“As a freelance graphic designer I help lots of clients communicate to their customers/audience using a variety of media. Basically, if you having something to promote, say, publish, show off or share I can help you get the most from your print and/or digital media. I have 15 years experience and have worked for same very established clients, both locally and nationally (now internationally). I really enjoy the challenge helping my clients establish their brands, be competitive in their market place and look great at the same time.
I came across the Chamber of Commerce via a logo request for one of my clients. As a sole trader I’m realising how important it is to network as much as you can for both your business and for support. I’m gradually learning how many small businesses there are and the networks that join us all together. The Chamber is definitely a big part of that picture, so I’m excited about joining and taking part in as many events as possible.”
A full meeting of Norfolk County Council today (Friday 6 November) overwhelminglyre-confirmed that the council will provide the final funding (£10.4m)for Norwich Northern Distributor Road, completing a funding package to pay for the £178.95m dual carriageway running 20km from the A47 at Postwick to the A1067 Norwich to Fakenham Road.
Today’s Extraordinary Meeting was held to avoid being drawn into a potentially protracted legal process when the original Council decision (taken on 02 September) was challenged by the Wensum Valley Alliance.
The Council voted by55 to 7 to accept offers by the Department for Transport and New Anglia LEP of £10m each towards a £30.4m increase in the cost of the NDR. A Green Party amendmentbased ona revised routeoption between theA47 and A140 was defeated 55 to 4, with 3 abstentions.
Subject to final approval and the release of national funding by the Department for Transport, the contract for the work has been awarded to Balfour Beatty Civils. Preliminary work is due to begin on site within the next few weeks.
Cllr George Nobbs, Leader of Norfolk County Council, said:
“This was a decisive vote. Council clearly accepts that Norfolk needs the NDR, that it represents very good value for money, and that there should be no further delay. Members have had the chance to yet again consider the reports and arguments very carefully and have accepted that the rise in construction costs, although unwelcome, are still reasonable.”
Caroline Williams, Chief Executive of Norfolk Chamber of Commerce said:
“A confirmed start date for work on the NDR will be another positive step toward getting the improvements to Norfolk’s infrastructure which the business community has been calling for. The NDR is not just a piece of road, but the opportunity to unlock jobs and new homes for the city and surrounding area and a swift start on site will be welcomed.”
The British Chambers of Commerce Quarterly Economic Survey (QES) is used by the Bank of England and the Chancellor to plan the future of the UK economy and over 7,000 businesses across the UK take part.
The last Norfolk QES results showed that growth in both the service and the manufacturing sectors in Norfolk had slowed over the last quarter. In particular, nearly all the key Norfolk manufacturing balances remained stagnant or fell, which painted a picture of prolonged, slow manufacturing growth. Businesses completing the previous Q3 survey, who represented 37% of the total East of England responses, reported a very limited increase in employment over the last 3 months, despite the reduction in Norfolk’s official unemployment figures. And both sectors continued to report difficulties in recruiting skilled staff. More telling was the falling employment expectation balances for both sectors in the coming 3 months.”
Has your business recruited more new employees? Are you expecting your exports to increase? Let us know by taking part in this important economic survey.
The survey takes less than 3 minutes to complete, so please take the time to input into this survey to ensure Norfolk has a voice. The survey deadline is 5pm on Monday 30 November 2015.
The Norfolk Chamber’s latest apprentices attended a graduation ceremony at EPIC Studios last week. Jack Edwards, Office Assistant Apprentice and Katie Downes, Events Assistant Apprentice collected their diploma’s at a special ceremony set-up by Apprenticeships Norfolk with the support of Norfolk County Council.
Both Jack and Katie have now gone onto full-time employment at the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce.
Jack Edwards – “When I opted not to go to University, I never thought I’d have the opportunity to ‘graduate.’ I couldn’t be more grateful for being given this chance!”
Katie Downes – “It was a great honour to receive my graduation scroll and celebrate my achievement, after all the hard work that was put in.”
New businesses will be able to get support and advice when a pop up enterprise centre opens next week in King’s Lynn. Staff from NWES will be on hand at the Pop-up Enterprise Centre to discuss what office space will be available to rent in the KLIC, along with information about how to book meeting and conference rooms. They will also be able to outline the business support that will be on offer at the KLIC.
The Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk is working with NWES on the £5m King’s Lynn Innovation Centre (KLIC) which is currently being built on Nar Ouse Way. In the short-term, the services of KLIC, which is due to open in Spring 2016, will be offered temporarily in West Norfolk’s Council offices in Kings Court from Mon – Fri during business hours.
John Balch, Strategic Director at NWES said: “The centre in nearing completion but until you can step into the building itself NWES and its partners invite to you visit the Pop-up Enterprise Centre.”
West Norfolk Council Leader, Nick Daubney said: “Supporting economic development in West Norfolk is a key priority for us and we are delighted to be able to promote the new King’s Lynn Innovation Centre by hosting the Pop Up Enterprise Centre at our offices.”
Heather Garrod, President of West Norfolk Chamber Council said: “The KLIC will be able to support lots of fledgling businesses and will offer support and advice; mentoring and workshops; as well as access to financial support for local businesses in West Norfolk.”
The building of the KLIC is funded by £1.5m from the borough council; £500,000 from NWES; £2.5m from a Growing Places Fund loan; and £500,00 of Growth Deal funding from New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership.
Rural communities such as South Walsham are set to benefit from improved broadband connection in 2016. Chamber member, WiSpire is preparing for a period of rapid expansion, following the recruitment of 6 new employees.
WiSpire uses church towers as a platform to deliver high speed wireless broadband internet to local businesses, schools and residents, in areas where broadband speeds can often be poor. The company is investing in upgrading the existing transmitters and providing extra capacity in its network, which will help support a significant increase in customer numbers. It will be targeting growth in areas such as South Walsham, Woodbastwick and Happisburgh.
Steve Maine, CEO of WiSpire said:“Other players say that market penetration in Norfolk is high and that fibre is cutting the mustard. In our experience this is not the case for rural communities. Our service will reach out to those not-spots providing much needed connectivity to those people who otherwise wouldn’t get it.”
Caroline Williams, CEO of Norfolk Chamber said:“One of the Chamber’s key campaign areas is to improve digital connectivity across Norfolk. For Norfolk businesses to compete on a level playing field with the rest of the UK, they need to have access to quality high speed broadband. Whilst the rollout of the Better Broadband for Norfolk is bringing hope to many Norfolk businesses, however the more rural areas are proving challenging and may take longer to receive upgraded broadband. Innovative organisations such as WiSpire can provide an excellent alternative broadband solution.”
The original bridge over the A47 at Postwick will be closed to all traffic overnightfrom 8pm tomorrow evening (Thurs 12 November)until no later than 6am on Friday 13 November.
The closure is to allow traffic signal ducts to be installed as part of the major junction works that are scheduled for completion before Christmas.
Traffic will be diverted via the new bridge over the A47 and the Postwick Hub access roads. The A47 itself will not be affected beyond the normal restrictions through the Postwick road works.
Norfolk County Council apologises for any inconvenience this overnight closure will cause.
The latest Bank of England Agent’s summary of business conditions for November 2015 was released today.
The summary identified that activity had continued to grow solidly on a year ago but at a slower rate than earlier in the year. The slowdown has been most noticeable in manufacturing.
Weaker overseas demand growth and the strength of sterling has continued to weigh down on exports. This again has affected confidence of UK businesses particularly those in manufacturing.
Labour cost growth has remained modest. Pay pressures were reported to be building in some areas where recruitment difficulties were the greatest, such as professional services and construction.
A webinar is being organised by UKTI which will provide an overview of the export opportunities available to UK companies in the Kuwaiti Food and Drink sector, and to give an insight into the specific needs and expectations of the local market.
The State of Kuwait imports the bulk of the needs of the population of consumer goods, food and beverages. The Kuwaiti food retail market may not be the biggest in the region, however its profit margins remain healthy; with wholesalers expecting margins of 25% and distributors looking for profits between 10% and 15%.
The webinar is taking place on Tuesday 1 December 2015 from 13.00 to 14.00 (GMT) with guest speaker Mr Garry Walsh, Chief Executive Officer, Mezzan Holding Company who will cover:
Kuwait’s Food aznd Drink Market
Export Opportunities for UK Companies
Tips and Recommendations
Q & A Session
Please click here if you would like to book for this webinar
On Thursday 12th November, over 90 members joined us for a Business Breakfast at the Great Yarmouth Town Hall. The venue provided a great setting in the spacious Assembly Room where delegates networked over coffee and breakfast, followed by two presentations discussing the event theme; Trends in the Energy Industry.
In true chamber style, the morning kicked off with a networking activity that was sure to test how awake the delegates were and highlight the energy industry buffs as we got them to solve the Missing Vowel Quiz.
The event was hosted by the President of Great Yarmouth Chamber Council Andy Penman, who was passionate about the subject matter and content provided by our featured speakers Johnathan Reynolds, Nautilus Associates and Joanna Young, ScottishPower renewables.
Two great presentations were delivered by these industry experts, which are now available to view on the event page at your leisure.
Johnathan offered a local energy industry update, complete with some interesting and revealing statistics, whilst Joanna (having stepped in last minute to replace her colleague David Rowland), informed the delegates of the EA1 Offshore Wind Project which is rapidly progressing and subsequently creating many opportunities within the region.
We closed the event with a short Q&A, after which, many delegates took this opportunity to talk further with the speakers and get in some final networking to make those all-important contacts.
Here’s what some of the delegates tweeted about the event:
Trade statistics for September show that the UK’s deficit on trade in goods and services was £1.4 billion in September. Published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the figure represents a narrowing of £1.6 billion from August 2015.
The ONS attributes the reduction to an increased trade in goods, with exports increasing by £0.6 billion to £24 billion in September. Imports of goods fell by £0.9 billion to £33.3 billion over the same period.
Overall, the deficit in trade in goods fell from £10.8 billion in August to £9.4 billion in September.
Despite the fall in September, overall figures for the last quarter (Q3) reveal a deficit on trade in goods and services of £8.5 billion. That represents a widening of the deficit by £5.1 billion compared with Q2.
For the trade in goods, the difference between the two quarters (April to June and July to September) was attributed to a £6 billion decrease in exports to £70.1 billion, and a £0.1 billion fall in imports to £102.3 billion.
Trade in services registered an increase in the deficit between Q2 and Q3 of £0.8 billion (hitting £23.6 billion), due to a fall in imports of 2.4%.
Commenting on September’s figures, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) Chief Economist, David Kern, said the quarterly picture was disappointing and confirmed the BCC’s assessment that the improvement recorded in Q2 was only temporary.
The UK needs a national strategy to help exporters, he added.
Details of the UK Trade statistics for September 2015 are available on the ONS website.
On Friday 20th November over 120 delegates joined the Norfolk Chamber for a morning of learning from and connecting with Norfolk Schools at Holiday Inn Norwich North. Delegates heard from seven different schools with the main focus being upon Simon Fox, Principal at Flegg High School and the Young Chamber Executive Committee from Aylsham High School.
The morning was kindly sponsored by one of our Gold Patrons – Norse, Justin Galliford from Norse spoke to everyone and explained how the key to finding good people in business is to bridge the gap between education and the work place. The event was hosted by Matthew Hudson, ITV Anglia, who took delegates through a busy morning of icebreakers, breakfast, presentations, group discussions and networking. The delegates started with an appropriately themed icebreaker ‘First or Worst Jobs’ which got people thinking about their own career paths and started conversation with other delegates on their tables. We had some very funny results including collecting eggs on a chicken farm and hand modelling, overallit created a great atmosphere in the room.
After this it was then time to hear directly form the Schools, Simon Fox, Principal at Flegg High School spoke first about the challenges and opportunities in education, referring to education as a glacier as its slow moving but ever changing. He touched upon the issues that teachers face with the curriculum as subjects such as coding are becoming more common they are looking to the business community to guide their teachings. He emphasised that trust and communication between education and businesses is important in both directions as we can learn from each other.
Following this we briefly heard from the heads of local schools. Five school leaders joined us on stage to give us a quick overview of how they work with the business community; Steffan Griffiths from Norwich School, Fiona O’Hara from St Nicholas House Prep School & Nursery, Kirsty Von Malaisé from Norwich High School for Girls, Gill Hipwell from Harleston Cluster and Peter Collins from Reepham High School. We had a range of topics come up including careers fairs, work experience opportunities, organising a symposium for Women into Business, realising the worth of your local schools and connecting to young people before they make their GCSE choices at high school. All speakers had just 1 minute on stage to speak to the delegates, despite the short time slot we got some really valuable information from the speakers.
Our final speakers of the morning was the Young Chamber Executive Committee from Aylsham High School, who were introduced by one of their teachers – Emmalucy Auber, who also is head of the committee. The Young Chamber gave an impressive presentation which was highly praised by the audience. They explained what a Young Chamber is, what they get up to in Aylsham High School and when they work with businesses. Delegates commented that it was very good to hear directly from the students and hear their perspective about what really works when connecting business and education and how they have been inspired in the past by businesses.
For the last part of the event we handed the reigns over to the audience to get their thoughts, opinions and feedback on careers fairs, work experience and generally how to connect with schools. During the 20 minute session we had all delegates talking to the schools on their tables about how to move forward with what they had learnt in the event so far. The audience provided their feedback on post-it notes on a board and by the end of the 20 minute session we had a board full of ideas and an audience full of ideas and discussion.
To finish the event, our host Matthew Hudson selected a few of the feedback ideas and got the delegate to elaborate, giving the whole audience a chance to record other people’s ideas and input.