Iain Wright, the Shadow Minister for Competitiveness and Enterprise at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills visited the Norfolk Chamber yesterday to listen to the views of Chamber members on topics including: access to finance; the proposed British Investment Bank; and what is holding back economic growth for Norfolk businesses.
Members highlighted that many profitable local businesses were struggling to access finance, as the current banking regulations could prove to be very onerous and credit decisions often took too long. Members felt that the changes in staffing levels/structures inthe banks, meant that local bank managers no longer had regular interaction with the business community and therefore lacked aspects of key local knowledge.
In addition, the central lending decision makers did not have an understanding of the local market conditions, or a long term relationship with that business on which to base their decision, all these factors could lead to lending requests being rejected. Overall the group thought that the idea of the British Investment Bank was a good, but they stressed the importance of local infrastructure to ensure local market intelligence was taken into account and
The new bank should be complementary to the existing banking system. The general consensus was that the British Chambers of Commerce proposed model, which recommends that the current banks be offered first refusal on the requested finance and, should they not be willing/able to facilitate the loan, then the British Investment Bank would consider the request. Everyone was adamant that the new bank should not be run by politicians.
Caroline Williams, CEO of Norfolk Chamber highlighted the determination of Norfolk businesses to continue to forge ahead in challenging economic times – through innovation, hard work and diversification to ensure economic growth in Norfolk continues to flourish.
