Our annual flagship policy event returned face-to-face this year at The Halls, St Andrews Plain, Norwich on the 4th February. Bringing together local MPs and business leaders to debate topics that were picked by local businesses. The topics chosen were People, Skills and Wellbeing, Growth and Innovation, Transport and Infrastructure and Climate Change. The Big Debate was once again sponsored by Greater Anglia. Stand sponsors Ascot Lloyd, Charles Stanley and Howes Percival also joined the event. Over 90 people attended the event, including a high calibre of panellists such as Chloe Smith MP, Clive Lewis MP, James Wild MP and George Freeman MP, plus senior representatives from Norfolk businesses, education providers and local authorities such as Aviva, Turning Factor, KonectBus, City College Norwich and Norfolk County Council. Debate 1: Climate Change The first panel debate of the event was Climate Change with Ellen Goodwin, Infrastructure Manager and Clean Growth lead at New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership, Paul McCarthy General Manager at Chantry Place, Stuart Wright Operations Net Zero Delivery Director at Aviva and Clive Lewis, Labour MP Norwich South. How can we help businesses on the education of climate change? Clive Lewis – Net-zero isn’t sufficient. We need to be going further and faster – that window is closing fast. What can you do? You can ensure your staff, where possible, work from home, go to a four-day week – make sure you’re building is carbon neutral with solar panels. The bigger part of the story is for businesses like you to lobby government for real change. Paul McCarthy – Many businesses understand that it’s an issue, some may think it’s not as drastic as we’ve heard but they all recognise that climate change is real – we all have our part to play in addressing it. What the Business Climate Leaders programme is all about is to try and help businesses – to support, to educate them on their journey – it’s designed to help do the right thing, as quickly as they possibly can by putting them in touch with people who can help. The programme is there to help them, whilst they run their businesses to. How does a business start a net-zero journey? Ellen Goodwin – We’re working to support businesses with a community renewable fund to help businesses take that first step – most people recognise the challenge, we want to provide consultancy support, SME support, decarbonisation plans, carbon calculators – this is a pilot game with an evaluation plan – a first step space. Stuart Wright – This is an extinction event. If we don’t take this seriously now, planning won’t matter. It sounds very dramatic, but that is the reality. Aviva has a net-zero programme, and net-zero has to be done properly, the first thing a company needs to do is to reduce its carbon emissions by 90% between now and 2030 – that’s a chunky ambition and we call it that because it’s an ambition. It’s about ambition, understanding technology, and getting it done. Debate 2: People, Skills and Wellbeing Joining the debate panel was Chloe Smith MP Norwich North, David Melloy Business Development Manager Ascot Lloyd, Rebecca White CEO Your Own Place and Jerry White Deputy Principal City College. Now we’re getting through lockdown, how do we go about tackling wellbeing and productivity for employees? Chloe Smith – Embrace more talent into the workplace. Jerry White – The last two years have been challenging, we need to ensure people still feel part of the workplace culture with this way of working. Social check-ins with teams who work online is really important – it’s about asking how we use technology so we feel connected. David Melloy – It’s great to see everyone face to face, but for us as our advisors were having virtual meetings, you were seeing them in their homes – you do learn a lot about people, it has been a big change and has affected how we work as a firm. Rebecca White – Whether on zoom or teams, our approach to Wellbeing is about values, and either or not you care about your team, it’s the more about mortar more than the bricks Debate 3: Transport and Infrastructure The third panel of the event to debate transport and infrastructure was Jonathan Denby Head of Corporate Affairs Greater Anglia, Jeremy Wiggin Team Leader Norfolk County Council, James Wild MP West Norfolk, Steve Royal Network Manager Konextbus and Peter Brown Managing Director Jack Richards. How will Norfolk develop public transport networks that are appealing and practical to tempt staff out of private cars when making journeys to and from work? Steve Royal – it’s quite simple, we need to make public transport more attractive, the only way you’ll get people to use public transport is to make it better than driving by car – put in the services that people want – it’s a big challenge. We’ve got to encourage more people out of their cars, but they have to have a product that delivers that. Jonathan Denby – Let people know how good the product is – where frequency or convenience is a disincentive for people to use the trains – looking at those projects and seeing what we can do to make it more attractive. It’s a package of messages, it’s the pricing – the ticketing, is it on time, can I build my day around it. James Wild – getting people onto ebikes, escooters is essential, encourage more people to get out on bikes. Debate 4: Growth and Innovation For the final debate we welcomed George Freeman MP Mid Norfolk, Alex Sellers Director of Learning Turning Factor, Ashley Shorey-Mills Head of Sizewell C Suffolk Chambers of Commerce and Hayley Johnson Director of Operations Artlist. How do I ensure the whole team is engaged and motivated to support the growth and innovation plans? Alex Sellers – it all comes down to leadership, communication, connecting and talking to people about what you’re doing. George Freeman – Good leadership is about explaining to your team whether is 2 or 200, explaining just how fast things are changing, and actually it’s about listening to your team. Hayley Johnson – Within the creative sector you have to be brave and bold, to put yourself out there – your best innovators are the people who do the work, the really strong culture drives your business. Ashley Shorely-Mills – it’s all about the culture – it’s imperative to involve people – it’s not about top level anymore, it’s the whole business that needs to be involved. Photo credit: Chris Ball ©
