Chamber News

Commenting on the Conservative Party Manifesto, Nova Fairbank, Public Affairs Manager at Norfolk Chamber said:

“A number of the headline commitments in the Conservative Party’s manifesto will be welcomed by the Norfolk business community. If delivered, pledges to overhaul the broken business rates system, to deliver better digital and mobile connectivity, and to focus more systematically on unlocking the growth potential of our city and towns, would respond to some of the key concerns of the business communities we represent.

On fixing the business rates system, Paul McCarthy, Chamber Board member said:

“The Norfolk business community wants both a clear commitment and then action to create the best possible conditions for economic growth.  To give local businesses the confidence to drive investment and jobs growth, Chamber members want to see any future government commit to no new ‘up-front’ taxes on business for the duration of the next Parliament.  In particular business rates, the ‘fixed’ property tax in an increasingly online world, are in dire need for reform as research shows that they are a barrier to investment and the jobs that that then brings.”

On the need for more reliable mobile coverage, Neil Orford, President of Great Yarmouth Chamber Council and Partner at Lovewell Blake said:

“Nearly every Norfolk business person can give examples of the difficulties they have faced when trying to make business calls on their mobiles.  We all know of local dead spots in and around commercial and residential areas and try to plan our mobile business calls accordingly.   If we wish to be seen as a place to do business, we must continue to press for improvement in the service provided.”

On the need to provide more access to superfast broadband, Lynsey Sweales, Director of Social B said:

“A reliable broadband connection is absolutely vital for all companies, yet 20% of Norfolk companies suffer from unreliable connections. The recent BCC survey shows that firms in rural areas are at least twice as likely to have unreliable connections as those in towns. The focus of any future government must be on providing businesses with sufficient and reliable broadband connections to enable to them to do business confidently.  Having a business in a rural location shouldn’t mean you sacrifice market opportunities, businesses operating in Norfolk as well as businesses looking to invest and trade with Norfolk businesses need broadband confidence to do business”

Ms Fairbank also sounded a note of caution by saying that positive business reception to some elements of the manifesto will be tempered by proposals that would increase up-front costs, regulatory obligations and uncertainty for businesses. The Conservatives’ proposed approach to immigration, at a time when many firms are already doing everything they can to train up and employ UK workers, will worry companies of every size and sector.

If all the containers brought to Southampton on the MOL Triumph were laid end to end, they would reach from the south coast port to London, a distance of just over 76 miles.

The largest container ship in the world is 400m long, the equivalent of 27 double-decker buses, and can carry up to 20,000 containers at a time with some stacked 11 high on deck, and a similar number below.

For all its size, the vessel is eco-friendly with energy-saving technologies leading to fuel consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions being cut by up to 30%.

The new 20,000 TEU-class container ships are equipped with various highly advanced energy-saving technologies including low-friction underwater paint, high-efficiency propellers and rudders.

TEU is an abbreviation of 20-foot equivalent, the standard measure of a container.

ABP Southampton Harbour Master Martin Phipps explained that although MOL Triumph is the largest container ship the port’s pilots have brought into Southampton, it is just one of many ships capable of carrying huge loads of this type expected to visit the port this year.

“With a vessel of this size it is important to ensure that other smaller vessels and leisure craft are keeping their distance,” he pointed out. “Our Patrol launch ensured any sight-seers were kept at the correct distance to allow MOL Triumph to continue safely.”

Under the Lisbon Treaty, the European Commission was granted new powers over negotiating trade agreements but the extent that it still had to involve the Member States before agreeing the final deal has remained unclear.

Accordingly, the Commission decided to ask the EU’s Court of Justice (CJEU) to examine the issue.

The free trade agreement (FTA) with Singapore was chosen as the test case as it is similar to several other agreements that are currently under consideration. The result is “Opinion 2/15”, as this is not a legal case and is not therefore delivered as a ruling.

Available at curia.europa.eu, the Opinion must have slightly disappointed the Commission as it makes clear that certain matters in the FTA do not fall within its exclusive competence and must, therefore, be concluded by the EU and the Member States acting together.

What will please the Commission, however, is that the CJEU makes clear for the first time the areas where it does have competence.

These are the parts of the agreement relating to: access to the EU market and the Singapore market so far as concerns goods and services (including all transport services); the fields of public procurement and energy generation from sustainable non-fossil sources.

The Commission can also deal with provisions concerning intellectual property rights, those designed to combat anti-competitive activity, those concerning sustainable development and the rules relating to exchange of information, and to obligations governing “notification, verification, co-operation, mediation, transparency and dispute settlement between the parties”.

It has already been noted in Brussels that this, in theory, makes agreeing a swift trade deal with the UK easier as the Commission could restrict such an agreement to the areas of its own competence while leaving other matters to the slower process of agreement by the 27 Member States.

Over 100 Norfolk businesses attended the Chamber’s first Cyber Security Conference at The Space, Norwich this week.  The half day conference provided top tips on how businesses can improve their cyber security measures and gave an overview of the incoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which comes into effect in 2018 and will impact on all businesses.

The wide raging ‘Ransomware’ attack that made recent headlines by hitting the NHS and spreading to more than 150 countries sparked a number of thought-provoking discussions.

The event was hosted by Paul Maskall, Security Adviser for the Norfolk and Suffolk Cyber Crime Unit. Paul encouraged delegates to place greater value on their business’ data and ensure that they take responsibility, act proactively and implement robust security measures to protect themselves from the rising threat of data breaches.  He said: “Ransomware is not a new thing and incidents have been doubling over the last few years. Businesses can take some simple steps to protect themselves.  One step would be to ensure that they take regular backups.  On modern ransomware, restoring from a  backup is one of the very few ways in which to circumvent it.”

As well as Mr Maskall, other speakers included: Peter Freeman, Managing Director of FreeClix; Kitty Rosser of law firm, Birketts; Andy Taylor of APMG International and Rahul Colaco of PwC.

Some of the key areas the speakers suggested that businesses should focus on were:

• Training staff on cyber security and data protection.
• Creating strong passwords, update them regularly, especially when staff leave
• Consider undertaking the Cyber Essentials – a government backed accreditation scheme to help you demonstrate that you have taken essential precautions to protect your business and data from cyber threats.
• The insecurity of Public WIFI and the risk of accessing private information such as online banking details.
• Undertaking independent penetration testing to check how secure your network is.
• Creation of policies for staff use and to outline what happens in the case of a cyber attack or data protection breach.

Commenting on the recent high profile hacking, Peter Freeman, Managing Director of FreeClix said:

“Last week’s attack shows there are vulnerabilities all around and many businesses need to update their technical equipment, infrastructure and security systems, which could be more vulnerable to attacks.”

Kitty Rosser of law firm, Birketts commented on new General Data Protection Regulation, which comes into effect in May 2018. She said:

“GDPR will replace our current Data Protection Laws and will bring about huge amounts of changes.  Companies need to be proactive to make sure they are ready.”

The event drew a lot of attention from local media, with extensive coverage of the event provided by Mustard TV’s Neil Perry. The conference was the main feature of Thursday evening’s Business Extra TV programme

The event was well received by delegates and proved to be successful in highlighting the importance of cyber security. Karen McDowall, facilities manager at financial advisory firm Smith and Pinching, said: “I wanted to come to check from an IT point of view that we had everything in hand, and we do have a lot of it in place. It has boosted my confidence in a lot of things and also shown me the areas where we need to improve.”

Harry Mitchell, marketing manager at Anglia Farmers, added: “For us, as an organisation which holds thousands of members’ personal information our priority is going to be how safely that data is held. We are being proactive to make sure we keep our members’ data safe. Today was another sense check to reassure us that we are taking the right steps.”   

Ahead of the general election, Norfolk Chamber is setting out the key Norfolk business asks for any future government and is calling for more strategic infrastructure improvements.

Norfolk has a vibrant and diverse business community, but a key barrier to future economic growth for those businesses is our physical infrastructure i.e. roads and rail links. 

Nova Fairbank, Public Affairs Manager for Norfolk Chamber said:

“Infrastructure on its own does not create jobs, it is the business community who do.  Norfolk Chamber wants to see that agreed transport improvements are delivered on time; further infrastructure barriers are removed; and new opportunities created, to ensure that Norfolk businesses have the levels of infrastructure needed to create new jobs and economic growth.”

The key Chamber member infrastructure asks are:

Roads

A47

Norfolk Chamber is calling for more sections of the A47 to be dualled, including the Acle Straight and the section between Tilney to East Winch, near King’s Lynn, as well as the Hardwick flyover. 

Jonathan Cage, President of Norfolk Chamber and Managing Director of Create Consulting Engineers said:

“Norfolk Chamber is working in partnership with the A47 Alliance and its members to ensure that more improvements are delivered along the length of the A47 from Peterborough in the West to Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft in the East. 

“A fully dualled A47 will help to boost the economic prosperity of Norfolk and a large part of the east of England, and will make a significant contribution to the national economy.  A47 improvements could help deliver over 16,000 more jobs, over 10,000 new homes and an increase of £706m per annum in the economic output within 20 years.”

Peter Brown, Managing Director of Jack Richards & Son said:

“At present the A47 creates a bottleneck out of Norfolk towards our markets in the Midlands and the North adding significant costs for manufacturing companies based in our county. We urgently need investment to relieve this restriction and give Norfolk business’s the opportunity to flourish.”

Great Yarmouth Third River Crossing

A third river crossing would ease congestion, improve connectivity to key growth areas such as the Enterprise Zones.  The Norfolk Chamber and its members have supported the local authorities to submit the business case for £1.2m of funding to the Department of Transport in March 2017.  Norfolk Chamber is calling for a swift response from the Department of Transport by summer 2017.

Commenting on the need for a third river crossing, Neil Orford, President of Great Yarmouth Chamber Council said:

“A third river crossing in Great Yarmouth will help to improve that connectivity and create lots of new jobs.  It will improve links across the town and to the rest of the region and reduce congestion.  All of which will save businesses time and money, whilst allowing them to increase economic growth.”

Rail

Whilst the Greater Anglia rail franchise is set to deliver brand new rolling stock, improvements on the Greater Eastern Mainline between Norwich in London are urgently needed to ensure the franchise can meet its full potential.  Improvements to safety, journey times, capacity and frequency cannot be achieved unless upgrades those needed in the Ely area to signalling, junctions and a bridge; the Suffolk Haughley junction;  doubling of Norwich Trowse swing bridge;  the South Colchester loops; South Chelmsford re-signalling and level crossing closures.

Commenting on the need to improve the rail infrastructure, Simon Watson, Partner at Lovewell Blake in Norwich said:

“The improvement of rail links between Norwich and London is vitally important to both Lovewell Blake and our clients.  The continued economic growth in our region is becoming increasingly reliant on business opportunities, both nationally and internationally, needing to be accessed via the capital. We have heartily welcomed the new rail franchise and are looking forward to the delivery of new trains.  However improvements to track infrastructure between Norwich and London would greatly enhance the attraction of doing business with Norfolk businesses and would facilitate attracting the calibre of people required by employers in our region.” 

The Mexican Energy Reform is bringing about significant change and development in the electrical market. In line with these changes, Mexico’s Energy Transition Law also includes a clean energy target which states that 35% of energy generation must come from clean sources by 2024. These targets and reform are creating new opportunities for British businesses in the country.

Carbon Trust, who, through their office in Mexico, are working with the Mexican public sector to explore business opportunities related to:

• The wind power value chain (which can be anything – including maintenance services with the only exception being wind turbines)
• Smart Grids technology in general (this can include, but is not limited to: Advanced metering infrastructure; Supervisory control and data acquisition; and Protection & switching equipment)

Although the government’s definition of clean energy includes wind, solar, geothermal and biomass, it also includes hydro, nuclear and efficient cogeneration. Wind Energy is currently the most feasible resource in the country and the best positioned to contribute the most to these ambitious targets.

Despite the clear need for this source of energy, the value chain for wind is still incomplete which represents good opportunities for British service and equipment providers with the right expertise. Which includes but is not limited to asset management, balance of plant, blades, gearboxes and related services.

For more information, please click here. Any companies interested can write to Laura Atkinson briefly explaining your offer and you will be put in touch with Carbon trust. 

With the economic outlook for the EU beginning to take a turn for the better, the latest good news comes from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) which has forecast that Cyprus’ economic recovery is set to continue into 2018.

Its most recent Regional Economic Prospects report reveals that the Cypriot economy had performed well again in 2016 after a return to growth in 2015. Expansion of 2.8% last year was higher than originally forecast.

Levels of consumer confidence in Cyprus are currently higher than the EU average.

While the EBRD sees overall growth as likely to continue in 2017 and 2018 at between 2% and 2.5%, however, it also warns that significant headwinds remain, including the very high levels of indebtedness in the economy, and the large legacy of non-performing loans which still account for nearly half of all loans in the country.

Nevertheless, the Bank’s Deputy Director for Country Economics and Policy, Peter Sanfey, remains optimistic about the long-term outlook for the Cypriot economy.

“It’s a very open economy,” he said. “The people are well educated, public administration functions well and some sectors are quite robust – tourism, obviously, and accounting services too, as well as some of the other high-value service sectors, which have come through quite well.”

Looking at the region more widely, the Bank notes that, in southeastern Europe, average growth is also forecast to reach the 3% mark and even Greece is expected to return to growth as reforms advance further and business confidence gradually improves.

London’s major port has recently been awarded an internationally recognised quality mark and been accepted as an Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

Tilbury is the first multipurpose port in the UK to receive full AEO status for security and customs simplification processes. This recognises that the customs controls and procedures at the port are efficient and compliant and most importantly, secure.

Commenting on the award, Paul Dale, Asset and Site Director at the Port of Tilbury said: “This is excellent and significant news as we are the first multipurpose port in the UK to be recognised with full AEO status. We have always provided an efficient and secure process, but this accreditation also gives our customers the reassurance that we have robust processes in place.”

The accreditation follows a full site audit at the port by HMRC which thoroughly reviewed the port’s operational processes, IT, security, storage, procurement and HR procedures.

Charles Hammond, Chief Executive of Forth Ports, owners of the Port of Tilbury said: “We are thrilled that the Port has been awarded full AEO status. As the UK moves towards Brexit, this internationally recognised award is extremely positive for both the port and our diverse customer base who will continue to benefit from working with us under this quality accreditation.”

The AEO regime operates under the EU’s Union Customs Code and is administered in the UK by HMRC. AEO status gives quicker access to certain simplified customs procedures and in some cases, the right to fast-track shipments through some customs procedures.

A group of organisations have banded together to warn that thousands of jobs could be lost after the UK leaves the EU unless action is taken to prevent dumped products flooding into this country.

With responsibility for so-called trade remedies shifting from the European Commission to the British Government, a post-Brexit UK could be left defenceless against unfair competition from abroad.

The group of 10 organisations (including UK Steel, British Glass and two trade unions, GMB and Unite) is attempting to persuade the political parties to address the issue in their election manifestos.

A position paper published by the seven manufacturing trade associations and three trade unions sets out the actions needed to establish a trade defence mechanism for the UK.

It calls for a Bill in the first Queen’s Speech to adopt all of the trade remedies allowed by the World Trade Organization (WTO): anti-dumping measures, anti-subsidy measures and safeguarding measures.

The new Government should, the paper argues, ensure that new UK trade remedies are adequate to fully alleviate market injury to UK manufacturing and that they are available immediately after Brexit.

It sets out a number of steps that the organisations believe would help ensure the effectiveness of a new trade remedies system, including having a well-resourced single unit within the Department for International Trade (DIT) to investigate trade complaints.

Separate teams within the unit should deal with different aspects of cases concurrently and quickly.

Speaking for the British Ceramic Confederation, Dr Laura Cohen explained that, after years of contraction partly due to dumped imports from China, EU measures have helped the sector to stabilise, invest and employ more people.

“We need a UK system that can tackle the unfair distortions that disrupt real free trade,” she said.

The Future of UK Trade Remedies is available here.

Commenting on the inflation statistics for April 2017, released today by the Office for National Statistics, Suren Thiru, Head of Economics at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said:

“As expected, inflation resumed its upward trend in April, after holding steady in March. April’s increase was largely due to higher air fares, which were pushed up by the timing of Easter falling during the month.

“While factory gate costs have moderated a little in recent months, businesses continue to report that the substantial increases in the cost of raw materials and other overheads over the past year are still filtering through the supply chain, and are therefore likely to lift consumer prices higher in the coming months. Our own Quarterly Economic Survey confirms that the pressure on firms to raise prices remains significant. Higher inflation is likely to be a drag on UK GDP growth over the coming quarters, as it erodes consumer spending power and dampens business activity and investment.

“However, it remains probable that the current period of above target inflation is transitory in nature, with little evidence that higher price growth is becoming entrenched in higher pay growth. This should give the Bank of England sufficient scope to keep interest rates on hold for some time yet, despite their recent warning.

“Nonetheless, with the UK economy entering a weaker period as inflation continues to bite, more must be done to support growth and investment, including addressing the mounting burden of up-front taxes and costs faced by firms.”

Commenting on various Labour and Conservative proposals on worker’s rights, Nova Fairbank, Public Affairs Manager for Norfolk Chamber said:

“There is little appetite within the Norfolk business community for a roll-back of employment rights.  Businesses worry about the prospect of costly or bureaucratic new obligations, no matter how well-intentioned.

“Norfolk Chamber will watch closely as more detail emerges on the various proposals, to ensure that they do not give rise to expensive new obligations or unintended consequences – especially for the thousands of civic-minded local businesses who already do everything in their power to engage, support, train and reward their workforce.

“In the past, we have seen campaign-season promises on workplace rights create unrealistic expectations, and undermine relationships that have been painstakingly built up between firms and employees over many years. That must not be allowed to occur if some, or all, of these proposals become the law of the land.

“Some of the headline propositions in the Labour Party manifesto will give business communities across Norfolk real cause for concern. High personal taxation, sweeping nationalisation and deep intervention in business decision-making are not the hallmarks of an ambitious and enterprising society.  However, there are some bright spots in Labour’s manifesto, notably clear and specific commitments to reform Britain’s broken business rates system, which successive governments have failed to implement.

Commenting specifically on the proposals to increase the national minimum wage which is proposed by both Conservative and Labour, Mrs Fairbank said:

“Low pay and low social mobility are a challenge to the Norfolk economy, but they won’t be solved just by driving up wage rates. The best way to get a high-wage economy is through better education, training, and investment, by schools, universities and businesses alike.”

“Whilst many companies would have the ability to increase pay, others would struggle to do so alongside pensions auto-enrolment, the apprenticeship levy, employer National Insurance contributions, and other up-front costs. Some may have to divert money from training and investment to increase pay, which could hurt their productivity. Others may stop hiring altogether.”

Commenting on the Lib Dem promise of £100-a-week for budding entrepreneurs

“Promising budding entrepreneurs an £100-a-week allowance to help with living costs is welcomed, as it will help support start up and entrepreneurial businesses, however these businesses still face many up front costs and taxes, including business rates.

“Norfolk Chamber believes that fundamental change to the business rates system is needed, including stripping plant and machinery from rates assessments that does so much to discourage business investment.  We would call on a future government to re-visit the detail of reform package previously discussed to address the serious concerns business ratepayers have, and as an interim fix the appeals system which is no longer fit for purpose.”

The National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) are offering advice to businesses following the coordinated ransomware attack on thousands of private and public sector organisations on Friday.

MESSAGE FROM NATIONAL CYBER SECURITY CENTRE (NCSC) “Since the global coordinated ransomware attack on thousands of private and public sector organisations across dozens of countries on Friday, there have been no sustained new attacks of that kind.  But it is important to understand that the way these attacks work means that compromises of machines and networks that have already occurred may not yet have been detected, and that existing infections from the malware can spread within networks.

This means that as a new working week begins it is likely, in the UK and elsewhere, that further cases of ransomware may come to light, possibly at a significant scale.

Our national focus must therefore be on two lines of defence.

The first is to limit the spread and impact of the attacks that have already occurred.  Due to broad government and partner efforts, a variety of tools are now publicly available to help organisations to do this.  This guidance can be found on our homepage – ncsc.gov.uk – under the title Protecting Your Organisation From Ransomware: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/guidance/ransomware-latest-ncsc-guidance 

We know already that there have been attempts to attack organisations beyond the National Health Service. It is therefore absolutely imperative that any organisation that believes they may be affected, follows and implements this guidance. We have set out two pieces of guidance: one for organisations and one for private individuals and SMEs which can be applicable regardless of the age of the software in question.  It will be updated as and when further mitigations become available and we will announce when updates have been made on Twitter (@ncsc) and elsewhere.

Secondly, it is possible that a ransomware attack of this type and on this scale could recur, though we have no specific evidence that this is the case.  What is certain is that ransomware attacks are some of the most immediately damaging forms of cyber attack that affects home users, enterprises and governments equally.

It is also the case that there are a number of easy-to-implement defences against ransomware which very considerably reduce the risk of attack and the impact of successful attacks.  These simple steps to protect against ransomware are not being applied by either the public or organisations as thoroughly as they should be.

Three simple steps for companies to undertake which are also set out on our website (https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/guidance/protecting-your-organisation-ransomware) and can be summarised as follows:

1. Keep your organisation’s security software patches up to date
2. Use proper anti-virus software services
3. Most importantly for ransomware, back up the data that matters to you, because you can’t be held to ransom for data you hold somewhere else.

Home users and small businesses can take the following steps to protect themselves:

1. Run Windows Update
2. Make sure your AntiVirus product is up to date and run a scan – If you don’t have one install one of the free trial versions from a reputable vendor
3. If you have not done so before, this is a good time to think about backing important data up – You can’t be held to ransom if you’ve got the data somewhere else.

In the days ahead, the NCSC, working closely with the National Crime Agency in support of their criminal investigation, and with international partners in both other governments and the commercial sector, will continue our round-the-clock effort to get ahead of this threat.  We would like to reassure the public that resources from the Government, law enforcement and public and private sector organisation are working together to manage further disruption from the current attack and to increase protection against any further attacks in the coming days. The country’s security and law enforcement agencies are working round the clock to protect the public. Private sector efforts have made a very significant contribution to mitigate the cyber attacks so far and to  prevent further disruption.

We will provide further updates as and when appropriate.”