Member Blog

There are many banks providing business finance in the UK and dozens more organisations providing finance, from peer-to-peer lenders to asset based financiers.

Each lender’s regional reach and appetite across sectors differs – so it may well be that whilst one lender can’t help you – another might.

The Government and BBA have worked with an array of finance providers to produce a useful directory to help you find alternative finance providers:

www.businessfinanceforyou.co.uk

There are also Community Development Finance Institutions, peer-to-peer lenders, asset financiers, invoice finance and more that can be accessed through businessfinanceforyou.co.uk and you can find out more at www.gov.uk/business-finance-explained.

Please also use the Norfolk Chamber Directory to find local sources of funding

Many businesses aren’t aware that when applying for finance, lenders will check the credit scores of the business and its directors.

Your credit score can be affected by a range of things, including:-

• Unpaid bills (yours or others at your address)
• Whether you’re on the electoral roll
• Paying suppliers promptly
• Past searches for credit (including getting quotes for finance or utility contracts)

If you have been surprised to be declined finance it may be worth asking a credit reference agency for your score – visit www.bipa.uk.com to find out more.

The major banks ( Barclays, HSBC, RBS (incl. NatWest), Lloyds (incl. Halifax/Bank of Scotland) and Santander (plus NI banks) in the UK and Northern Ireland have agreed that if your loan application is declined you have the right of appeal, as part of the BBA Better Business Finance Programme (betterbusinessfinance.co.uk).

When an appeal is raised, the decision will be reviewed by a second person from within the bank who was not involved in the original decision.

The banks will consider all the information originally provided and ask for more where they think it is necessary.

Barclays https://tinyurl.com/BarclaysAppeals

RBS https://tinyurl.com/RBSAppeals

Santander https://tinyurl.com/SantanderAppeals

Lloyds TSB https://tinyurl.com/LloydsAppeals

HSBC https://tinyurl.com/HSBCAppeals

The whole process is monitored and scrutinised by an independent team to ensure the banks are implementing a fair, prompt and transparent process.

In the first year of the programme, an appeal led to a change in decision in 4 out of 10 cases as a result of the process.

How do I appeal? If you have been declined finance you bank should have given you instructions on how to appeal with your decline. You will need to instigate an appeal if you feel you have been declined unfairly. In most cases it can be started with a phone call to your bank, and there isn’t a charge.

An appeal can be made after any formal request for lending had been declined – this means any application that has gone through a credit assessment, after the bank has received the information from you to make a decision.

The bank should explain to you why your application has not been successful, and work with you to reshape the request if possible and give guidance on alternative sources of finance if appropriate. The banks and the BBA are making this as easy as possible.

Where is there more information? Contact your bank for information on appealing.

Alternatively, the participating banks and the BBA launched the website https://www.betterbusinessfinance.co.uk to provide more information on the appeals process and lending in general.

There is a range of Government support for finance Just as businesses have different finance needs, there are a range of different Government support products for businesses, from grants to loans for start-ups, to tax breaks for angel investors.

You can find information on all Government schemes, a tool to help identify the most relevant ones at: gov.uk/business-finance-support-finder

What is the capital grant scheme? The Low Carbon KEEP capital grant scheme allows SMEs to recoup 40% of the cost of purchasing capital items, such as essential equipment or software, which are fundamental to the success of a Low Carbon KEEP project. All capital items purchased utilising Low Carbon KEEP capital grant funding will remain in the ownership of the SME partner. Should the Low Carbon KEEP project come to a premature conclusion, the amount of the capital grant awarded will be proportionally reduced. . If you decide not to apply for capital funding at the beginning of your Low Carbon KEEP project, but change your mind afterwards, you can still apply at a later date, provided your project has not come to an end.

What is the maximum value of capital funding available? The maximum value of ERDF capital funding available to any single project is £20,000. All grant calculations and payments are made excluding VAT. The capital grant funding can be used to purchase more than one item on more than one occasion

Can you provide an example of a capital grant item which is deemed fundamental? All items deemed eligible for funding must be fundamentally linked to the project activity proposed and be directly beneficial to its delivery. For example a logistics project might legitimately propose capital expenditure on vehicle tracking devices but not on the installation of low energy lighting equipment in the SME Partner’s offices. The role of the capital items proposed must be fully explained and justified in the body of the application. All items must be procured according to ERDF regulations to be eligible for payment. The approval of proposed capital expenditure is entirely at the discretion of the programme’s assessment panel. If in any doubt as to the legitimacy of a proposed capital purchase the partnership must consult with the programme management team prior to submission of the application.

Who is responsible for payment when initially purchasing capital items? All claims to funders are made retrospectively on a quarterly basis, with the SME incurring the entire expenditure in the first instance.

When will the SME partner receive the funds from the capital grant scheme? No grant will be paid to the SME Partner before it has been successfully claimed from funders by the programme management team. This may take several months.

When can the SME partner make a capital purchase to be eligible to claim funds from the capital grant scheme? The SME Partner must be prepared to enter into a Capital Grant Agreement with the Low Carbon KEEP Programme prior to any purchases being made. No claims will be processed without a fully signed agreement in place. All items must be fully evidenced and that evidence submitted in a timely manner to be included in programme claims to the funders.

Any other useful information? All costs detailed in the application must be as accurate as possible. The monetary amounts detailed will be used to form the basis of the Capital Grant Agreement and will not be altered after approval of the project. It is strongly recommended that accurate quotes are sought from potential suppliers to achieve the required level of accuracy.

For more details contact

• Email: [email protected]
• Tel. 0845 196 4310/5818

Britain is getting greener. The drip feed of climate change news stories, new-look rubbish dumps and colour-coded bins filling our front gardens has paid off and the amount of rubbish recycled or thrown away by the British has fallen by 15% over the last six years. Recycling has made a big impact, with around half our household waste now recycled. However, there’s also been an overall reduction in the amount of household waste produced, falling in by as much as 7% in some places. Some of this is down to the recession – people spending less equates to less packaging; a stagnant housing market means less moves and fewer attics, cellars and sheds to be cleared. However, one of the most striking trends is the decline in the amount of newspaper being recycled and this correlates directly to the 28% fall in the circulation of British national dailies as we increasingly turn to digital sources for our news. In fact, the latest Reuters Institute Digital Report shows that smartphones now play a big role in news consumption with 28% of their survey sample accessing news via their mobile each week in the UK.

Good New for the Environment? Good news for the environment then? Possibly, but the perception that digital news is somehow ‘carbon light’ compared with newspaper products is wrong. The Guardian has taken the bold step of publishing the carbon footprint for its entire digital media operations and estimates that for providing content for www.guardian.co.uk and www.guardiannews.com this was about 10,000 tonnes of CO2e last year. This is around a third of the company’s current overall carbon footprint and about the same as the carbon emissions of Luxemburg!

Behind this ‘big number’ is the Guardian’s willingness to try and get under the skin of the complexity of the internet and attribute realistic power consumption and CO2e figures to each leg of the ‘news pixel’s’ journey – from the device you read the news on, across the network, to the various datacentres and servers they control around the world and back again. Most revealing is the fact that the vast majority of the energy consumed is by customer devices – Wi-Fi hubs, modems, laps tops and smart phones account for about 86% of the footprint, while the data centres that support them account for single digit percentage points of power usage.

The Guardian covers its report with caveats around the estimates and informed guesses it has had to make about these emissions, however the holistic view of the energy consumed by a pixel of news from the journalist’s typing fingers to the reader does reveal that behind the shift from paper-based news to digital news is an equally important shift in energy consumption from the producer to the consumer.

Related articles: Digital carbon footprint: steps in the right directionhttps://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainability/sustainability-report-2012-digital-carbon-footprint

Last week, the House of Lords voted again on the Government’s proposed changes to civil liability for employers who breach health and safety legislation.

The Lords had previously voted against Clause 62 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill, removing civil liability for such breaches but that was overturned in the Commons, and the matter was returned for further consideration by the Lords earlier this week.

The ‘controversial change’ (not much in real life in our opinion) will see an amendment to s47 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, removing the existing right of an employee to rely on a breach of health and safety legislation, in order to obtain compensation.

The current law provides that where statutory health & safety regulations are not complied with leading to injury or damage, the claimant can seek compensation on the basis of the employer’s breach of those regulations. The changes mean that it will only be possible to claim compensation for accidents which would currently constitute a breach of health and safety regulations where it can be proved by the claimant that the employer has been negligent at common law.

The proposals stem from Professor Lofstedt’s report, “Reclaiming health and safety for all: An independent Review of health and safety legislation” which recommended an overhaul to the regulatory system, including the reduction of (perceived) red tape & the review of strict liability for civil actions.

However, in his progress report published earlier this year, the Government’s approach to civil liability is “more far reaching” than Professor Lofstedt anticipated. Suggestions have also been made that this change will place a heavy reliance on the Health & Safety Executive to ensure compliance, particularly given recent funding cuts (about 35%).

However, those in favour of the change argue that it is not justifiable to hold employers’ liable for incidents outside of their control, which could not reasonably have been prevented and that the change is required to address a perceived and growing “compensation culture”. The Government’s view is that fear of civil suits is causing employers to over implement health & safety requirements and to insist on unnecessarily cautious work practices, both of which are increasing costs and reducing business growth, and stopping people from doing things sensibly- hiring an expensive work platform – when a bit of planning, a well maintained ladder and 2 competent members of staff could have done the job

Concerns have been raised about the impact that the removal of civil liability for health & safety breaches will have on injured parties.

At present, an employer can often defend a civil claim for breach of health & safety regulations on the basis that it has taken all reasonably practicable steps to comply with its duties. There are a few limited circumstances where strict liability applies, allowing an employer no defence if a breach of the relevant regulation is established.

For example The requirements of the Lifting Operations & Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (to thoroughly examine lifts/ lifting gear) & the requirement for a Written Scheme of Examination under the Pressure systems (Safety) Regulations 2000 are examples of strict liability, many other requirements have the caveat so far as is reasonably practicable’ which gives business the opportunity to devise a cost/ benefit solution but is obviously open to (mis)interpretation and over zealous enforcement/ action

During the Lords’ debate, the Government argued that the cases that will be most significantly affected by this change are “those which would have previously relied on an absolute or strict liability duty”. This argument appears to be based on the assumption that the issues and evidence to be considered for a claim in negligence will still be broadly the same as those which currently apply in relation to claims brought for a breach of statutory duty where the “reasonably practicable” defence is available, and that therefore the change will not place any greater burden on claimants than they currently face.

However, the removal of strict liability would seem to move the risk of injury through simple misfortune from the employer to the employee, and seems to be a step away from the “no fault” approach to compensation which some have argued for. The Lords’ vote means Clause 62 will be included as part of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill when the bill receives royal assent.

Our job at Bigfork is to help our clients get more business from their websites, this article is aimed at businesses who want to convert their website visitors into customers. This doesn’t necessarily mean an immediate sale, as in many business to business markets, the website’s objective is to create leads.

Start tracking with Google Analytics First you need to know where your website visitors are coming from and what pages they are looking at. If your website doesn’t have Google Analytics I strongly recommend you sign up. Google Analytics can show you a huge range of data about your website but the key performance indicators are

• number of “new visitors” (not “all visitors” which can include returning traffic)
• where they are coming from (e.g. search engines, referral websites, social media etc)
• what key words they are using to find you from search engines
• what website pages visitors are looking at
• how many of your visitors are using mobile

One of the most useful features on Google Analytics is Goal tracking. Here you can measure real website performance such brochure downloads, enquiry form completions, online sales, etc. You can even link your Goals to traffic sources (e.g. Google) to see where the best visitors come from.

Develop an online marketing plan“If you fail to plan, then plan to fail” Harvey Mackay This sounds obvious but most SME’s don’t do this and it’s a big mistake. This article is not specifically about driving traffic to your website but about website conversion. However for good conversion rates you need to be driving relevant traffic to your website. Your online marketing plan doesn’t need to be huge but should cover the basics such as:

• who is your target audience?
• what do they want to see on your website?
• how will you drive them to your website? (e.g. high Google rankings, Adwords, social media)
• what do you want from the website? (sales, leads, enquiries)

You need to do this before you start designing and planning your website, otherwise you will find yourself changing it repeatedly afterwards, wasting time and money.

Improve your website’s content“Customers buy holes, not drills” Theodore Levitt Your customers go to your website for your content – products, services and useful information. Read through your website’s content as a customer would to see how relevant it is. Our experience shows that the most viewed pages on websites are product pages followed by the “Contact Us” page. Customers go to your website to see if what you sell will solve their problem, so your content needs to focus on benefits to the customer. Supporting content such as News, Articles, Company information is useful for credibility and search engine optimisation but is not viewed much by visitors, so don’t give it too much focus.

Use Google Analytics to see what the most popular content on your website is and then see how you can improve it.

Check your websites “user experience”.“Design is not just what it looks like. Design is how it works” Steve Jobs If your website visitors find it too hard to reach the content they want on your website then you will lose them. Improve your website by going through it to see where the customer journey can be improved. Set yourself tasks that visitors might want to do such as find the benefits of a specific product, who do I contact, how much can I save by using your product?

A good way of doing this is to ask your existing customers how easy they find your website to use and what they don’t like about it.

Improve your website copy Website copy is as important as design. So many websites talk nonsense and fill their pages with irrelevant copy. If your website pages are very wordy then work on cutting it down to the key benefits and messages. If you need to have a detailed technical document then have this as a separate download or page.

Make sure your copy focuses on the key benefits of your product in a language that your customers will understand. Does your website copy appeal, persuade and convert? If not then re-write it in a voice that fits your brand and appeals to customers.

Make sure your design works Design is always an emotive issue and everyone has a view on it. If you want your website to be effective then design for your target audience and for conversion. Too many websites have been designed to please the wrong people. The job of design is to look credible and appealing to your customers. Check to see if your website :

• is correctly branded with your company’s logo, colours, slogans etc and is consistent with all other marketing communications you produce
• has high quality images/video that presents your products, services and team in the best way as low quality will not appeal to your customers
• uses colour and fonts that will position your company correctly eg if you have a premium product make sure your website uses appropriate colours and fonts and not ones that cheapen it.
• includes your key messages/slogans within the design

First impressions count and if your website has poor images and looks unprofessional it’s unlikely you will get many quality leads from your site.

Calls To Action (CTA) A Call to Action is what you want your website visitors to do. Every website needs to have calls to action to be effective. To create good CTAs you need to think about what you want your customers to do and, importantly, what they want to do. Please remember that all customers are different, some will be happy to telephone, some will prefer a more cautious enquiry form. Include several CTAs and see what works best. Examples of Calls To Action include:

• Call us for a quote
• Book an appointment
• Sign Up for free trial
• Call me back
• Download our brochure
• Buy Now Online
• Take a Tour

Each CTA needs to draw attention through size, contrasting colours and use of graphics (e.g. buttons). They also need to be in prominent positions such as the top section of pages to increase conversions. Link your CTA’s to your Google Analytics to track the performance of them and how customers got there.

Data capture Many of your website visitors may not respond on their first visit. However you need to try and capture their details so that you can remind them of your products in the future through email marketing or direct mail. Unless your product is highly desirable just asking for an email address for newsletters is unlikely to persuade them to part with their email address. Try tempting your visitors by offering them something for free such as money off vouchers, ebooks, useful resources etc. This will increase your data capture rates significantly.

Many companies also like to capture email addresses when people request brochures etc online. Remember you need to gain their permission for ongoing marketing by adding an “I agree to ….” tick box.

Establish credibility A potential customer is always asking themselves “Why should I buy from this company?” especially when they land on your website. They will be looking for signs that you are a professional company who will deliver on service and solve any problems. Effective “credibility tactics” for your website can include: Customer testimonials

• Lists of clients
• Case Studies
• Trade association membership logos
• Guarantees and warranties
• Any relevant policies such as terms and conditions, customer charters etc.
• Address and telephone number of your business

Mobiles and Browsers People are increasingly using smartphones and tablets to look at websites so you need to see how important this is for your business. Google Analytics can show you how many new visitors are using mobile devices to gauge how important it is currently. If it is above 10% of your traffic then it’s important. Check to see how your website views on smartphones and tablets and what the customer experience is. If it’s not good then consider having a mobile version designed or a new “responsive design” website (this automatically sizes your website to fit the devices screen). For many businesses such as restaurants, hotels and estate agents mobile traffic is becoming their biggest source of website visitors.

Does your website work across all the major browsers i.e. Internet Explorer, Chrome and Firefox? Many websites are not cross browser compatible and lose sales because their website doesn’t work properly in a specific browser.

Hire a professional“If you think hiring a professional is expensive, try hiring an amateur.” Red Adair

Unless you can really do this yourself, please don’t try this stuff at home, hire a professional. We receive many calls from frustrated companies that have had websites badly designed, normally to save money. Your website is your company’s most important marketing tool, so treat it as an investment, not a cost.

Despite what many organisations may think, health and safety laws are not devised to make life as difficult as possible for struggling businesses.

Nobody has purposely introduced a law simply to drain an organisation of its valuable time and resources and every piece of legislation is designed to ensure employees’ working environments are as safe as possible. That said, there are certain rules that perhaps have not been fully thought out and then there are outdated regulations that are no longer effective in 2013.

Businesses in Britain have been particularly irked by some health and safety laws that have been enforced at European level, even if the UK government is not necessarily on board. This is obviously very topical at the moment, with David Cameron recently proposing a referendum for 2017, which will ultimately decide whether the UK remains as a member of the EU.

There are many pros and cons to weigh up when deciding if the UK is better off alone and the issue will inevitably divide society. The outcome of this referendum will obviously have a huge impact on the health and safety laws that are applied in this country, as there is every chance that the government will scrap any rules that it was under pressure to enforce, despite being none-too-keen at the time. Obviously, this works both ways and popular laws that the EU has insisted upon may also fall by the wayside.

Regardless of whether the UK decides to break free from the clutches of Brussels or not, it seems the government has already set about overhauling the nation’s health and safety laws. Earlier this month, the Department for Work & Pensions released a statement that highlighted the work that the authorities have put into ridding the UK of unnecessary red tape.

Professor Ragnar Lofstedt said he was very happy to see that the government has followed the recommendations made in his 2011 ‘Reclaiming Health and Safety for all’ report, which suggested that the application of safety regulations in the UK is somewhat over-zealous.

A separate report indicated that the government has already implemented 23 out of 35 suggestions made in Lord Young’s 2010 report ‘Commons Sense, Common Safety’. Lord Young was particularly keen to see an end to the growing compensation culture and the negative press surrounding health and safety laws.

“For too long businesses have been confused by health and safety regulations which cost them money and take up time when they should be focusing on growth,” commented minister for employment Mark Hoban.

“Health and safety is important, but its focus should be where risks are high. These reports show just how much progress we have made in restoring clarity to the system, and over the coming months I’ll be making sure common sense prevails.”

There are plenty of examples of the government making effective changes, but two that stand out in particular are the tweaking of accident reporting rules – which will save companies £5 million over ten years – and the simplification of electrical product safety laws, which can reduce business costs by a staggering £30 million.

Quite rightly, the government’s proactive approach has gone down very well with the Federation of Small Businesses, which said it is important that firms focus on “real risks”, rather than being bogged down with reams of paperwork.

Although it is refreshing to see the government championing common sense, it is still vital that enterprises do all they can to adhere to existing health and safety guidelines. Figures from the Health and Safety Executive show that 173 workers suffered fatal occupational injuries in 2011/12 and although this was 12 per cent lower than the five-year average, it is still far too many. Compensation by insurers to employees for injuries sustained at work in 2010/11 was estimated at £1billion, according to www.hse.gov.uk. “By not complying with health and safety regulations, businesses are opening themselves up to claims by their staff. In a situation where insufficient attention has been paid to health and safety precautions, insurers are often unable to defend claims.” States Peter Foster, Hugh J Boswell Managing Director. “Initial time and financial savings can be achieved by a business not dealing with health and safety matters appropriately, but the result is likely to be increased liability insurance premiums, additional costs such as increased employee absence and of course potential prosecution by the HSE. I would therefore urge businesses to fully consider their approach to health and safety in the workplace and the implications of not doing so”.

If you are an SMEkeen to save money through energy, water or waste efficiency measures or technologies then the Grants4Growth programme can help. A much wider range of interventions then you perhaps think can potentially be funded including;

• New heating systems • New lighting units • Building fabric improvement • Fenestration upgrades • Fleet and vehicle replacements • New plant and machinery, and much more…

If there is a more efficient alternative to what is currently in use then it is likely that funding can be made available to assist with the capital expenditure.

Equally if you are a Low Carbon and Environmental Products and Services SME company then a small revenue grants fund is available to assist with marketing and promotional activities.

Both ERDF funding streams are subject to eligibility criteria and approval of a Grants Panel. Grants of up to 28% for capital expenditure and up to 30% revenue expenditure are available. Typical grants range from £1,000 to anything up to £20,000 depending on the total cost and whether jobs are secured and created as result.

Specialist Business Brokers are employed by the programme to assist SME’s with checking their eligibility and suitability, and completing the application forms required.

Within the first 8 weeks of the programme businesses have already benefited and many others are in the process of applying for grants. The programme runs until 31st March 2015.

If you are not sure whether your proposed investment qualifies or just want to know what we can fund then please get in touch for an informal chat. If suitable then one of our Busines Brokers can come and see you and talk you through the simple application process.

The latest workplace absence figures published in 2012 show that musculoskeletal problems such as back, neck, shoulder and knee pain are still proving to be a huge issue for people across the UK, blighting the lives of millions.

The level of pain caused by musculoskeletal disorders can range from mild to severe and can be extremely debilitating, often preventing people from going to work and limiting their everyday activities.

And, although there has been a downward trend in work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) over the last 10 years*, they still accounted for the greatest number of working days lost to ill health in 2012 according to the Office for National Statistics.

Conditions including back pain, neck and upper limb problems were responsible for more than a quarter of all work days lost – the equivalent of 35 million days.

Back pain alone affects more than 1.1 million people in the UK, with 95 per cent of patients suffering from lower back problems. It can affect anyone at any age and most people will suffer from it at some point in their lives

So, how can staff keep on top of musculoskeletal problems to make sure MSDs don’t leave the workforce feeling less than sunny this season?

The general advice for people who suffer back pain[2] is to stay active, try simple pain relief and seek medical help if necessary.

The Health and Safety Executive recommends that employers help staff to identify the cause of an MSD, allowing the employer to review their risk assessment and attempt to rectify the problem.

It is also recommended that staff with back pain and other injuries should be encouraged to come back to work where possible and to keep regular communication between the employee and employer.

Westfield Health’s Chamber Primary Health Plan, which is available to all members of Norfolk Chamber of Commerce, offers a range of benefits to help staff manage MSDs, including physiotherapy, chiropractic treatment, osteopathy and acupuncture.

By using their Westfield Health cover, staff can return to work sooner by avoiding lengthy waiting times and getting aches and pains treated quickly at an appointment time and place convenient to them – minimising disruption to the working day.

And for serious conditions such as hip and knee problems that could require surgery, employees can also be covered by Westfield Health’s new Hospital Treatment Insurance (HTI).

HTI is available to all members of Norfolk Chamber with five or more employees, either as a standalone product or, for more comprehensive cover, it can be used in conjunction with Westfield’s Chamber Plan.

For more information about the Chamber Plan, visit www.westfieldhealth.com/chamber or call 0845 602 1629, available 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday.

If the never-ending ‘To Do’ list at work seems unachievable and lunchtime means another hurried sandwich eaten ‘al desko’ in the office, then you’re not alone.

According to research, 40 per cent of office workers are under ‘dangerously high’ levels of stress due to a combination of unpaid overtime, unachievable expectations and taking on additional duties for colleagues.*

‘Staff burnout’ is becoming a common problem for nearly a third (30 per cent) of companies, according to the study of HR directors, with 67 per cent of respondents believing workload to be to blame. Long working hours and unachievable expectations were also piling on the pressure for stressed workforces.

Phil Sheridan of recruitment firm Robert Half UK, which commissioned the research, said: “Employee burnout can affect almost any professional, from top boss to rank and file employee.

“Many employees who have been tackling increased workloads while putting in long hours are beginning to lose their motivation at work.”

Symptoms of employee burnout include emotional outbursts, becoming withdrawn and more frequent sickness absence.

Stress is even affecting mealtimes and breaks for some of us, with another recent survey finding half of respondents putting in so much overtime they eat both breakfast and lunch at work – or ‘al desko’ – while ten per cent eat all three of their daily meals in the workplace.

There is some good news, however, with half of the directors surveyed saying they were trying to tackle stress and prevent employee burnout with methods including promoting a teamwork-based environment, reviewing job functions and flexible working options.

There are also proactive steps employees can also take to help themselves when times are tough.

Westfield Health’s Chamber Primary Health Plan, which is available to all members of Norfolk Chamber of Commerce, includes a 24 hour counselling and advice line.

Policyholders can call the 24/7 line and speak to counsellors day or night to access help and support with issues including work-related stress and anxiety, as well as any personal issues affecting them.

The plan also offers access to up to six face to face counselling sessions, including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), a form of therapy which focuses on thoughts, images, beliefs and attitudes and how they relate to the way we behave.

For more information about the Chamber Plan, visit www.westfieldhealth.com/chamber or call 0845 602 1629, available 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday.

The quashing of an Inspector’s decision to grant planning permission for a wind farm development has highlighted the special status given by the law to the need to preserve listed buildings and their settings.

Listed buildings have had special protection in the planning system since 1990, when section 66(1) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act introduced a requirement that when considering a planning application for development that affects a listed building or its setting the decision maker, “shall have special regard to the desirability of preserving the building or its setting or any features of special architectural or historic interest which it possess”.

In East Northamptonshire District Council v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government the Council, together with English Heritage and the National Trust, challenged an Inspector’s decision to grant planning permission on appeal for a wind farm development located in the vicinity of a number of listed buildings and Lyveden New Bield, a Grade 1 listed Elizabethan garden.

While the Inspector recognised the statutory test set out in section 66(1) and found that the proposal would cause harm to the setting of a range of designated heritage assets, his view was that, “At its worst, that harm would not reach the level of substantial”.

The judge quashed the decision on a number of heritage related grounds but was especially critical of the failure by the Inspector to recognise that the effect of section 66(1) was that any detrimental impact on listed buildings or their setting should be given “special weight”. Her criticism was that the Inspector had treated the harm to the setting of the listed buildings and the benefits of the proposed wind farm as if they were equal factors and in doing so ignored the special importance that Parliament has placed on the protection of listed buildings by passing section 66(1).

Comment: This case is a helpful reminder that not all material considerations should be treated the same. In the same way as the Development Plan has a special legal significance, so to do those material considerations that have a statutory underpinning. At a time when material considerations such as the strong Government policy support for renewable energy and the National Planning Policy Framework can appear to be sweeping all other material considerations before them, it is important that decisions take proper account of all material considerations in order to avoid possible legal challenge.