Economic growth has grown solidly in the last year
Demand for commercial property has increased.
Recruitment difficulties continue to increase
The latest Bank of England Agent’s summary of business conditions for Quarter 3, 2015 was released this week.
The summary noted that overall activity has grown solidly in the last year, with increased demand being attributed to rises in real incomes and credit availability. However export driven growth is subdued.
Demand for commercial property has increased in pace with economic activity and investment in this sector had remained strong. In contract housing market activity has not picked up at the pace expected.
Recruitment difficulties continue to increase, with signs of building pressure on labour cost growth in the service sector. Service sector price inflation has remained modest and goods prices are lower than a year ago.
A new report by the University of Derby outlined that half of businesses have to improve the writing skills of their employees due to low standards.
The research found a ‘perception gap’ between young people’s belief in their skills and the view of the employers. Nine out of ten young people said they felt confident about their letter writing ability, but half of employers said they were spending time and money developing their workers’ skills.
Report author, Vanessa Dodd said: “Our research shows that letter writing continues to be an important skill for many types of work.”
Commenting on the findings of the research, Caroline Williams, Chief Executive of Norfolk Chamber said:“Soft skills and accessing a future workforce are key issues for the Norfolk business community. Norfolk Chamber is passionate about developing the talent of Norfolk’s young people. Soft skills include being able to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing; showing commitment and flexibility; and being able to be a team player.”
“Many businesses rely on the education system to help equip young people with the soft skills and attitude they need to successfully make the transition to work and we will continue to work with our education and business members to ensure that we work in partnership towards closing this gap and developing our future workforce.”
Norfolk Chambers is part of the A47 Alliance and we are Chair of the A47 Alliance Task & Finish Group. We have helped to draft the below letter to the Prime Minister and we would like business signatures to show the level of support for the full dualling of the A47.
The A47 Alliance is a collaboration of 26 organisations covering business leaders, Local Enterprise Partnerships, Chambers of Commerce, local authority members from Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, and Suffolk who have come together to make the case for a fully dualled A47. The A47 Alliance recognises that the whole of the A47 cannot be dualled at once and therefore have three priority schemes which we are currently lobbying government to provide funding for in the next trunk road programme, which starts in 2025.
These are:
Acle Straight dualling
Tilney to East Winch dualling
Peterborough to Walton Highway dualling
Dualling of these sections of the A47 will increase the economic performance of the eastern region, as well as reduce congestion, improve safety and increase journey reliability along the route. Support from businesses in the East is essential to make the case for A47 dualling as businesses are key to the economic prosperity of the region.
As part of the A47 Alliance’s campaigning activities, we are sending the letter (see document below) to the Prime Minister Liz Truss. With a Norfolk MP in Number 10, this is a prime opportunity to campaign for much-needed investment in the A47 and make a strong case for dualling. To show the vast support in the region for A47 dualling and the importance of the route to the businesses in the East, we would like to obtain your support for dualling in the form of a signature to add to the attached letter. Including the signatures of businesses from across the region with show clearly to the Prime Minister just how important A47 dualling is for the economy of the East and supporting our businesses.
We would be extremely grateful to receive your signature and organisation logo to include within the letter. Please may you send these to the A47 Alliance mailbox (A47Alliance@norfolk.gov.uk) by Friday 30th September which is when we intend to send the letter to Liz Truss.
The Quarterly Economic Survey is the largest independent business survey in the UK. The results are used by the Government and the Bank of England to plan the future of the UK economy. You can have your say by completing the QES online NOW. It takes less than 3 minutes. The completion deadline for this survey is midnight on Monday 09 March 2020. The Q1 results will be released at the beginning of April.
The results from the previous quarter revealed that the UK ended 2019 in stagnation, amid long-term uncertainty, rising business costs and a slowing global economy. The survey found protracted weakness across most indicators of economic health in the final quarter of 2019.
Norfolk’s service sector indicators worsen and remain well below their historic average
Norfolk indicators for manufacturing cashflow, home orders, and investment continue to worsen and are firmly in negative territory
The service sector, which accounts for almost 80% of UK economic output, saw a large majority of its key indicators worsen compared to Q3 2019. These indicators remain well below their historic average.
The balance of manufacturers reporting a rise in domestic and export sales fell drastically. However, the balance of manufacturers reporting increased export orders rose from the previous negative position in Q3.
Investment intentions remain weak by historic standards – the balance of local firms in the manufacturing sector that plan to increase investment in plant and machinery dropped back to a negative position – whilst the fall was not as great, both the National and the East of England results also fell.
Cashflow – a key indicator of the health of businesses – Nationally showed a slightly improved result, but remained very weak across both manufacturing and service sectors. Locally, both the Norfolk and the East of England service and manufacturing sectors reported decreased cashflow (-6 and -10 respectively in Norfolk and -10 and -4 in the East of England).
Key Norfolk findings in the Q4 2019 survey:
Services sector:
The balance of firms reporting increased domestic sales fell from +8 in Q3 2019 to -7. Those reporting increased domestic orders fell from 0 to -12.
The balance of firms reporting improved export sales dropped from -5 to -12. Those reporting increased export orders fell from -5 to -31, and all-time low.
The balance of firms reporting improved cashflow fell from +2 to -6
The balance of firms looking to increase investment in plant and machinery remained at -14 but rose slightly from +7 to +9 for training
The balance of firms confident that turnover and profitability will improve over the next year increased from +10 to +26 for turnover and from -5 to -4 for profitability. Despite these slight improvements, the figures still remain weak.
Manufacturing sector:
The balance of firms reporting increased domestic sales fell from 0 in Q3 2019, to -20
While those reporting increased domestic orders continued to fall from -11 to -20
The balance of firms reporting improved export sales rose from -6 to +11
The balance of firms reporting increased export orders improved considerably from -24 to 0
The balance of firms reporting improved cashflow fell deeper into negative territory from -5 in Q3 to -20 in Q4
The balance of firms increasing investment in plant/machinery fell from +10 to -10 and investment in training rose from +10 to +30
The balance of firms confident that turnover and profitability will increase in the next 12 months fell from +38 to +10 for turnover and from +14 to 0 for profitability. This is still much lower than the post-recession average.
Comment from Shevaun Haviland, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce:
“After months of campaigning, today’s Government announcement to reverse the increase to the National Insurance Contribution (NIC) is a big win for the British Chambers of Commerce and the business community. This is much needed support for businesses during these difficult times.
“There are a range of other challenges that must be addressed including labour shortages, supply chain disruption, and rising raw material costs. Tomorrow’s mini budget from the Chancellor is now a critical moment. To truly revitalise our economy for the difficult months ahead then tomorrow must bring a clear long-term plan that gives business the confidence to grow.”
Konect bus is kindly providing discounted tickets for those traveling to the B2B Exhibition on 13th October 2022.
To claim your discount, simply download the Konectbus App via i-store or Google Play, then register for an account.
Once set up, select mobile tickets > Anywhere > Anywhere Adult Day and go to checkout.
You will then be prompted to add a discount code: B2B22
A discount of £1.80 will be applied to the normal ticket price of £6.80. The discounted ticket can only be purchased on the morning of travel.
The Konectbus service No4 ( Fab 4) takes you direct to the Norfolk Showground, which as you can see from the current timetable operates an hourly service, with the the first bus departing Dereham Market Place at 06.10am and the last bus to Norwich Bus Station is 17.43pm and to Dereham is 18.52pm.
From Dereham and Norwich Bus Station, the journey takes around 35 minutes and you would need to get off at the stop at New Costessey, showground.
Commenting on the US Federal Reserve interest rates decision today, John Longworth, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce, said:
“Given the current global uncertainty, the Fed was right to keep rates on hold for now, and avoid exacerbating the problem. We would urge the MPC to follow suit, particularly given the more mixed picture emerging from the UK labour market, and the recent disappointing trade and manufacturing figures.
“The Bank of England should keep UK rates at their current level until well into 2016 at the earliest, and when rates do start to rise – as they must eventually do – it is vital that increases are limited to small incremental rises, in order to maintain business confidence.”
The September meeting of the Great Yarmouth Chamber Council was held at Conductor Installation Services’ new premises on Beacon Park. Andy Penman, Group Managing Director of CIS is the President of Great Yarmouth Chamber Council. He provided members with a guided tour of his ‘state of the art’ premises, including showing members the underwater piling and survey equipment in his workshops and yard.
The Chamber Council debated how to increase the visibility of businesses in Great Yarmouth and discussed how to improve Great Yarmouth Town Centre. Following the recent announcement by the Borough Council of Great Yarmouth of a £1 million initiative to regenerate the town centre, the Borough Council has commissioned Carter Jonas to carry out a study and produce a master plan for the town which sets out the vision for the next 15 years. In order to plan key changes and guide investment to create a commercially successful town centre, they need to hear from residents and businesses. If you would like to input into this study click here to download the questionnaire.
The aim will be to define the possible options for regenerating the town centre which will then be consulted upon in early 2016.
Thursday 15th September saw the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce’s Talking Tech event return with over 50 business professionals in attendance. Once again hosted at The Space, Norwich, we were happy to welcome 13 speakers, each with unique insights and experience, across three panels covering Everyday Tech, Green Tech and Innovation Tech.
Co-hosted by Tim Robinson (COO at Tech East) and Nova Fairbank (CEO at the Chambers), the event began with the Green Tech Panel, addressing some of the most pressing issues facing the business community at the moment. One key topic was the journey to net zero; Julie Furnell (Mobilityways) highlighted that many companies would like to begin their journey but ‘are just unclear on where to start’, a point echoed by many others.
Simon Girdlestone (Solinatra) focused on costs and how these could be ‘passed through to the consumer and small business’ by investing in products which ‘[use] less energy to produce’, a key factor in making businesses greener and also easing hardship during the current cost of living crisis. Chris Spinks (Westcotec) spoke about the mission to make green and sustainable products safer and therefore more accepted – they ‘encourage people to cycle to work…because we can provide warning systems to make it safer so use their cycles’.
Following this, we heard from our Everyday Tech panel about how advances in tech have allowed advances in business practices, from the needs of those working from home such as access to faster internet connections, as well as the continuing drive to introduce more diversity to the tech world.
Clifford Norton (BT Local Business) said it was ‘all about speed nowadays’ and made the point that access to fast internet can help ‘make companies perform better’. James Fowler (Uptech) agreed, adding that ‘There’s a need to build in the infrastructure into a business’ otherwise ‘You lose productivity, which ultimately means you lose money, by people having to wait for things’.
Andy Skinner (Norfolk County Council) touched on another key point, saying ‘Education is critical’ for businesses and that they need to ask their customers ‘What do they want?’ in order to avoid a disconnect between their business practices and customer demand.
As our work becomes more and more technologically focused, it is also important, said Darren Chapman (CyberScale), as ‘the risks and threats evolve constantly’ and although ‘there’s an awareness of the risk and that something needs to be done’ many businesses ‘don’t always know exactly what that is’. By increasing knowledge about cyber security, businesses can ensure that they keep pace with technology in a way that remains safe and reassures their customers.
After a break for lunch, we returned to the main auditorium for our third and final panel on Innovation Tech. As a sector that is constantly pushing for the next advancement, innovation is key to success. We were pleased to welcome Imogen Shipperlee (Hethel Innovation) who questioned whether the focus is too often on ‘coming up with a fancy looking product’ when asked to innovate. James Adams (Tech Educators) added that we need to ask ‘how are we making something that’s solving the needs of tomorrow’ in order to take advantage of the market available.
Dominic Mitchell (UEA) expanded on a question raised earlier, that of recruitment; ‘we want to deliver graduates that you want to employ… Big challenges we have are attracting people into the engineering sector’. Hayley Johnson (Artlist) offered one possible explanation by adding ‘the demands of the next generation has jumped hugely’ particularly in the creative industry. Mark Stringer (Lotus) summed the mood of the panel by saying ‘By collaborating we can take innovation in different directions’
A big thank you to our event partner Tech East and our sponsor BT Local Business; without their support events like Talking Tech would not be possible.
Thank you also to those businesses who exhibited at the event; Orange Heating Supplies, BT Local Business Norfolk & Suffolk, Upp, Beacon IT, Uptech, Eastern Voice & Data and 101 Websites, Apps & Email Marketing.
We would also like to thank everyone who attended; we look forward to seeing you again at Talking Tech in 2023!
Nova Fairbank, CEO for The Norfolk Chambers of Commerce commented on the latest ONS figures, saying “The 0.3% fall in monthly GDP for August 2022 is a warning sign that the economy was already stalling before the market turmoil of recent weeks.
“Our research indicates that business confidence is falling at an alarming rate. Volatility in the currency and bond markets following recent Government announcements will have only exacerbated this.
“The six months energy support package will have provided some breathing room for businesses facing eye-watering energy costs.
“To build business confidence, Government must rapidly provide more detail on its fiscal policies and supply side reforms, particularly at a time when businesses face the twin crises of rising interest rates and high inflation.”