Chamber News

Reacting to the news that the trade deals with Australia and New Zealand will come into force on May 31, Julie Austin, International Trade Quality Manager at Norfolk Chambers said: “It is good news to hear that the free trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand will finally come into force at the end of the month. “These deals will lower tariffs, simplify customs procedures, allow for greater freedom of movement for labour and provide stronger market access for the UK’s world-leading services sector. “But the success of any free trade agreement comes down to whether businesses use it, so it’s vital the Government shouts from the rooftops about these new opportunities. “A recent BCC survey also found almost a quarter of firms (23%) said finding a business partner or distributor overseas would encourage them to either start exporting or export more. “We have strong Chambers in both Australia and New Zealand and will be working with them to get the most out of these trade deals for all our economies.” Further details on the trade agreements can be found here, for Australia, and here, for New Zealand. Find out how the Norfolk Chambers could support your business with International Trade here.

Entries are now open for the Eastern Daily Press Business Awards 2023. The theme for this year is those heroes, the team members that are the difference between success and failure. We are pleased to see so many of our members involved with the awards already, with several being sponsors of the award categories and local Charity and Norfolk Chamber members, Walking With The Wounded being named EDP Business Awards Charity of the Year for 2023. The award categories are:

• Norfolk Business of the Year, sponsored by Barclays
• Customer Excellence Award, sponsored by Greater Anglia
• Digital Business of the Year, sponsored by Upp
• Environmental & Sustainability Award, sponsored by Norse
• Large Business of the Year, sponsored by FRP Advisory
• Positive Impact in the Community Award, sponsored by Vattenfall
• Rising Star of the Year, sponsored by Birketts
• Growth Business of the Year, sponsored by Ashtons Legal
• Employer of the Year
• Director of the Year
• Small Business of the Year
• Medium Business of the Year
• Outstanding Achievement Award, sponsored by Barclays

Find out more about the categories here Entries can be made here, please note the deadline for entries is Sunday 16th July.

Reacting to reports that the sunset clause might be removed from the Retained EU Law Bill, William Bain, Head of Trade Policy at the BCC, said: “Over the past few months, the BCC has consistently put forward a strong business case to remove the uncertainty caused by an imminent sunset clause for retained EU law. “If Ministers are now considering a more pragmatic approach this would be greatly welcomed. Firms have been battered by the pandemic, energy costs, inflation and rising interest rates, but their confidence in the economic outlook has been starting to grow. Now is not the time to knock that with a hasty sunset clause across vast areas of UK regulation. “But it would appear the Government has been listening and we welcome the opportunity for further dialogue. Businesses are keen to see reform which removes barriers to growth, where appropriate, that keeps costs down and avoids divergence within the UK internal market.”

Responding to the House of Lords European Affairs Committee report on the future of the UK-EU relationship, William Bain, Head of Trade Policy at the BCC, said: “The BCC welcomes these clear and well-evidenced proposals for reform of access to the UK labour market. We provided evidence to the Committee based on our research among businesses in key economic sectors. “There are still particularly tough issues faced by firms who cannot attract sufficient UK staff in care, hospitality, manufacturing and logistics. “We need a fast, efficient and affordable system to access skills from outside the UK when we can’t recruit and train locally.   The Shortage Occupations List (SOL) is key tool to do this, but it must reflect the reality on the ground. “UK firms are also hampered when it comes to travelling to Europe due to the lack of flexibility in some of the business travel and mobility rules in the Brexit deal, especially in relation to financial, professional and business services. “We urge the UK Government to respond decisively to these findings, so that firms can have the confidence in access to the skilled workers they need to grow their businesses and get economic growth moving.” A copy of the full committee report can be found here.

The Norwich BID (Business Improvement District) has acquired a limited number of licenses for Rio Carbon Reporting’s Carbon Tracker. “What is Rio? Rio is an intelligent sustainability management system. This platform helps businesses, public sector organisations, and SME’s track their sustainability data, report on their progress, and learn to become more sustainable. Rio can not only help businesses track their sustainability journey, but the platform also analyses your data and provides actionable ways to improve your sustainability and save you money! Rio can help with:

• Target-setting establish your organisation’s targets and monitor progress
• Reporting provide information to key stakeholders
• Legislation access a legal library of environmental legislation (with synopses!)
• Identify opportunities to reduce your carbon footprint
• Training Rio Learn provides training resources on a range of topics to increase sustainability knowledge.”

See the full article on the BID’s website here.

Anglian Waste Recycling are excited to have launched their latest initiative, the Anglian Green Scheme, which aims to educate school pupils on the importance of waste reduction and responsible recycling. The waste management company hopes that this engaging scheme will create a long-term change in the way young people approach recycling to protect our environment. With concerns over climate change and environmental damage on the rise, the recycling initiative seeks to inspire students across the region to reduce the amount of waste they produce and introduce positive recycling behaviors into their daily routines. Influencing the next generation to make sustainable choices that have less harmful impacts on the environment will play a key role in the solution to limit global warming in the future. Designed to make recycling fun, interactive and accessible, Anglian aspired to make all activities within the scheme rewarding, to encourage children to recycle using the separate waste streams. Participating schools receive a range of educational resources including workshops and assemblies led by Anglian, digital toolkits, and their most popular learning tool, the Anglian Recycling Station. “We believe that educating our future generations about the importance of recycling is crucial in creating a sustainable future,” said Matthew Raven, Field Sales Executive of Anglian Waste Recycling. “Through the Anglian Green Scheme, we hope to ignite a passion in young people to become environmental stewards by instilling a culture of recycling in them from an early age.” Bawburgh School are one of the first schools to sign up to the Green Scheme initiative to increase recycling rates within their facility. Zoe Courtney, Caretaker of Bawburgh School, said “It’s fantastic to see how Anglian Waste Recycling have helped to raise awareness for recycling among our pupils. Our students are having so much fun while they learn about this topic and it’s wonderful to see them taking an active interest in protecting our environment.” After running a recycling themed poster competition for the students at Bawburgh, Anglian hosted an assembly where the two winners were announced and awarded with goody bags – Asta (Kingfishers – Year 2) and Evie-Rose (Jackdaws – Year 4). The two poster designs have been printed onto the Anglian Recycling Station in the playground by CIM Signs & Graphics, who kindly donated their time and materials to this project. Anglian Waste Recycling would like to encourage all schools in East Anglia to participate in the Green Scheme to support their local communities in creating a cleaner, greener environment for all. Established in 2007, Anglian originated as a demolition and asbestos company, but has rapidly grown over the years to include multiple divisions, including waste management. Providing commercial waste and recycling collections, skip hire and scrap metal processing, they are also the new preferred waste supplier for Norwich Business Improvement District – offering levy payers access to exclusive rates to increase recycling across Norwich City. To stay up to date with Anglian Waste Recycling’s initiatives, visit their website, www.anglianrecycling.co.uk or find them on social media.

Meet the Buyer | 25^th April 2023 | Hitachi Energy Hitachi Energy has been appointed by Ørsted, the world’s most sustainable energy company, to deliver the construction of two HVDC Converter stations Link 1 & 2 for the Hornsea 3 offshore wind farm. The Norfolk Chambers of Commerce worked closely with Hitachi Energy to deliver an event which gave Local Businesses the opportunity to showcase their skills and expertise to Hitachi Energy. Businesses from different sectors joined us on Tuesday 25^th April to meet and discuss the opportunities to work on the Hornsea 3 project with Hitachi Energy. Meet the Buyer was an opportunity for local businesses to sit down and have a 15 minute meeting with a representative from Hitachi Energy to learn more about the project and showcase how their business can support them. Several attendees joined us at Hitachi Energy’s Meet the Buyer after attending our previous Meet the Buyer in November 2022, including Wensum Print. Oli Smith from Wensum print said “This is the second meet the buyer we have attended, we provided the signage for the Hornsea 3 Onshore Cable Works project after attending Meet the Buyer at the end of last year and we have come back today to represent our business again and showcase what we can offer and hopefully build some new business relationships.” Office Water Supplies also attended the event after being subcontracted after last year’s Meet the Buyer. When asked how important do you think it is that the Norfolk Chambers of Commerce are apart of an event like this they said: “It is massively important that the Chambers are a part of an event like this, it’s a huge opportunity for us and many other local businesses.” After the event, Michael Chappell from Hitachi Energy said: “The one-to-one meetings provided meaningful new potential suppliers for which we will be looking to explore more in the coming months. In addition to which, Simon Knapper, who welcomed visitors to the Hitachi Stand, received significant interest and thoroughly enjoyed discussing how Hitachi’s HVDC technology is bringing power from the Hornsea Offshore Windfarm into the UK transmission network at Necton. Initial feedback from the Hitachi team was all extremely positive.” Amy Wright, Events Manager, Norfolk Chambers of Commerce: “I would like to thank all the businesses who attended the event, it was fantastic to hear the buzz of the networking area and to meet some of our members. Norwich City Football Club’s hospitality was outstanding and it was a very engaging environment to be in.” Thank you to Sizewell C Supply Chain and Hitachi Energy for exhibiting at Meet the Buyer and thank you to Norwich City Football Club for their venue space in the Top of the Terrace.

• 80% of businesses surveyed (92% of whom are SMEs) attempting to recruit have faced challenges, with hospitality and manufacturing firms still the most likely to report difficulties
• Almost six in ten (59%) businesses are actively trying to recruit staff

• BCC calls on Government to work with business on solutions including skills training, investment and urgent reform of the Shortage Occupations List (SOL) 

The latest Quarterly Recruitment Outlook (QRO), a survey of more than 5,000 UK firms of all sectors and sizes by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) reveals businesses are still facing record high difficulties in hiring new staff. The first quarter results for 2023 show that recruitment difficulties have fallen just two percentage points from the record high level of 82% in Q4 2022. Attempted recruitment in Q1 was virtually unchanged from the previous quarter, with 59% of those surveyed looking to find staff (61% in Q4 2022). While recruitment difficulties are being experienced across the economy, firms in the hospitality and manufacturing sectors were the most likely to report recruitment difficulties (83% in each sector). This is closely followed by the construction and engineering sector (81%) and then professional services; and public, education, health sector on 79%. The recruitment pressure points vary across sectors. For firms who struggled to recruit in the construction and engineering sector, 71% faced difficulties in finding skilled manual/technical workers. However, for hospitality businesses that struggled to recruit, 64% faced difficulties in finding semi/unskilled workers. Investment in training remains stubbornly low in an environment of increasing cost pressures. Just over a quarter of firms (27%) reported an increase in their training investment plans over the last three months (24% Q4 2022), while 14% report a drop. Overall, 67% of businesses say labour costs are a source of inflationary pressure, with a similar number (66%) worried about energy costs. Concerns around labour costs are highest in manufacturing (76%) followed by construction and engineering, logistics, and hospitality (each at 70%). Responding to the findings, Nova Fairbank, Chief Executive at the Norfolk Chambers of Commerce said: “People shortages are a massive issue and employers can see little sign of improvement. The high number of unfilled job vacancies is damaging businesses and the economy. Norfolk firms are struggling to fulfil order books and turning down new work. “While investment in training is part of the solution, it is being held back by rising overall cost pressures and a lack of time and resource at firms to mentor and support new recruits. “There is no quick fix and employers and the government need to work together to find solutions. While firms can do more to make workplaces more flexible and jobs easier to access, the government must redouble its efforts to encourage and help people into work. “Support for parents and carers, older workers and those with health issues will be crucial. At the same time, where there is evidence of urgent and critical skills shortages that are crippling business sectors, the government must adopt a sensible and pragmatic approach to immigration and ensure that the Shortage Occupations List reflects the reality on the ground. “The Chamber Network is rooted in its communities, representing businesses of all sizes across Norfolk and the UK, and these are the big issues they are telling us need addressing if we are to get the economy growing again.”

Reacting to the latest ONS inflation data for March, Nova Fairbank, CEO of Norfolk Chambers of Commerce, said: “Today’s CPI rate of 10.1% means that prices continue to rise at an alarming rate. Driven largely by housing and food costs, this is on top of an already high growth rate from this time last year. “More positively, today’s figures show that the Producer Price Index has eased to 7.6% from 12.8%, indicating the peak may have passed for input price growth. “Our research shows that inflation is still by far and away the top concern for UK SMEs. This has been driven by three years of global lockdowns, supply chain crises, energy shocks, and new trade barriers with the EU. “Small businesses, particularly those in the retail and hospitality sector, have been the least able to absorb cost rises, and we see that most have not invested or grown. “Businesses need to see a reduction in the cost and burden of exporting and importing, particularly with the EU, as well as increased support to deal with the unprecedented energy price shock.”

Reacting to the ONS GDP figures for February, Nova Fairbank, Chief Executive at the Norfolk Chambers of Commerce, said: “Although today’s GDP figures indicate the UK economy continues to technically avoid a recession, it’s now clear we are stuck in a prolonged period of almost no growth. “After a sharp drop in business confidence last year, our latest research shows that optimism among Norfolk SMEs is now on the way up. But this is yet to translate into an improvement to business conditions in general. “The Chambers expects GDP to contract overall by 0.3% in 2023, a view echoed by the IMF forecast in their World Economic Outlook published earlier this week. “The business environment needs to improve quickly to ensure confidence doesn’t fall back to the levels we saw last year. While last month’s Budget included several positive measures for Norfolk’s economy, it did not go far enough to shift the dial on growth which remains stubbornly low. “The Government has not addressed some of the major issues holding firms back, such as the unprecedented energy price shock and record tightness in the labour market. “Following the attention being given to the Windsor Framework by world leaders this week, global trade also needs to be a core priority. UK exporters have faced major administrative costs since the introduction of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement with the EU and the focus must now be on ensuring the new customs and paperwork arrangements work smoothly for businesses both side of the Irish Sea.”

Reacting to the latest ONS Trade data for February, William Bain, Head of Trade Policy at the BCC, said: “This latest data provides further evidence the UK is finding it tough to generate any sustained rise in exports. The overall picture for the last two years is broadly static, although this masks a better position on services than with goods. “Services exports values showed a modest rise in February 2023 by 0.7% (excluding inflation). This mirrors the shallow recovery in services export volumes over the past two years. “But this is not enough to compensate for a lacklustre performance elsewhere. Additional data from the Bank of England and the Office for Budget Responsibility indicates that the UK’s export performance is the worst in the G7. “The World Trade Organisation’s latest forecast for global trade growth of only 1.7% in 2023 demonstrates the strength of the headwinds facing all exporters. “But this is precisely the time to be putting measures in place to raise export capacity and readiness here at home. The Government must do more to help firms export – it is vital for the overall growth of our economy.” Analysis of the data:   Removing the effects of inflation, total UK goods export values fell by 0.8% compared to January. A fall in goods export values to the EU of 6.2% (driven by lower volumes of fuels, machinery and transport equipment) was accompanied by a fall in sales to the rest of the world of 0.7% (largely in lower chemicals exports to China and South Korea). Total goods imports values (excluding inflation) fell by 1.5%. Import values from the EU rose by 1.5% on January driven by machinery and transport equipment import gains (including cars from Germany) and higher fuel imports (refined oil from the Netherlands). But import values from the rest of the world fell by 4.5%, with reduced gas and oil imports from the US and Norway, and lower chemicals imports from the US. In services, excluding inflation, import values rose by 0.6% while export values rose by 0.7%.    In the three months to February 2023, goods export values fell by 3.8%, and goods import values by a smaller amount of 1.8%. Services export values fell over the same period by 1.6%, while imports fell slightly by 0.4%.  In the three months to February 2023, the overall UK trade deficit, removing inflationary effects, widened to £13.2bn.  More detail on the ONS data can be found here.

The remit for the Norfolk and Suffolk LSIP is in four parts:

• Articulate the employers skills needs – what are the skills employers need locally and struggle to find?
• Translating employers needs into changes in provision – how can those employers needs best be met by the provider in more responsive ways?
• Address learner demand and employer engagement – what can local stakeholders and employers do to raise demand for and make better use of those skills?
• Report annually to the DfE on what we want to achieve, why it matters, what changes are needed, and who needs to be involved.  In other words what does skills success look like?

As you will be aware, the timescale for engaging the wider business community across Norfolk and Suffolk has been extremely tight and continues to be ongoing.  Next steps for the LSIP include further interaction with our four Working Groups and the convening of the Common Framework Group to consider potential solutions and actions.  The full Local Skills Improvement Plan will be submitted to the Secretary of State by 31 May 2023. As required by the Department for Education, we are pleased to provide you with the draft priorities, as identified by a range of businesses across our region to help support your consideration for the LSIF bid. Click here to view 

Join us on Wednesday April 26th at Newmarket Racecourse for our LSIP Co.llaboration event

This Norfolk and Suffolk Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) collaboration event is a chance to showcase the extensive employer engagement which has taken place, detailing the analysis and key findings in which businesses are communicating the regions skills gaps and needs.

We will be showcasing what’s working well in the region and how we can continue to influence a local skills system which puts employer engagement at the heart of the agenda.