If you have manufactured or imported 10 or more tonnes of plastic packaging since 1 April 2022, you may need to register for the tax.
View the steps to take below
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-if-you-need-to-register-for-plastic-packaging-tax
Norfolk Chambers of Commerce is working closely with Hitachi Energy to bring a Meet the Buyer event for the Hornsea 3 on 25th April at Norwich City Football Club.
This event is a key chance for local SMEs in specific sectors, to meet and discuss the opportunities to work on the Hornsea 3 Offshore Wind. This project will provide huge value for local businesses and will enable opportunities for collaboration within the supply chain.
Hitachi Energy has been appointed by Ørsted, the world’s most sustainable energy company, to deliver the Hornsea 3 offshore wind farm.
With a capacity of 2,852 MW, Hornsea 3 will produce enough low-cost, clean, renewable electricity to power around 3.2 million UK homes, making a significant contribution to the UK Government’s ambition of having 50 GW offshore wind in operation by 2030 as part of the British Energy Security Strategy.
The project (subject to Ørsted taking a Final Investment Decision on Hornsea 3) will see the installation of 240 km of onshore cables that will connect the offshore wind farm from the landfall at Weybourne in Norfolk to the Norwich Main National Grid Substation. Works are scheduled to commence in March 2023 with an anticipated completion in 2027.
Both Hitachi Energy and Ørsted are committed to engaging with the local community and supply chain to maximise the benefits and opportunities for individuals and the local economy.
Hitachi Energy has proactively identified a number of the relevant trades, services, commodities, and skills required and is working closely with Norfolk Chambers to co-ordinate and facilitate as many opportunities as possible for local, and particularly, for small businesses and individuals to get involved and benefit from this exciting project.
Hitachi Energy is advancing the world’s energy system to be more sustainable, flexible, and secure. As the pioneering technology leader, we collaborate with customers and partners to enable a sustainable energy future – for today’s generations and those to come.
Norfolk Chambers of Commerce, Chief Executive, Nova Fairbank said “Following previous successful Meet the Buyer events, we’re delighted to be bringing back another event. Our mission is to connect the Norfolk community and what better way than bringing Norfolk businesses together on such a significant project”.
If you’re interested in attending the event to showcase your services, please click here.
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.
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.
Commenting on the Prime Minister’s announcement she will seek to extend the Brexit deadline, Dr Adam Marshall, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce, said:
“The clock is still ticking, and avoiding a messy and disorderly exit from the EU is still the top priority for our business communities. The government must take firm action, now, to ensure that this is not allowed to happen by default.
“Yet businesses need to see outcomes, not just more process. On-going uncertainty is having a real and negative impact on business confidence and investment all across the UK. Our own quarterly survey of businesses, the biggest independent survey in the UK, is concrete evidence of this – with the worst figures across the board in nearly a decade.
“The Prime Minister may have issued a revised road map, but business communities still have little sense of the destination. It’s like being asked to follow a sat-nav to an unknown location – with the nagging worry that the directions may yet lead to a cliff.”
Norfolk Chambers mission is: Connecting, supporting and giving voice to every business in Norfolk.
As part of that mission, we are here to support our members goals and aims, get their voice heard and promote the ‘wow’ factors for Norfolk’s business community.
To help us achieve this we are now using our monthly columns in both EDP and the Lynn News to shout about our members successes; to hear from them on thought-leadership; to get their views on issues that impact on businesses; and to understand their thoughts and feelings on what is happening in Norfolk.
Last week saw the first of these columns be published in the EDP. Dave Wilson, Managing Director of Tiger Eye provided a great article on ‘Change, Progress and People’. It was a thought-provoking piece and inspired an immediate response from Alex Cosham at Image Display – who responded by writing an interesting blog pondering how change could be viewed as progressive or augmentative, from an events perspective.
Every member of Norfolk Chambers can contribute to these columns. We will also ensure that your content appears on the Chambers website and in our social media. You can be an individual, a big company, or a small business. You can be anywhere in Norfolk.
Now, more than ever before, Chambers is about you – the members. Because it’s you who define Norfolk, who fuel its growth and deliver its goods and services. It’s you, who create and innovate to make the county the success it is.
Let’s work together to share positive news about Norfolk. So, if you’re a Chamber member and you want to help celebrate the success of Norfolk, this is your chance.
We’ll collate your stories and input, and we’ll use our media columns, website and social media to share them. From here on it will be your voices. Do it!
Register your interest now by e mailing: [email protected]
Staying up to date with our skills and professional learning is always a good thing. In fact, with the fast-moving working environment, this has become even more important. Attending a training course can give you a new approach to tasks, an investment in your knowledge, and helps to encourage your staff to grow professionally too.
With the support of our expert trainers who are specialists in their business areas, Chamber Training offers a diverse choice of half day courses across the year, with the Spring and Summer dates now released.
Whether you are looking to develop your business writing, or hone your Instagram for your work account, or prepare documents for international trade, our training course are here to advance you and your business.
Here are some of our courses we have coming up:
The courses comprise of small groups, with the chance for one to one support from the trainer, groups activities, and the opportunity to answer questions throughout. All handouts from the sessions will be available, and light refreshments with tea and coffee will be included too.
What’s not to like, book today here: https://www.norfolkchamber.co.uk/training
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:
See the full article on the BID’s website here.
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.
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.”
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:
Find out more about the categories here
Entries can be made here, please note the deadline for entries is Sunday 16th July.
At Norfolk Chambers of Commerce we love to experience first-hand the amazing work our members do across the county. On the morning of Tuesday 30 April local businesses also joined us to see the great work done by the Hawk and Owl Trust as we held our first ‘netwalking’ event! As members arrived at the Hawk and Owl Trust reserve in Sculthorpe we welcomed them with freshly cooked breakfast rolls and plenty of tea and coffee. Attendees were networking over breakfast enjoying views of two week old lambs out the window. After a few words from the Hawk and Owl Trust Fundraiser, Angela Glynn, their Conservation Officer Nigel Middleton prepared attendees for the guided walk they were about to take across the 53 acre site. As Nigel guided us through the reserve, attendees had time to spark conversations both business and nature related to the sounds of various bird species around us! We stopped at several points along the walk to hear from Nigel about the reserve, including a treetop ‘Hide’ which was built entirely by volunteers for visitors to sit and watch from. After we’d finished our walk we gathered back in their facilities for a hot drink and continued conversations. This event provided a fantastic opportunity for businesses meet one another in a refreshing environment surrounded purely by nature and great work. The Hawk and Owl Trust have recently launched a corporate membership scheme allowing businesses to join for a yearly donation, receiving membership cards for staff to use, an Owl nesting box via their ‘Adopt a Box’ scheme and much more. Get in touch to find out more.