The USA, Germany and France are likely to remain the top three markets for UK services over the next decade, a new report has predicted.
In its latest Trade Navigator report, HSBC confirms that the UK economy performed better in 2017 than many forecasters had expected, thanks to a strong contribution from exporters.
British exporters have, HSBC says, found themselves in a “sweet spot” – enjoying the benefits of a weak pound and buoyant demand in the UK’s principal markets and not yet facing potential new Brexit-related trade barriers.
Although Brexit continues to dominate the outlook for UK trade, the HSBC survey of some 6000 businesses across a broad range of industry sectors in 26 markets, found what it terms “largely positive” expectations for trade in the short term.
That short-term optimism reflects a healthy global economic environment, it says, while the longer-term outlook suggests that the UK should gain from its strong position as a service provider.
Between them, the USA, Germany and France are anticipated to account for some 30% of total UK services sales by 2030.
In terms of growth, HSBC forecasts that the strongest demand for services will be from India and China, with UK service exports to those countries projected to rise by about 10% per year.
The next decade is expected to see UK service exports globally rise by 130%, the report estimates.
Views about the UK’s post-Brexit future are mixed, with 38% of the UK companies polled expecting Brexit to have a negative impact, 28% thinking it will have no impact and 33% anticipating a positive impact.
The latest HSBC Trade Navigator report for the UK can be accessed at www.business.hsbc.com.
Chris Sargisson, Chief Executive of Norfolk Chamber of Commerce revealed the organisation’s new vision, values and mission to over 120 businesses at the ‘Connecting Businesses in West Norfolk’ event on Thursday 26 April. The event at King’s Lynn Town welcomed a diverse range of businesses to hear about Norfolk Chamber’s plans to deliver more activities, better support and enhanced engagement with Businesses in West Norfolk. Chris promoted Norfolk Chamber’s commitment to supporting businesses throughout the county and revealed our new mission to ‘connect, support and give a voice to every business in the county’. Chris acknowledged the challenge of supporting and engaging with businesses in West Norfolk, by the Chamber having a fixed premises in Norwich and vowed to support more West Norfolk businesses by having a greater presence in the area, to fulfil the Chamber’s mission. Chris said, “This is a long term vision and goal for us… our journey starts to try to move ourselves back in the West Norfolk, to be part of the culture and actually be here”. At the lunchtime networking event, delegates also heard from Matt Sykes, Founder of training firm, Salecadence. Matt gave the audience practical guidance on how to overcome the challenges and pressure of networking, and explored the idea that ‘it’s okay to sell at networking events’. The event closed with Michael Baldwin, General Manager of The Bank House hotel and President of the West Norfolk Chamber Council, who revealed details of a series of new training events that the Chamber is delivering in King’s Lynn and the next West Norfolk Business Breakfast on 3 July 2018. Find out more out more about our upcoming events in West Norfolk16 May | 09.00 – 10.30, Project Management, Martin Peckett, Plumstudy Education May TBC | 09.00 – 10.30, AEO and International Trade post Brexit, Tracey Renshaw, Import Export Supports 15 June | 09.30 – 11.00, Workplace Wellbeing, Michelle Gant, The Engaging People Company21 June | 09.00 – 10.30, Perfect your Pitch, Matt Sykes, Salescadence.03 July | 10.00 – 11.00, West Norfolk Business Breakfast, Knights Hill Hotel, King’s Lynn
Norfolk Chamber’s CEO, Chris Sargisson compered the Norfolk Construction Excellence Awards 2018 on Thursday evening at the OPEN in Norwich.
The awards night was a great success, celebrating some fabulous projects in Norfolk. There were some great project winners, with the overall winner on the night being LSI Architects.
The guests attending the awards were all asked to take part in their own ‘construction project’ – each table had to build an aeroplane from an assortment of straws, lollipop sticks, paper, and sticky tape – and anything else that came to hand on their tables.
The finished projects would be launched off the OPEN balcony and needed to fly as far as possible and would be judged accordingly. Amazing amounts of variation and imagination were used to produce some inventive entries. The winner not only flew the furthest, but managed a loop-the-loop!
Commenting on the successful evening, Chris Sargisson said:
“It was a huge honour to host the constructing excellence awards. I would like to say very well done to all the fantastic, talented companies who entered and a huge congratulations to LSI Architects for being chosen as the overall winner.
“When I agreed to compere, I never imagined I’d be asked to orchestrate over 20 people throwing a variety of homemade aeroplanes from the balcony. Brilliant! My favourite entry was one made using the end of a French baguette! Some took to the sky, soared magnificently but now sadly remain in the lighting gantry. Maybe next years’ ‘table challenge’ could be to build a device to get them down…?”
The British Chambers of Commerce has created a special checklist to help businesses consider the changes they may have to make when the UK leaves the EU.
All businesses – not just those directly and immediately affected – should be undertaking a Brexit health check, which BCC says could yield real dividends in future.
While a final agreement is still to be negotiated between the UK and the EU, BCC says that it has created the checklist based on research carried out nationwide through Chambers of Commerce so it can help businesses to start planning now.
The findings of the research, which asked questions covering how much time companies had spent considering the impact of Brexit on their business; whether there had been Board level discussions and how changed in the UK-EU relationship could impact them; suggested that a significant amount of businesses were ‘watching and waiting’ or taking no action at all.
The checklist has four main sections covering Workforce, Cross-Border Trade, Taxation and Currency/Intellectual Property/Contracts, with specific issues including the impact of immigration changes on staffing and skills; potential delays at the UK/EU border; possible introduction of import VAT and possible currency risk.
Norfolk Chamber’s annual technology conference, Talking Tech, returns Wednesday 19th September at The Space Norwich.
Talking Tech is a half-day conference bringing together local and national speakers for an interactive and inspiring event. The morning is made up of keynote speakers, lightening talks, workshops, a tech themed exhibition and over 180 business attendees.
The theme for 2018’s conference is future thinking; we want to explore the way businesses and their workforce will rapidly change with new and innovative technology. What’s coming and how do we prepare for it? If you can answer that then we want to hear from you.
For the first time Norfolk Chamber are asking businesses to send in their applications and suggestions for topics and speaking slots at the event that fit the all-important future thinking theme. If you want to get involved then click here to find out more!
On Friday 20th April 2018, local MPs, the Department of Work & Pensions (DWP) and the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce came together to launch new job campaigns in three key areas across Norfolk.
First thing that morning, Sir Henry Bellingham, MP for North West Norfolk launched West Norfolk for Jobs in King’s Lynn, followed by George Freeman, MP for Mid Norfolk in Dereham launching Breckland for Jobs and finally, Elizabeth Truss, MP for South West Norfolk also launched Breckland for Jobs in Thetford.
The two campaigns aim to help young people aged between 18 to 24 secure work, which will help the local economies, build better communities and reduce youth unemployment.
In West Norfolk 1,021 young people are claiming some form of benefit and are without a job; In Thetford it is 383; and in Dereham it is 531 – West Norfolk for Jobs and Breckland for Jobs are looking to halve these figures.
Julia Nix, DWP District Manager for East Anglia said:
“We are aiming to get employers and businesses to really think about how they can help a young person into work. It could be as simple as an hour to do a mock interview or a big thing such as work experience or an apprenticeship. All these things will be a huge difference to helping people get a job.”
Nova Fairbank, Public Affairs Manager for Norfolk Chamber said:
“We are very privileged to be asked to support both the West Norfolk for Jobs and the Breckland for Jobs campaigns and we want to help make them successful. We believe that the local business community is the key to achieving this. There are many ways in which businesses can get involved and we are asking them to offer their services no matter how large or small their contributions. This is a great opportunity for local businesses to support young people in their area and perhaps help create their future workforce.”
Can your business help?
Could you support a young person by offering mock interviews, CV advice, information and advice on your industry? The initiatives will also be able to help you find suitable candidates to apply for any apprenticeship or jobs you need to fill.
If you would like more information on how you can get involved, please contact:
Norfolk Chamber are thrilled to launch the first two events in a series of summer evening networking in Norwich. We are putting together a programme of ‘After Hours’ events designed to get our members networking in a relaxed and informal setting; paired with fun activities in Norwich’s top entertainment venues.
The first After Hours event kicking off this series is our Pub Quiz, taking place at Earlham Arms on Thursday 31st May. The evening will put your general knowledge to the test with a variety of quiz rounds where the topics and questions have been chosen by Chamber staff. You will also get the opportunity to enjoy some wine and tapas whilst getting to know your colleagues and fellow Chamber members a little better. You can enter as an individual to be placed in a mixed team, or rally up a team of up to 6 max. Full details.
Following our Quiz we’re taking you to a new venue in Norwich: Bowling House. This boutique venue opened its doors in March 2018 and on June 14th we’ll be taking over the lanes for Business & Bowling. Bowling House hosts 5 intimate lanes, perfect to get you building relationships with your teammates and competitors. Plus you’ll be able to continue the networking over an appetising tasting selection from their new menu! Full details.
So what are you waiting for? Book your places today to make sure you don’t miss out!
We’ll continue to launch our summer of fun throughout the coming weeks, including the return of our annual Look the Business fashion show event! If you want to keep up-to-date on our latest events you can sign up to our mailing list here.
On Thursday morning, Norfolk Chamber hosted another busy and thought-provoking business breakfast in a very sunny Great Yarmouth. We welcomed a room full of local businesses to Great Yarmouth Racecourse bright and early to make new business connections and hopefully instigate interesting discussion regarding the topic of the morning: Inspiring Norfolk supply chains for a project set to help create a Fossil Fuel Free Future.
Kindly sponsoring the event were Associated British Ports, who offer a range of services to support key regional industries in East Anglia, including the off-shore wind industry. We were pleased to welcome Dan Whyshall, who provided an informative overview to the company and the contribution it makes to the UK economy. In fact, ABP provides 5,300 jobs in East Anglia alone, delivers 500m tonnes of freight annually and contributes £360 million to the region’s economy. If you would like to find out more about this dynamic business, check out this video which encapsulates it brilliantly.
After a tasty and filling breakfast and lots of interesting discussion taking place around the room, giving delegates a chance to get to know one another and find out a bit about all of their various industries, it was then time to welcome the guest speaker for the morning. Susan Falch-Lovesey, Local Liason Office and Skills Champion at Vattenfall joined us to discuss how local businesses could be at the centre of the ground-breaking and impressive off-shore project, Norfolk Vanguard and Boreas.
Susan began by setting the scene and explained Vattenfall’s ethos and mission: to help create a Fossil Fuel Free Future, within one generation. The business, which is owned by the Swedish states, embodies this vision and keeps it at the heart of all of its projects, which include ground breaking Fossil Fuel Free Steel at industrial scale (Hybrit) and an E-Mobility charging system within thousands of charging stations across Europe (INCHARGE).
The reason behind Susan joining us in Great Yarmouth was to inform local businesses about Vatenfall’s latest project taking place on our very own coastline. As part of the Government’s Green Growth Strategy, Vattenfall are putting plans in motion to develop a wind farm powerful enough to sustain electricity supply for 10% UK households. As you can imagine, a project of this magnitude will need a lot of support, so Susan spoke to attendees about Vatenfall’s mission to get as many local organisations involved in the project as possible, hoping to have over 600 contracts in place ready to submit an application for the project. Susan was keen to highlight the message from Rob Lilley, Procurement Manager, that although they would be co-ordinating the project, it would be local business who would be building it and making the aspirations of Vattenfall a reality, as they believe ‘local knowledge and expertise are so important’.
After taking some questions from the guests, it was then time to close the session. Our delegates left to continue with their working day hopefully having made new business connections and feeling more informed, and perhaps inspired, by the innovative project soon to be taking shape on Norfolk’s coastline.
For more details about supply chain opportunities for Vattenfall’s project, take a look at the presentation from Thursday morning or visit their website to find out how you can get involved.
If you are interested in coming along to one of our Great Yarmouth business breakfasts, visit our events page or email us. The next one coming up is on Thursday 21st June 2018.
Commenting on the labour market figures for April 2018, published today by the ONS, Suren Thiru, Head of Economics at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said:
“The continued rise in employment, coupled with a further drop-in the unemployment rate, is further evidence that the UK jobs market remains in good shape, with firms continuing to recruit despite sluggish economic conditions. However, the rising number of hours worked indicates that the recent pick-up in UK productivity is likely to be short lived.
“The end of a prolonged squeeze on real wage growth is an important moment, although maintaining positive real wage growth could prove challenging without sustained increases in productivity and relieving the high upfront costs which restrict pay increases. The return to positive real wage growth is unlikely to translate into materially stronger spending in the near term with consumers expected to remain under pressure from uncomfortably high debt levels, particularly if interest rates rise further.
“Against this backdrop, ministers must do more to support firms looking to recruit and grow their business, including easing upfront business costs and plugging the growing skills gaps. Working with businesses to deliver meaningful reform to the Apprenticeship Levy, so it works better for everyone, would be a good place to start.”
With just under 12 months to go until the UK’s departure from the EU on 29 March 2019, new trade figures have revealed exports of UK goods and services at a record high.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), UK goods and services exports increased in 2017 faster than imports – up 12.1% and 9.3% respectively. As a result, the trade deficit narrowed significantly by £12.1 billion to £28.6 billion from £40.7 billion.
Overall, UK exports of goods and services have increased by 12.1% to £622.1 billion.
Annually, the UK’s current account deficit was £82.9 billion (4.1% of gross domestic product (GDP)) in 2017, a narrowing of £30.7 billion from a deficit of £113.6 billion in 2016; this is the narrowest deficit as a percentage of GDP since 2011 when it was 2.4%.
International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said: “It’s clear evidence that UK companies are succeeding on the world stage, and as an international economic department we are banging the drum for the growing demand for our goods and services.”
He pointed out that non-EU countries continue to be the main destination for services exports (£171.4 billion), making up 61.3% of all exports in this sector.
Mr Fox also highlighted work done by the Department for International Trade (DIT) as it has now set up 14 working groups across 21 countries to strike trade deals and strengthen commercial ties with key trading partners.
An update to the apprenticeship system which will allow levy-paying organisations to transfer funds to another employer has been welcomed by business leaders.
Transfers are being introduced from next month to give levy-paying employers more flexibility in how they spend their apprenticeship service funds.
It means levy payers can work with other employers to help them take on apprentices, increasing the skills base in their supply chain, sector or local area.
Those who opt to transfer funds will do so on a monthly basis for the duration of the apprenticeship.
At the end of this month, levy-paying employers will have access to their transfers allowance in their apprenticeship service account.
A transfer estimator tool will help them calculate the apprenticeships they could fund through a transfer to another organisation.
They will then be able to agree to fund apprenticeships in one other organisation.
Employers that do not pay the levy will be able to register for an apprenticeship service account, enabling them to receive a transfer and start adding details of their apprenticeships to this account.
In June, once approved by the sending organisation, the first payments will be paid for apprenticeship starts added in May.
Nova Fairbank, Public Affairs Manager at Norfolk Chamber said:
“With an ongoing skills gaps in Norfolk, and many businesses reporting hiring difficulties in the latest Quarterly Economic Survey, we are encouraged by this development. We hope it will mean that more levy funds can be fully utilised in the region. Going forward, we would like to see further flexibility on what organisations can spend their levy funding on.
For more information on Levy-transfers, businesses can: