Chamber News

Access to mobile voice call services is a basic requirement of business today: it’s essential to consumers and for linking people and communities. That’s why the British Chambers of Commerce has launched a campaign calling for No More Not Spots!

A 2017 survey by the BCC found that 70% of UK firms experience ‘not spots’, areas of no mobile coverage by any operator, or ‘partial not spots’, where there is some coverage but not from all networks, in their local area.

The aim of this campaign is to end not spots for voice coverage for UK phone users where they live, work, travel or plans.

From the time that cell phone services were first introduced in the UK to the present day, the locations with signal coverage have grown from a handful of urban areas to around 98% of UK premises (the area immediately adjacent to a property). The UK’s four Mobile Network Operators have invested heavily to deliver against their licence obligation of 90% geographic coverage for voice and text by the end of 2017.

However, despite welcome progress in network rollout, the lived experience of mobile phone users can differ from the scale and consistency suggested by these numbers. With about 30 million residential and commercial properties in the UK, 98% of premises would still leave around 600,000 buildings without coverage; with only 10% of Britain’s landmass ‘developed’ – 90% geographic coverage still leaves not spots in areas like dense commercial centres, road and rail corridors where access issues and the economics of new infrastructure investment are challenging.

Results from BCC’s infrastructure survey, conducted in February this year showed that a majority (53%) of responding businesses perceived the reliability of the UK mobile phone network to have improved over the last five years. But a substantial number (21%) did not agree that the network meets its needs for accessing new and existing customers, suppliers, and employees.

The reasons for patchy coverage are many and varied: from building and vehicle design to the number and location of masts and cells; from the topography of the built and natural landscapes to the technologies in phones. 

Through this campaign, we will continue to engage with the Norfolk business community to identify gaps in coverage, and to work constructively with industry and government to resolve this locally.

Over the next year, Norfolk Chamber of Commerce will be convening to business communities and those involved in delivering coverage, so do keep an eye out for events and let us know if you want to get involved.

And, if you experience a not spot be sure to report it to the British Chambers of Commerce, and tell us about it on Twitter using the hashtag #ShareYourNotSpots. 

The message at the South Norfolk Business Breakfast last week was how focusing on your staff satisfaction will have a direct impact on your business success!

We welcomed Chamber members to Park Farm Hotel, Hethersett for our sold out breakfast for a morning of networking and an inspiring talk. 

As guests enjoyed their first cup of coffee of the morning, they made the most of interacting with the stands present at the breakfast: Buy local Norfolk, Cneqt DNA Limited, Inspired Renewables and Select Office Furniture.

After some time getting to know one another, they enjoyed a delicious spread of breakfast.

Guests then heard from our expert speaker Lisa Collen, Director of People for Flagship Group. She spoke about the undeniable correlation between a happy workforce, customer satisfaction and ultimately, profitability and how Flagship have introduced agile working, a relaxed dress code and flexible benefits among other well-being measures for their staff to enhance overall employee satisfaction.

At the beginning of the week, Norfolk Chamber, the EDP and Norfolk County Council, together with MPs, political leaders and the business community hosted a visit by the Roads Minister, Jesse Norman MP in King’s Lynn and launched our ‘Just Dual It!’ campaign

The event, held at the Town Hall in King’s Lynn was to highlight to the Roads Minister that Norfolk is no longer prepared to wait for much needed improvements.  It was a chance to garner the support of local MPs and for the business community to highlight the benefits that a dualled A47 could bring to our local economy.

Respondng to the calls for a47 improvements, Mr Norman said “I can only admire the steadfastness the energy and perseverance of everyone working together to make a collective case for action.”

The Just Dual It campaign is backed by the A47 Alliance and is looking for a commitment from Government to fund dualling the entire length of the A47 from Lowestoft in the East to Peterborough in the West by 2030.  How well we make the case for dualling the entire length, is up to us as a business community.  We need your support to join us to make the business case for the A47 improvements.

Commenting on the need for county-wide support, Nova Fairbank. Public Affairs Manager for Norfolk Chamber said:  “To access further funding, we have to work within the Government’s frameworks and back that with the support of the business community and general public.  We need to have a strong clear and consistent message and keep going until we achieve the full dualling of the A47.”

How can you help?

We need to hear from you about what benefits a fully dualled A47 will make to your business.  Could it help create more jobs; enable your business expand; make it easier for your clients to visit you; or would you be able to move your goods more easily?

We need you to be specific in your responses, which will help build the overall business case.  The more support we can garner and the more specific we are in the benefits; the more compelling our case will be.

There are several ways you can get involved:

• Use the following link to write your e-postcard: https://norfolkchamber.co.uk/contact/just-dual-it

• Buy today’s EDP (Friday 23 March 2018) which includes with a Freepost postcard on which you can send your message to government

• Pick up a postcard from the Chamber offices in Whiting Road, Norwich; the EDP’s offices, Rouen Road, Norwich; Norfolk County Council, Martineau Lane, Norwich; Great Yarmouth Town Hall; or West Norfolk Council offices in King’s Lynn

• Tweet your support using the hashtag: #JustDualIt

Improved global demand continues to feed growth across most of the manufacturing supply chain, a new survey has revealed.

Published by the manufacturers’ organisation, EEF, and accountancy and business advisory firm BDO LLP, the EEF/BDO Manufacturing Outlook for the first quarter (Q1) of 2018 shows that demand from European and capital equipment markets, in particular, is helping UK manufacturers start this year in the same positive way they ended 2017.

Manufacturing activity stepped up a gear through 2017 providing industry with some decent momentum coming into this year, EEF Chief Economist Lee Hopley said.

“The importance of a buoyant global economy to export-focused manufacturing sectors is again reinforced,” she explained, “with growing overseas demand encouraging international manufacturers to ramp up their investment which in turn is spurring particularly strong activity in UK capital goods sectors.”

According to the survey, two-thirds of manufacturers see the EU as offering good prospects for growth, with the next best markets of Asia and North America seen as supportive by around a quarter of companies.

With output, orders, investment and recruitment all significantly above their long-run averages, EEF has upgraded its growth forecasts for manufacturing in 2018 from 1.4% to +2.0% (the EEF forecast for the overall UK economy this year is 1.5%).

EEF also notes that growth in world trade has been matched by a large improvement in the UK orders balance at the start of this year. Although export orders eased slightly (from +33% in 2017 Q4 to +29% in 2018 Q1), domestic order balances almost doubled (from +12% to +21%).

A word of warning was also issued: there are some sign in the survey that automotive and construction supply chains are seeing signs of weaker demand, which could see a greater sector variation in performance both this year and next. 

At a breakfast meeting at Norwich City Football Club, Norfolk Chamber hosted John Holland-Kaye, the CEO of London Heathrow Airport, who came to talk to local businesses about the economic benefits and the opportunities available as a result of expansion at London Heathrow.

Mr Holland-Kaye outlined that Heathrow were looking to become the best connected airport in the world, with more flights and a new runway by 2025.  The £14 billion privately funded project will open up supply chain opportunities across the UK – including here Norfolk.  He also noted that the Heathrow expansion project was not governed OJEU (Official Journal of the European Union) and that their preferred option was for a predominantly UK based supply chain.

He also advised that Heathrow was looking to take the lead in a new way to deliver large scale infrastructure projects by building their key components away from the airport and assembling them locally.  This is a method that is becoming more prevalent internationally, which the UK has not fully adopted yet.  To achieve this, they will be creating four logistic hubs – for which Great Yarmouth is one of 65 bids from across the UK.  Heathrow has already committed to one of the logistic hubs being located in Scotland, however the other three hub locations have yet to be decided.

To help develop their supply chain for the Heathrow expansion, they will be holding a series of Business Summits across the UK – the nearest one to our region is being held at Colchester on Tuesday 17 April 2018 and is free to attend.

There will be speed-networking sessions to improve networking opportunities and connectivity. Also in attendance will be Heathrow’s Commercial and Procurement teams, to answer questions about business opportunities available at the airport. To date, Heathrow have advised that an estimated £93.4 million of new deals have been won by businesses as a result of the partnerships formed at their Business Summits.

Why Attend?

• The Heathrow Business Summits each provide a great platform for SMEs to get a foot in the door and capitalise on the business opportunities available at Heathrow
• Promote your business to Heathrow’s supply chain through face-to-face appointments on the day
• Meet and network with other businesses visiting the event.
• Meet with the Department of International Trade to explore exporting opportunities
• Meet and network with exhibitor partners including the Local Councils, Chambers of Commerce, Local Enterprise Partnerships, and the Department for International Trade.
• Meet local colleges and universities to support your skills and recruitment needs.
• All exhibitors actively support and guide businesses on how to connect and build trade relations into new supply chains at Heathrow

Attendance is free – book your place now

Leaders in East Anglia are being invited to attend a major conference which will put wellbeing at the heart of leadership in the region. The ‘Leaders in Wellbeing’ event – taking place during Mental Health Awareness Week –  is aimed at chief executives, senior managers and HR directors and will showcase the latest thinking from speakers who are leading the way in wellbeing in the region.

Taking place from 9.30am – 1.30pm on Tuesday 15th May at The Space in Norwich, the free event will focus on the role of leadership in wellbeing. It will include personal stories from leaders as well as ideas about practical ways to role model wellbeing, and how to embed it within organisational culture.

Stuart Rimmer, Chief Executive of East Coast College who will be charing the event explained: “Coming together to discuss wellbeing in leadership creates space to consider innovation and better ways to run our businesses for the twenty first century.”

Also speaking at the event will be Andy Wood, Chief Executive of Adnams. He said: “We take this issue extremely seriously at Adnams.  It makes great business sense as the first line of serving our customers well is a happy and well-motivated workforce that knows if they need help in their lives the organisation is there for them”.

There will also be personal testimony from Nigel Cushion, Founder of Nelsonspirit, Ian Hacon, Founder of Yellow Brick Road, and Michelle Gant, Director of The Engaging People Company.

Aviva’s recent experience of delivering a widescale wellbeing programme will also be in the spotlight with Katherine Billingham-Mohamed and Gemma Sandwell on hand to share their knowledge and experience. Katherine said: “Wellbeing is quite a buzz word at the moment, but essentially healthy and happy employees generally result in happy customers! It’s about helping people to make small steps to change behaviour, be that in their mental, physical or any other aspect of wellbeing”.

The event has been co-organised by Tim Handley, an education consultant who heads up TEDxNorwichED. And, underlining the emerging importance of wellbeing as a leadership and workplace priority, both New Anglia LEP and Norfolk Chamber of Commerce have pledged their support. Charlotte Purves of New Anglia LEP said: “This is a really important issue to address if the East is going to stand out as the place to live and work. Wellbeing should be top of the agenda for every business and this event will provide business leaders with tools to embed this in their own organisations.”

Chris Sargisson, Chief Executive of Norfolk Chamber added: “Wellbeing and the culture of wellbeing starts at the top and should always, always include the valuable and influential people at the top. By doing so means organisations can genuinely lead by example in the building of brilliant, healthy, high performing places of work.”

Organisers expect places to be snapped up quickly and so interested leaders are encouraged to book early: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/leaders-in-wellbeing-tickets-43021693042  

Business leaders gathered last night to hear Vicky Pryce, Chief Economic Advisor and Board Member at the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) outline her views on the future of the UK economy.

Norfolk Chamber and Norse Commercial Services hosted the gala dinner at Langley Abbey, which was attended by a wide range of businesses from traditional engineering companies, such as KLM Engineering to Rainbird, an innovative tech firm.

Ms Pryce presented her thoughts on how the UK economy had fared since the triggering of Article 50, through to how she thought it would progress after the post-Brexit transition period.  She went on to note how interest rates and consumer spending could potentially impact on the economy and that the continued uncertainty of Brexit was impacting on business confidence.

Tension between the UK Government and the European Commission which has built up during the Brexit negotiations is hardly likely to have been eased by a demand from Brussels that the UK should pay an extra €2.7 billion.

This is nothing to do with the so-called Divorce Bill but has resulted from a dispute over customs duties going back several years.

The Commission has sent a letter of formal notice to the UK because, it argues, the Government refuses to make customs duties available to the EU budget, as required by EU law.

A 2017 report by the EU fraud office found that importers in the UK had evaded a large amount of customs duties by using fictitious and false invoices and incorrect customs value declarations at importation.

Further Commission inspections brought to light a dramatic increase of the scale of that undervaluation fraud scheme operating through the hub in the UK between 2011 and 2017.

“Despite having been informed of the risks of fraud relating to the importation of textiles and footwear originating in China since 2007, and despite having been asked to take appropriate risk control measures, the United Kingdom failed to take action to prevent the fraud,” the Commission claimed.

It calculates that the infringement of EU legislation resulted in losses to the EU budget amounting to €2.7 billion (minus collection costs) during the period November 2011 until December 2017.

In addition, the Commission argues, the UK infringed EU VAT legislation, leading to potential losses to the EU budget.

If the Commission is unhappy with the UK’s response, it may refer the case to the EU’s Court of Justice (CJEU) for a decision.

Commenting on the inflation statistics for February 2018, published today by the Office for National Statistics, Suren Thiru, Head of Economics at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said:

The drop-in price growth in February was more than expected and supports our view that inflation remains on a downward trajectory. The largest downward pressure on inflation in the month came from transport and food prices, which rose by less than a year ago.

It is increasingly likely that the UK is now past the peak of the recent spike in inflation, and price growth will ease further over the coming months as the impact of the post-EU referendum decline in sterling drops out of the calculation. However, upward pressure from rising global commodity prices could well mean that it will be some time before inflation returns to the Bank of England’s 2% target.

Nonetheless, with the latest inflation data suggesting that underlying price pressures are weakening, this should give the Bank of England sufficient scope to shift its focus a little from tackling inflation to supporting a weakening economy. While the prospect of a single rise in interest rates this year remains on the table, the probability of multiple rate hikes looks unlikely at this stage.

With economic conditions likely to become more subdued, the MPC should opt for a prolonged period of monetary stability and keep interest rates steady over the near term. More also needs to be done to boost business investment, including tackling the high upfront cost of doing business in the UK.

Commenting on the agreement of a ‘status quo’ transition period by UK and EU27 Brexit negotiators, Chris Sargisson, Chief Executive of Norfolk Chamber said:

“This is a milestone that many businesses across Norfolk and the UK have been waiting for. The agreement of a status quo transition period is great news for trading firms on both sides of the Channel, as it means that they will face little or no change in day-to-day business in the short term.

“While some companies would have liked to see copper-bottomed legal guarantees around the transition, the political agreement reached in Brussels is sufficient for most businesses to plan ahead with a greater degree of confidence. Many companies will now have the clarity they require to proceed with investment and hiring strategies that would otherwise have remained in question.

“In the interests of business across Europe, both sides must now do everything in their power to ensure that the transition does not become a political football later in the negotiation process.”

On citizens’ rights, Sargisson said:

“Businesses across the Norfolk will be particularly relieved that they will be able to hire and retain European nationals on similar terms over the next two years, given the significant skills gaps they continue to contend with.”

On trade agreements, he added:

“A priority for both the UK and the EU must now be to secure agreement from our shared trading partners to keeping the status quo on existing EU free trade agreements. Any loss of market access would hurt our exporters and European supply chains alike. It is excellent that the UK and the EU agree on the need for continuity in existing trade agreements; together, we must now seek confirmation from our trading partners.

“While Norfolk businesses are interested in the prospect of the UK being able to sign new trade agreements during the transition period, the top priority must be to retain market access on the same terms with existing trading partners.”

Also commenting on the future UK/EU trading relationship, Dr Adam Marshall, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce, said:

“Over the next few days, securing assent from the European Council must be the top priority. Over the coming weeks and months, the UK government and the European Commission must adopt a laser-like focus on the future trading relationship – and swiftly conclude a deal that minimises further adjustment costs and that answers the many practical questions that trading businesses still face.

“A zero-tariff agreement is a no-brainer for both sides. However, businesses need to see more pragmatic positions from both sides on customs and cooperation in services.”

It’s here! After months of training, Norfolk Chamber staff take on the Norwich Half Marathon this Sunday (15 April 2018) at The Royal Norfolk Showground. 

Six staff members of the Norfolk Chamber including our CEO Chris Sargisson have been spending most of our free time training for this event, even in the cold weather! This is the first time the chamber has had a team running in this event, and it’s all for a good cause too. We will be raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Please help us to reach our target, every penny helps and it is a great driving force for us to keep running. 

Do come and support us if you can on Sunday 15 April at 10.30am. Give us a cheer as we speed by, 13.1 miles is a long way!

Just in case you would like to feature on our t-shirts for the event, we are also looking for Norfolk businesses to support us by sponsoring our t-shirts which we will all be wearing on the day. Sponsorship starts at £200 and all excess funds will be donated to charity. Get in touch if you’re interested.

What a big event! With over three hundred and fifty people attending, this was one of the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce’s biggest conference so far to date. The morning was focused on the new guidelines, and changes for the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), which are due to come into force on Friday 25 May 2018. This event was fantastic for the Norfolk Chamber to support the business community, as well as welcome our members and non-members to the conference. 

Chris Sargisson our Chief Executive opened the event and throughout the morning the delegates attending heard talks given by; Alex Saunders from Leathes Prior, Tom Parsley from Selesti, John Gostling, Breakwater IT and Daren Chapman from Cyber Scale. Each speaker shared their expert knowledge, business subject area, all of which helped to provide a real insight into GDPR.

Alex Saunders, from Leathes Prior Solicitors, was the first speaker to talk about GDPR. Part of Alex’s professional practice specializes in Data Protection.  He gave a really interesting and insightful talk into the current regulations, and the new changes coming into force from the legal point of view. He also covered Lawful Processing, Consent, and the action points we need to consider within all our professional and personal handling of data.

Tom Parsley, Commercial Director at Selesti, talked about the perspective of GDPR and Marketing. He highlighted how the new changes of GDPR should be seen as a positive for all our marketing campaigns. He also discussed how this change can give us all the opportunity to be a more personalized, and humanly engaged with our clients. Like Alex Saunders, Tom also covered Consent, from the marketing viewpoint and how we can increase the trust within our brand image.

John Gosling, Managing Director at Breakwater, was the third speaker who provided a real insight into; what is a breach of personal data. He also gave the audience a range of good examples of how breaches had occurred, and how we need to ensure we can prevent this happening with our own businesses in the future.

Darren Chapman Director and Principal Security Consultant of Cyber Scale was the last speaker of the morning. Darren discussed the importance of why Cyber Security matters and how the GDPR regulations work in practice with cyber security.  It was really useful to have some key action points to take away and potentially implement too.

The four speakers in a panel brought the morning to a close with questions and answers from the audience. This was an ideal opportunity to build a further awareness and answer the concerns we all had on GDPR.

It was great to hear such a diversity of speakers throughout the morning and many of our members commented on how the event had given them the confidence to implement the new regulations, as well as confirming their own knowledge on the topic. 

However, the event did not stop there! There were two further optional workshops after the main conference. One with Holly Stibbon, Director of 101 ltd on a practical marketing approach to GDPR. This was a really useful workshop focused on clear and practical advice on how to ensure your marketing is answering all the GDPR requirements. Holly also answered questions from the audience with supportive, and sound advice too.

Robert Masson, Chief Executive Officer of the DPO Centre highlighted the importance of appointing a current member of your staff with the role as Data Protection Officer within your business. This was a really valuable workshop and everyone clearly benefited from Robert’s knowledge.

As a useful follow on from the conference we have produced three great podcasts with some of our speakers on GDPR. Please click here for our conference toolkit.