Our annual flagship event The Big Debate returned on the 10th February at The Space, Norwich for 2023. Bringing together local MPs and business leaders to debate topics chosen by the business community. The topics chosen were Transport & Infrastructure, People, Skills & Wellbeing, The Cost of Living Crisis in Norfolk and Zet-Zero & Sustainability. The Big Debate was sponsored by Greater Anglia and hosted by Nova Fairbank, CEO of Norfolk Chambers of Commerce and Neil Foley, Founder of Business Growth Club. Exhibiting in the Welcome area, sponsored by Norse Group were: Sizewell C Supply Chain, Ascot Lloyd, A County Deal for Norfolk, Supply Chain Development Fund, Huxley Events, KonectBus, New Anglia Growth Hub and Norfolk County Council Adult Learning Services. Over 80 people attended the event, including local MPs Chloe Smith and Duncan Baker as well as an exciting list of panellists from Greater Anglia, Konectbus, Norwich Airport, Westcotec, mobilityways, Turning Factor, Wellbeing International, Ascot Lloyd, Banham Zoological Gardens, The Feed, MAD-HR ltd, Norse Group, Natwest, Canopey, SaxonAir, Example Marketing and Holkham Estate. After a short welcome from our CEO Nova Fairbank and our headline sponsors Greater Anglia, The Big Debate kicked off with our first debate and panel – Transport & Infrastructure. We were joined by Duncan Baker, MP for North Norfolk, Julie Furnell, Managing Director of mobilityways, Chris Spinks, Managing Director of Westcotec, Richard Pace, Managing Director of Norwich Airport, Steve Royal, Network Manager for Konectbus, and Jonathan Denby, Head of Corporate Affairs for Greater Anglia. The first question for the panel was: Why is transport and Infrastructure important for the growth of this region? Jonathan Denby – “Norfolk is a lovely place to be, that’s why we are all here but actually for us to thrive we need to have excellent transport to, from and around the county and when we have that it makes it a place people want to come to.” Why do we need improved roads and how does that improve safety? Chris Spinks – “Infrastructure has to be safe for people to feel comfortable to use it. My company make intelligent traffic safety systems and we are all about making the roads better and giving the driver an enhanced level of information so that they can make a better decision about what they are coming up against. My company have installations all across the country, so we have to get out of Norfolk to a network or wherever we are going, its vital for us to say with some confidence that we are going to be at a particular place at a particular time and it doesn’t always lend itself to that because of the amount of single carriage ways we have and roadworks there are. We need to make it safe and attractive for people to use and not feel like they are coming into somewhere where they are going to be stuck.” A question submitted by our audience aimed at MP Duncan Baker – The Norwich western link; a vital infrastructure project or a costly environmental disaster? “It is obviously a vital piece of infrastructure; I have no doubt about that, and the vast majority of Norfolk people actually support finishing the job we started. A country needs infrastructure, if you do not deliver infrastructure you do not deliver growth. If you do not deliver growth, you do not deliver job opportunities and prosperity.” What is the significance of the A47 to businesses in Norfolk and does the route need improving? Richard Pace – “Certainly for an airport surface infrastructure is very important. I am certain that improving that corridor will make more passengers come to our region, spend money at our airport and in our region and not go to other regions. We must also cover that with improved public transport it’s not an either or, we have to do both”. Steve Royal – “In terms of the A47 our main operating base is in Dereham. One of the biggest issues we have is that our main service is Norwich to Dereham, not many weeks go by where something doesn’t go wrong on the A47 which throws our bus services quite widely. The argument is if the roads are improved this then has a wider effect on the public transport delivery. Which means anytime saved with improved road networks can be reinvested into our timetables to improve bus services.” Affordable transport is essential to accessibility for employment. How does mobilityways help that affordable piece, what difference can car sharing make? Julie Furnell – “The key thing we are focussed on is what our members and customers tell us and what they tell us is the impact of cost-of-living crisis has had on them and what solutions they need to be able to get to work and have access to work which is really important when you have transport poor areas. For us if we can share and utilise a vehicle, whether this be a bus or a car we should be doing that, that will help so many factors, real life factors and issues that people are facing today.” The second debate was on People, Skills & Wellbeing, on our panel was Local MP Chloe Smith for Norwich North, Alex Sellers, Operations Director at Turning Factor, Kate Pigeon-Owen, CEO of Wellbeing International, Dean Pierpoint, LSIP Project Manager at Norfolk Chambers of Commerce and David Melloy, Business Development Manager for Ascot Lloyd. In an ideal world what would you like to see from a future skills system that will help businesses and sectors? Chloe Smith – “The two things I think we need to be focusing on which I think are probably hallmarks of this debate is skills. That means businesses having a greater opportunity than probably ever before to think about what skills they want in their workforce. You need to be able to recruit and retain so you need to think about what skills you are looking for. Secondly health, health is coming up the agenda, but there is a really big role here for businesses to grasp that nettle in their own workforce planning.” Alex Sellers – “The skills we are developing as a community need to be relevant, practical and accessible to everybody. One of the key things is that we have got to not put barriers in the way of people accessing these skills wherever they are for example funding. All of the people in this room know what is required, so you need to think long hard and carefully about those skills you need in your workforce and how you are going to keep paying your best people.” Kate Pigeon – Owen – “Leaders need to understand that their team is about holistic view rather than wellbeing being an add on. What matters is that you create a wellbeing culture not because you do this that and the other. It comes from the leaders.” Dean Pierpoint – “It’s about putting businesses at the heart of the skills agenda and everybody in this room having a voice on skills so we can shape future curriculum so that it one is applicable to your business and two it fits into your growth plan. Fill out our survey here so you can actually have a voice and help shape things for the future.” How do we create a county where talented young people want to stay and contribute to the local economy rather than moving to economic hubs such as London and Cambridge? David Melloy – I think collaborations work really well with universities and colleges but also businesses working together. Norfolk has got a fantastic community, we do a lot of networking and we go out of our way to get people together. We should be going into universities, colleges and schools and talking about it.” Chloe Smith – “A highly practical thing we need to do is increase aspiration via role models in schools. Primary futures is a charitable scheme that seeks to get people going into primary schools and doing you can to be a XYZ in the future. Let’s do more of that in Norfolk from the Norfolk employees, this will raise aspiration right here in this city.” Alex Sellers – “We really need to shout about the things we are doing in Norfolk. If we want people to stay in Norfolk then provide a future and provide what we need and shout about it. Stop people from looking externally in the first place.” The Big Debate restarted after a short break with a welcome back from CEO of Norse Group, Justin Galliford. The third panel of the day was Cost-of-Living Crisis in Norfolk. We were joined by Claudia Roberts, Chief Executive of Banham Zoological Gardens, Lucy Parish, CEO of The Feed, Carole Burman, Managing Director of MAD-HR, Justin Galliford, CEO of Norse Group and Andy Gray, Local Enterprise Manager at Natwest. How can Norfolk cope with the cost of living crisis? Andy Gray – “For us at Natwest we have the obvious things that you might expect, supporting people who can’t pay their bills or loans straight away but there is more that we do. For example, we have people from our branches going out into businesses actually supporting the staff members themselves with what is going to be an incredibly hard time. There is a lot more we could all be doing to support our staff and colleagues”. Carole Burman – “The thing that we find is that businesses are trying to be noble and do the best they can possibly do but also recognising that anything that they commit to or that they want to do they have to be able to sustain. When we have spoken to our clients, we have encouraged them to look at those employees who are on the national living wage whether they can make the move to the real living wage. If you have working parents in your business, childcare is probably one of the most expensive costs they are having to endure at the moment. Are you in a position where your staff can work in a different way that would enable them to still contribute and bring value but in a way that they don’t have to pay for quite as much childcare.” Your particular business Banham Zoological Gardens must be struggling as the cost-of-living crisis bites so do peoples discretionary spend. What support would you like to see the government do to help businesses ride the storm? Claudia Roberts – “Our costs went up nearly 33% last year, we had to then restrict the number of staff we had which put more pressure on their mental health. We have now got a minimum wage increase coming in. As far as energy is concerned, we have been campaigning hard around energy and I am pleased to see they have finally understood our issue and from the 1st of April we will be getting some sort of rebate back which is a huge help, but we haven’t had anything over the entire winter, and we run a seasonal business. We are not the only seasonal business who haven’t had any support over energy. Some type of retrospective support is going to be really important because I don’t see the cashflow problems as one now its cumulative. If the government really want SMEs to grow, they are going to have to help those with a smaller turnover”. What can businesses do to support employees during this crisis? Justin Galliford – “I think what’s really important is support. Signposting to things like citizens advise is really important to people. They can talk about the pressures they are facing to people who understand and can support them. For a lot of people their mortgage is going to go up, this is a real issue that will give serious anxiety and concern. That wider support is really important.” Lucy Parrish – “We need to look at what we do and how we can be there to help our employees in a more cost-effective way. For example, everybody who works for me now gets a hot lunch because that doesn’t cost me very much money, the feedback has been incredible. It doesn’t cost me a lot to do but it means a lot. So, look within your business to come up with some things that won’t cost too much to do but will make a big impact with people. As leaders be approachable and accessible so that when there is an issue, they are more likely to speak to you about it.” The last panel of the day was Net-zero and Sustainability. On the panel was Thomas Panton, Founder of Canopey, Alex Durand, CEO of SaxonAir, Emma Raines, Founder of Example Marketing and Sue Penlington, Sustainability Manager at Holkham Estate. Lots of businesses complete carbon calculators but don’t know where to go next. What is the next step? Thomas Panton – “The whole aim of using carbon calculators is that you measure what your impact is, the next thing you should do as a company is to reduce in every single way possible that you know how to and find the knowledge and skills to if you don’t. What you can do is change your energy provider as quickly as you can, Shell announced $40 billion profit while most of us can’t afford to keep the lights on, it’s outrageous. If we stop supporting companies who use oil and gas that will change, energy is one of the greatest ways we can decarbonise as a company.” Emma Raines – “The key thing to do in terms of the next step is to do something. Having a really comprehensive plan in place is great and then working through that but if you can pick one thing and do that as a starting point then at least you have begun that journey and one step leads to another. If everyone can start doing something, then we are heading in the right place.” Sue Penlington – “For me it’s getting your teams involved straight away looking at those results and that data and identifying the most material area where you will make the biggest impact but also going for those little wins that get that action going in the organisation. Give your team the right training and development so they understand what carbon audit is.” Are all other debates fairly meaningless unless we tackle climate change. Alex Durrand – “The problem is we are prioritising existence particularly after the last 3 years and we are deprioritising the most important thing. It’s not at a pace where that is anywhere close that it should be. We seem to have collectively accepted the fact that we can’t keep up with temperatures, but of course we can. Particularly for the aviation industry there is a lot of finger pointing, we own our responsibility. If we all just do that and stop looking at everyone else there is a chance. We can’t change the big picture so let’s do everything we can as individuals.” The last question of The Big Debate 2023 was if you were able to give one piece of advice on sustainability what is it? Emma Raines – Do something. Sue Penlington –Don’t be put off and celebrate the small wins. Alex Durand – Do everything you can. Thomas Panton – Talk to people, don’t be afraid to report when it doesn’t look good, this is how you get help and get pushed to improve. You can learn a lot by speaking to people. This article has only touched upon some of the questions and answers discussed at this year’s Big Debate. Join us at The Big Debate 2024 if you want to hear Norfolk MPS and local business leaders discuss and debate the key issues affecting your region. Amy Wright, Events manager Norfolk Chambers of Commerce “What a big success for our first flagship event of 2023, key discussions were made throughout the debate and the atmosphere on the day was brilliant. A big thanks to all who supported me.” Image credits – Chris Ball
