortly. In the meantime, if you have any questions that you would like to submit in advance, please email them to Jake Burns on Email: [email protected]before close of play on Wednesday 19 April 2017.
The Department for International Trade (DIT) has revealed that recent talks between UK and Taiwanese officials have resulted in agreements to establish new trade dialogues on agriculture and energy.
With Taiwan planning to increase its renewable energy production from 4% to 20% of supply by 2025, largely via offshore wind farms, British companies could benefit from the opportunities presented by the expansion.
In agriculture, the new dialogue could boost the prospects of UK pork farmers, as Taiwan is the largest per capita pork consumer in Asia and Taiwan has confirmed that it wishes to lift its current ban on British pork as soon as possible.
“With its vibrant economy and thriving consumer base, Taiwan presents huge opportunities for British companies to strengthen our trade links,” International Trade Minister Greg Hands said.
British exports to Taiwan have grown by 21% in the last five years, he added, with service sector exports having increased by 60% over that time. In 2016, bilateral trade between the two countries was worth £5.35 billion.
During the talks, the two sides also signed an agreement which will make it easier for UK and Taiwanese businesses in biotechnology and pharmaceutical fields to protect their intellectual property.
In addition, ministers agreed to deepen links between the UK and Taiwan’s financial sectors, in particular by enabling the UK to offer its expertise in financing renewable energy projects and FinTech development in Taiwan.
After the meeting, Taiwan’s Vice Minister of Economic Affairs, Mei-Hua Wang, said: “As the UK leaves the EU, Taiwan looks forward both to strengthening bilateral trade flows and to expanding mutual co-operation.”
Taiwan has confidence in the British economy and considers the UK one of the priority destinations for Taiwanese investment in Europe, he added.
A recent UK Powerhouse Report, by law firm Irwin Mitchell and the Centre for Economics and Business Research, says Norwich’s gross value added (GVA) – the measure of the value of goods and services produced in an area – is predicted to grow by 1.62% over 2018.
Out of 45 settlements in the report, Norwich is ranked joint eighth, with Portsmouth. This continues a positive trend, where a similar report in October showed Norwich’s GVA at £2.8 billion and 136,800 people in employment – one of only a few cities predicted to grow its GVA by 2% year on year.
Cambridge led the table, with a predicted GVA growth of 2.19%, while Ipswich came in fourth, with a forecast growth of 1.75%.
Commenting on the report findings, Nova Fairbank, Public Affairs Manager for Norfolk Chamber said:
“Norwich’s strength is its dynamic and diverse business community – which enables it to weather the challenges of the current economic climate.
“With strong emerging sectors such as digital/ICT and innovations in food science and agri-tech, as well as the more traditional sectors such as professional services and insurance, our region clearly has the potential to increase economic growth and create more jobs.”
There has been much talk about austerity and the need for local authorities to make cost savings in their budgets, resulting in potential cuts to some services.
Later this month, Norfolk County Council will be consulting the local business community on the budget planning and prospects for 2018-2019 and the impact of those plans on the County’s delivery of key services as well as the impact on the economy.
Norfolk Chamber will be working in partnership with the Norfolk County Council to deliver the Business Ratepayers Consultation event – this is your opportunity to hear about the County Council’s plans and have your say.
Annual UK GDP growth revised up and the UK’s current account deficit narrows.
UK inflation rises above 3% as household spending outstrips income.
Japan records the longest stretch of unbroken GDP growth in over 20 years
The third official estimate of UK economic output (GDP) recorded growth of 0.4% in Q3 2017, unrevised from the previous estimate and up slightly from the growth of 0.3% recorded in Q2.
CPI inflation in the UK stood at 3.1% in November 2017, the highest rate since March 2012. The largest upward contribution to change in the rate came from air fares.
Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, grew by 0.6% in Q3 2017 (see Chart 10), double the previous estimate of 0.3%. Japan’s economy has now grown for seven straight quarters – the longest stretch of unbroken growth since 1994.
Taken together, the data suggest that the UK economic growth is set to remain underwhelming in 2018. With economic conditions likely to become more sluggish over the near term, it is vital that more is done to support firms looking to recruit and grow their business, including tackling the high up-front taxes and costs of doing business in the UK.
While the Secretary of State for International Trade, Liam Fox, investigates the possibility of the UK joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), many British businesses see trade with Europe as their priority.
Responding to a survey conducted by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), three-quarters (76%) of some 1300 businesses identified Europe as their top export market over the next three years.
Of those, 44% identified Western Europe as their destination – whether for starting or continuing exporting – while 32% preferred Central and Eastern Europe.
Western Europe was also cited by 36% of respondents as the market they intend to import from. Businesses looking to import told the BCC that a lack of suppliers in the UK is the main reason (43%), followed by exchange rates (41%) and price (33%).
“Europe is the UK’s largest trading partner, so it will come as no surprise that businesses regard access to European markets and products as fundamental to their medium-term trading strategies,” BCC Director General Dr Adam Marshall pointed out.
Now that negotiations on the future UK-EU relationship are set to begin, he added, businesses need clarity on the practicalities of the future trading relationship between the UK and EU without delay.
UK businesses anticipate the most significant barriers to trade being tariffs (46%), customs procedures (39%) and local regulations (20%).
“High tariffs, cumbersome customs procedures, as well as conflicting regulatory requirements can deter firms from trading overseas,” Dr Marshall explained, “so a future agreement between the UK and the EU must minimise barriers and costs, to allow firms on both sides of the Channel to continue trading as freely as possible.”
For more information on exporting, please contact us on 01603 729712 or email [email protected]
The Norfolk Chamber’s MPs Event 2018 will bring together Norfolk MPs and local businesses for an afternoon of debates around the issues that matter most to our region. The event gives Chamber members the opportunity to submit their questions to our local politicians and help shape local policy. The MPs event survey is now live, and whether you are able to attend on 02 February, or just have a burning business question that you want answered – we would like to hear from you. Tell us what your top priorities are and submit up to 3 questions that you would like to ask local politicians at Norfolk Chamber’s key policy event. Chris Sargisson, Chief Executive of Norfolk Chamber said: “This is a fantastic opportunity to rally our Norfolk MPs to the business cause. This year we’ll be focussing on celebrating business success in Norfolk, discussing opportunities for growth and development, identifying challenges and barriers and developing a plan of future actions to attract more inward invest in Norfolk.” We need to ensure our MPs understand the needs of the local business community and are able to clearly articulate our message in Westminster.” The event will be hosted by Dr Adam Marshall, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce who will be directing your questions to Norfolk MPs. Click here to submit your questions Have you registered to attend? Click here to book your place or find out more about the event.
All routes crossed by the Northern Distributor Road will be kept clear of closures and temporary traffic lights over the four-day Easter holiday, but traffic management will be in use again when work resumes on Tuesday (18th). This includes the closure of Reepham Road.
B1149 Holt Road – signals after closure
The B1149 Holt Road, which has been closed since Monday, is scheduled to reopen later today (Thurs 13 April) after the surfacing and tie-in of the New Drayton Lane roundabout. The road will be kept clear over the Easter holiday, but traffic lights will be used off-peak next week (18th-21st) for finishing-off work.
Reepham Road – closure
Reepham Road will close for up to three weeks from Tuesday 18 April to complete the construction and tie-in of the Drayton Lane roundabout. For traffic from the Reepham direction, the diversion will be via Fir Covert Road and the A1067. From Norwich, the diversion will be along Boundary Road (Ring Road), the A1067 Drayton High Road/Fakenham Road and Fir Covert Road.
Drayton Hall Lane and School Road, Drayton, are not suitable diversion routes. Both are traffic calmed, and School Road passes two schools and has a 7.5 tonne weight limit so cannot legally be used as a through-route by HGVs.
Salhouse Road – signals followed by closure
Two-way traffic lights will be in use from Tuesday 18 April as construction of the NDR roundabout continues. These will stay in place until the road closes on 8 May for two weeks to complete the roundabout and tie-in to the existing road.
Green Lane West (at North Walsham Road) – signals
From Wednesday (19th) to Friday (21st) next week two-way traffic lights will be in use on Green Lane West near the junction with the B1150 North Walsham Road. The lights will be manually controlled at peak hours.
Wroxham Road – signals
From Tuesday 2 May traffic lights will be in use on Wroxham Road for up to two weeks to allow Anglian Water to carry out service diversions. The lights will be manually controlled to minimise delays.
Norfolk County Council and Balfour Beatty apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Building on the success of the Norfolk Chamber’s popular training courses in 2016 and 2017, we have a new programme for 2018! Chamber Training delivers a more in depth approach to a range of key business skills. We have developed our training programme of 30 courses to suit the demand of our attendees with a wide variety of courses ranging from HR, Personal development to sales and marketing.
Chamber Training offers insight, skills and techniques that you will be able to apply directly to your work. Special discounted rates apply to Norfolk Chamber members on all training courses from £125+ VAT.
Members can also access our free 1 hour bitesize Chamber Sessions which are delivered by our members.
2018 Training Programme
Search Engine Optimsation 30 January 2018 13:00 – 16:30 Time Managememt 01 February 2018 09:00 – 12:30 LinkedIn for Business 15 February 2018 09:00 – 12:30 Create Profitable Google AdWords Campaigns 27 February 2018 09:00 – 12:30 Essentials of Email Marketing 06 March 2018 13:00 – 16:30 Finance for non-financial managers 15 March 2018 09:00 – 12:30 The Art of Networking 27 March 2018 09:00 – 12:30 How to improve your sales success 05 April 2018 09:00 – 12:30 Building Rapport with Clients 17 April 2018 09:00 – 12:30 How to Succeed with paid Socail Media Advertising 24 April 2018 09:00 – 12:30 Engaging Writing for Business 01 May 2018 09:00 – 12:30 Google Analytics 08 May 2018 09:00 – 12:30 Facebook for Business 10 May 2018 09:00 – 12:30 Improve your E-commerce sales 22 May 2018 09:00 – 12:30 Create Profitable Google AdWords Campaigns 05 June 2018 09:00 – 12:30 LinkedIn for Business 08 June 2018 09:00 – 12:30 Art of Networking 12 June 2018 09:00 -12:30 Search Engine Optimsation 19 June 2018 09:00 – 12:30 Essentials of Email Marketing 03 July 2018 09:00 -12:30 Twitter for Business 10 July 2018 09:00 – 12:30 Time Management 12 July 2018 13:00 – 16:30 Finance for non – financial Managers 12 September 2018 09:00 -12:30 Building Rapport with Clients 02 October 2018 09:00 – 12:30 How to Improve your sales success 18 October 2018 13:00 – 16:30 Search Engine Optimsation 06 November 2018 09:00 – 12:30 Google Analytics 08 November 2018 13:00 – 16:30 Art of Networking 22 November 2018 13:00 – 16:30 Engaging Writing for Business 27 November 2018 09:00 – 12:30 Essentials of Email Marketing 29 January 2019 09:00 – 12:30 Time Management 05 February 2019 09:00 – 12:30 Facebook for Business 14 February 2019 13:00 – 12:30 Create Profitable Google AdWords Campaigns 26 February 2019 09:00 – 12:30 LinkedIn for Business 07 March 2019 09:00 – 12:30 Twitter for Business 14 March 2019 13:00 – 16:30 Finance for non – financial Managers 19 March 2019 09:00 – 12:30
We have four GDPR experts joining us from a variety of sectors at the morning conference that will highlight the key issues facing businesses when the General Data Protection Regulation act takes effect in May 2018.
Our speakers will endeavour to diffuse any confusion or nerves surrounding the act, which is set to alter how businesses operate and communicate with both their current and potential customers, in order to make sure you know the steps you’ll need to carry out to comply with the new regulations.
We have Alex Saunders joining us from Leathes Prior who will focus on the legal framework of the regulations, providing a brief bulletin of the key steps businesses to take, particularly focusing on how to acquire consent from your customers to hold their data.
Emily Marchant, a marketing professional from Selesti will address the challenges of marketing out to customers but also how it should be considered an opportunity to be creative with communicating with customers.
We will also be hearing from Darren Chapman from Cyberscale. Darren is a Cyber Security expert and will be cover the practical steps businesses need to take in order to ensure they are compliant with GDPR principles, stressing the importance of a robust Cyber Security strategy.
Speaking on behalf of Breakwater IT, John Gostling will explore how to ensure any data a business holds is stored securely in order to prevent a breach which could put customer data at risk.
For more information on any of our speakers, please click here to go to the event page on our website.
Join us to hear from these expert speakers and to network with fellow Norfolk businesses who will be coming together at the Space, Norwich on Tuesday 13th March to discuss all things GDPR. Click here to book your place. If you are interesting in having an exhibition stand at the conference please email [email protected] to discuss.
Nearly 80 businesses from around the Norwich area attended the latest in a series on consultation events held with Norfolk Chamber and New Anglia LEP to help shape the delivery plans for the new economic strategy for our region.
Hayley Mace, Head of Communications at the New Anglia LEP, brought businesses up to speed on the strategy so far and presented the vision for the future of the region, which includes ambitious new targets such as creating 88,000 new jobs; seeing 30,000 new businesses created; and increasing GVA to £39 per hour by 2036.
Delegates then took part in lively group discussions to report which activities they are currently undertaking to support business development, what changes they wish to see in our region and how these will impact on their organisations.
Nova Fairbank, Public Affairs Manager at Norfolk Chamber said:
“Norfolk Chamber believes it is vitally important that local businesses understand the part they play in helping to deliver the new Economic Strategy. The consultations events help to capture what is already being delivered in all areas of Norfolk and what else businesses are planning for the future. This feedback will ensure that there is no duplication of activity and will allow other areas to benefit from best practice. Even more essentially the feedback will show where the gaps are and what is needed to help support economic growth and jobs in those areas.”
The strategy consultations events have proven to be very popular with Norfolk businesses that are keen to share their experiences and contribute to shaping future economic developments.
Parliament’s debate on triggering Article 50 and formally initiating the Brexit process is taking place against a backdrop of UK companies arguing that the EU will, and must, remain an important trading partner.
These views have been underlined by the latest International Trade Survey published by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC).
Based on nearly 1500 responses, the survey found that UK companies remain committed to strong trading relationships with European customers and suppliers despite the UK’s vote to leave the EU.
Three-quarters (76%) of respondents currently sell goods and services into the EU market, with a similar proportion (73%) saying that they source goods and services from Europe.
Despite the UK withdrawing from EU membership, more than a third (36%) of survey respondents reported that they intend to put more resources into exporting to the European market over the next five years.
The survey also found that 18% of businesses are planning to allocate more resources to sourcing products and services from the Union’s Member States.
In terms of the UK’s future trading arrangements with the EU, respondents identified the three main priorities for Brexit negotiations as: tariffs; non-tariff barriers; and product standards, certification and compliance.
Commenting on the findings, Dr Adam Marshall described the results as an important reminder of the fact that it is businesses that trade, not governments. Businesses want the best possible terms of trade following the Brexit negotiations, whatever the ultimate model adopted, he added.
“Although the likely outcome of the Brexit negotiations remains unclear, businesses still see Europe as a primary market for both selling and sourcing inputs – even after the UK leaves the EU,” Dr Marshall concluded.