Commenting on the ONS labour market figures for January 2020, published, Suren Thiru, Head of Economics at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said:
“The jobs market remains strong in the face of a challenging economic backdrop, with firms continuing to hire in large numbers.
“However, falling job vacancies in Q4 compared to the previous quarter suggests that a subdued economy, lingering uncertainty and persistent recruitment difficulties are weighing on firms’ hiring decisions. If sustained, this could increasingly stifle jobs growth.
“The dip in regular pay growth will put further downward pressure on consumers’ spending power, despite weaker inflation. Achieving sustained wage increases will remain problematic unless the underlying issues that continue to limit pay settlements – poor productivity, rising employment costs and a sluggish economy – are tackled.
“More must be done to stimulate growth and productivity. With interest rates near to historical lows, there is little to be gained from further rate cuts. Instead the focus should be on using the upcoming budget to support firms looking to recruit and grow their business. Ministers should ease upfront business costs and comprehensively reform the Apprenticeship levy.”
Norfolk Chambers and our members are endorsing the calls from Norfolk County Council and other key stakeholder for improvements to the rate of progress for the A47 upgrades.
Highways England should be held to account for the “agonisingly slow” progress on its A47 improvements in Norfolk, the county council says.
A report by Norfolk County Council has told a national regulator of its “major concern” that work promised in 2014 and due for completion this year has not even started.
Councillor Martin Wilby, cabinet member for highways and infrastructure, said: “The Government approved the funding in 2014 and Highways England should be completing improvements to the A47 this year – but it has not even started work.
“Norfolk is missing out on economic growth, new homes and jobs because of this continued delay. It’s unacceptable and we want the regulator to intervene early in cases like this.”
Transport regulator the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is consulting public bodies on how it holds Highways England to account.
Norfolk County Council’s proposed response says that, in 2014, the Government committed £300 million to improve parts of the A47 between Great Yarmouth and Tuddenham, with work due to take place from 2015-20. Work has not started and the council is concerned that the revised start dates of 2021/22 won’t be met.
The report says: “This is a major area of concern for the county council. The expectation when the Government announced the inclusion of the A47 schemes within the programme for 2015-2020 was that they would be constructed within that period. We have, however, yet to see a start on any of the schemes.”
The report says the council has experienced “constant churn in representation from Highways England and their consultants, coupled with a lack of knowledge about the county due to the geographical remoteness of Highways England’s operations from Norfolk.
“Progress in development and delivery of the schemes has been agonisingly slow. Norfolk is extremely concerned about the ability of Highways England to deliver such projects.”
The council is encouraging the ORR to “meaningfully intervene” at an early stage, faced by issues like this and seek early resolution.
On Wednesday 25 March, the Norwich Opportunity Area and its partners will deliver a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style careers event, where 100 specially chosen Year 12 students in Norwich will be tackling a ‘real-life’ business problem.
But to ensure that this is a huge success we need support from the local business community in two key areas:
We would like a local business to help set the actual challenge! This can be based on a past issue or one they are facing now. Ideally it will be linked to something topical, such as the environment, human rights or something which is relevant to one of the region’s key industries and our young people. The business that sets the task will have the collective brain power of 100 specifically selected students to create a solution. The business would also be welcome to be one of the dragons on the day and could possibly allow the winning team to visit their business.
We are also looking for a number of business volunteers to mentor a student team. They will observe the students, provide individual feedback, and help judge their final presentations and performance.
If your business has a challenge or you can provide the event with a mentor to work with the students, please can you contact hello@norfolkchambers.co.uk
On a series of dates in March 2020, the Norwich Opportunity Area and City Academy Norwich are launching a Growth Sector Competition with year 8 students. Working in groups they are being challenged to research New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership’s growth areas; then create a poster; and present back to their year group.
The students will have a wide range to choose from, as the NALEP growth areas include:
Energy
Digital, ICT & Creative
Life Sciences
Advance Manufacturing
Construction & Development
Port & Logistics
Financial Services & Insurance
Visitor Economy
Agriculture, Food & Drink
They will be looking at the definition of the sector; the types of companies in Norfolk/Norwich who represent it; the job roles, pay scales, and entry routes etc.
But they do need some support from the local business community to make this a success. The Norwich Opportunity Area and City Academy Norwich are looking for business representatives from each of these sectors to support the activity by giving short presentations over the project on their sector and answering any questions the students may have at a school assembly on the following dates:
Thursday 13 February 2020
Thursday 12 March 2020
Thursday 19 March 2020
Assemblies run from 8.45am – 9.05am and they plan to have 2 guest speakers for each, allowing 10 mins for each speaker. Speakers will then be invited back for the finale (Thursday 26th March – if they are available) to see the posters the students have created and help choose the winner!
Ideally, they are looking for at least one representative from a business in each of the growth areas – can your business spare an hour to take part? If you are able to help or would like more information, please contact: madeleine.matthews@newanglia.co.uk
Returning on Friday 7 February, 1pm – 4pm at OPEN Norwich, The Big Debate brings together local MPs and business leaders to influence change and give voice to Norfolk businesses. Following on from a successful event in 2019, 2020’s event will be split into four debates looking at topics Norfolk Chambers have identified as key to the business community right now. Attendees will be able to submit questions live at the event using Sli.do, with the ability to vote for their favourite questions to be asked directly to our panels. Our first panel on stage will look to focus on people and skills, tackling the challenge of how we recruit and retain top talent in the county. Joining us for the debate will be Richard Bacon MP for South Norfolk, Lisa Collen of Flagship Group and Becky Wilson of Pure Resourcing. Next on the agenda will be infrastructure with the aims of looking at the impact poor fundamental facilities has on businesses and how we revolutionise Norfolk’s physical and digital infrastructure. Back in November 2019 British Chambers of Commerce reported that UK businesses are even less satisfied with UK infrastructure than they were a year ago, highlighting how important it is to bring this to the debate. This topic will be debated by Chloe Smith MP for Norwich North, Dale Curtis of Kickstart and Jonathan Cage of Create Consulting and will be followed by a break. During the break afternoon tea will be served to the tables for attendees to network and continue the discussions and debates. After the break international trade will be up for discussion. We expect Brexit will be high on the agenda here, highlighting the support local businesses need to drive growth overseas as well as the impact Brexit will have and the changes coming into effect. We are pleased to have Kate Colchester of New Anglia LEP, Kevin Walsh of LV Shipping and Duncan Lathwell of NatWest joining us to answer your questions. Our final topic of the afternoon will be sustainability and climate change. Our panellists will be looking at what support is needed for businesses to improve their carbon footprints, as well as how we make radical changes without impacting business as usual and lobbying for more sustainable infrastructure in Norfolk. Answering your questions will be Clive Lewis MP for Norwich South, Ali Clabburn of Liftshare and Alex Durand of SaxonAir. Whilst questions will be coming in live from attendees, there is also the opportunity to submit any burning questions in advance of the event. If you would like to submit a question on any of the four topics, you may do so here: click here to submit questions The Big Debate 2020 is sponsored by Greater Anglia and Broadland Business Park. To book your tickets click here.
We have a great opportunity for one of our members to be featured as part of the national British Chambers promotion for their Quarterly Recruitment Outlook (QRO).
The QRO is published each quarter and we would like to ensure that a Norfolk business is featured as part of the case studies. The British Chambers are looking for a business who may be facing challenges or finding opportunities around recruitment of employees.
Is that business you? If so, please get in touch, so we can discuss this further, ideally we will need a 2/3 line quote from you, together with your company logo by close of play on Friday 24 January 2020.
LV Shipping & Transport has become the first Strategic Partner of Norfolk Chambers of Commerce, this partnership aims to give businesses an enhanced profile and promotion.
Since starting operations in 1921, LV Shipping & Transport has grown into a company that offers logistics solutions through their global network. The Great Yarmouth office is based on Harfrey’s Industrial Estate and offers a complete range of freight forwarding services available to businesses in Norfolk, including on-site storage and warehousing facilities.
Well established across the country, LV Shipping & Transport in the UK operates at 12 locations, dedicated to offering customers integrated and end-to-end supply chain solutions. Covering all major seaports and airports, providing clients with the most cost-effective and fastest connection across the UK and worldwide.
Kevin Walsh UK Sales Director, LV Shipping, commented saying: “The role of Chamber is to support local business and introduce them to specialist companies like LV Shipping and others who can help them with their business needs.
“We are hoping to increase our profile in Norfolk further and want to use our involvement with the Chamber as a strategic partner to demonstrate our support for the local business community here in Norfolk. We have a number of loyal customers in Great Yarmouth and Norfolk, but of course there are so many other businesses here that we have yet to meet and support.
“Our Great Yarmouth office offers a complete range of freight forwarding services. We can handle shipments by air, road and sea (import and export) and also offer full customs clearance and brokerage services which will potentially become more significant depending on the exact nature of the eventual Brexit. We have a very approachable and experienced team, if you need to know anything about or even if you are just thinking of starting to import or export and require preliminary guidance – they will be able to help.”
Great Yarmouth is Britain’s principle port for the Southern North Sea Oil & Gas and renewable energy industries. A new outer harbour has increased the ports facilities to handle deep water container vessels, making it the closest link from the UK to the Netherlands and Belgium.
LV Shipping & Transport Great Yarmouth office offers a complete range of freight forwarding services, as well as Vessel support and Ships’ Agency on 24/7 basis and renewable energy logistics. You can contact the Great Yarmouth team on 01493 657755 or email yarmouth@lvshipping.com
For more information about Strategic Partnerships click here or contact Philippa Bindley, Head of Customer Experience at Norfolk Chambers of Commerce on 01603 729703 or email Philippa.bindley@norfolkchamber.co.uk
From the 9th January 2020, the ESFA is expanding access to the apprenticeship service to employers who are not one of the existing 22,000 levy-payers using the service already. This will be of enormous benefit to SMEs connecting with apprenticeships across England.
Non-levy payers will now have greater ownership, visibility and involvement with apprenticeships, funding and access to a wider range of high-quality training providers. This will mean that SMEs – that form 99 per cent of the businesses in the UK – will be in greater control of the apprenticeships that they engage with.
The early transition – from now until March – will be an initial test phase, during which time we will undertake large scale testing, seeking feedback from smaller employers and training providers. During the transition in 2020 we will continue to run contracts with training providers so smaller employers have a choice around how they access apprenticeship funding, joining the apprenticeship service when they feel they are ready.
During the test phase, additional funding will be made available for up to 15,000 new starts through the service.
As we enable smaller employers to use the apprenticeship service, we are introducing the ability for them to reserve a funds for training. This will allow us to forecast, monitor and manage apprenticeships funding within the overall budget for apprenticeships. To manage a gradual transition from contracted training provision to employers arranging their own apprenticeships through the apprenticeship service, employers will initially be able to reserve funding for up to three apprenticeships.
We had our third backstage tour with our Theatre Royal friend Jason Raper this morning, and it was magically fantastic!
From the sombre and minimalist set of Girl on the Train, to the quirky and fantabulous fun of Matilda, today we had the festive craziness of this year’s Pantomime Cinderella.
An hour with Jason just doesn’t seem long enough. His knowledge of the theatre’s history and his entertaining stories of life behind the scenes are enthralling. It’s impossible not to smile at the scenery, outfits and the glitter covered set! The magic certainly happens on stage, but behind the scenes is a team that ensures the show runs with clockwork precision. Jason introduced us to the intricate mechanics above and below us, and at every point had an interesting story to tell.
We then spent an hour enjoying a delicious breakfast of bacon rolls, pastries and fresh fruit and networked in the comfortable and elegant Prelude Restaurant.
A perfect way to end the first working week of 2020 – thank you so much to everyone who attended!
If you are interested in attending one of our upcoming tours, simply click on the link for our March tour of Les Miserables or for We Will Rock You in May.
Results from a BCC poll, conducted in partnership with banking group TSB, reveals that many firms have taken on debt during the pandemic and require flexible repayment solutions to rebuild their revenues and avoid an unsustainable debt crisis. Those who haven’t taken on debt, but may yet need to, favour flexible business banking services that adapt to their needs:
42% of respondents took on debt during the crisis, with more than 1 in 4 businesses saying they may need to scale down operations to repay and 1 in 10 saying they might have to cease trading
44% have not accessed finance so far, but still face challenging business conditions
Businesses require flexible and responsive support from government and banks as they recover from the crisis
Lending schemes provide critical lifeline to business operations
42% of those surveyed said that they had accessed finance during the pandemic through government lending schemes such as the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) or the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS). These businesses were almost evenly spread across all sectors, with manufacturing firms slightly more likely to have taken out finance.
Those drawing on the schemes were overwhelmingly doing so to support critical day-to-day business operations during the pandemic. 71% said they used finance to support cashflow, 43% for overheads, 40% for paying staff and 32% for paying other debts.
Impact of business debt may weaken recovery
64% of respondents said that the repaying of finance built up during the pandemic might have a negative impact on their business. More than one in four firms (27%) said repaying finance might mean they scale down operations and 26% said they would change their investment plans. Most concerningly, 11% – more than one in ten firms – said they might have to cease trading. Micro firms were more likely to say repaying debt may cause them to cease trading (15%) compared to non-micro firms (6%).
Innovative approaches to repayment and recapitalisation may be needed to prevent thousands of firms from falling into a spiral of unsustainable debt. The survey found that 18% of respondents said they would prefer a ‘student loan’ style scheme – where the loan becomes a contingent tax liability that is repaid on a means-tested basis – if their business was struggling to repay their loan. 16% said they would prefer a longer fixed term period to repay the loan. In contrast, just 4% said they would prefer to convert the debt into an equity stake in their business.
Future financial support likely to be needed
44% of firms surveyed said they had not attempted to access finance during the immediate crisis, but still face challenging business conditions. While 38% have seen increases in revenue from UK customers, a further 38% have seen a decrease. Half of firms (50%) said their cash reserves have slightly or significantly decreased since July 2020.
Faced with this, local lockdowns and the planned withdrawal of various government support schemes in the autumn, more businesses will likely access business banking services in the coming months to support their day-to-day operations and drive the wider economic recovery.
Those looking to do so overwhelmingly require a flexible business banking service, offering a mix of face-to-face and in-person capabilities. 48% of firms said they required personalised or face-to-face support. 44% said they valued digital services – like apps and websites -most highly. A further 44% said fast and easy access to capital was most important and 36% said they preferred a presence in the local community.
Responding to the results, BCC Director General Adam Marshall said:
“Government loan schemes have been a lifeline for many businesses during the pandemic. So many firms have taken on debt in order to survive.
“With many businesses still facing reduced demand, depleted cash reserves, and continued uncertainty, bold solutions will be needed to prevent thousands of firms across the UK from falling into a spiral of unsustainable debt. If not addressed, large debt burdens could stifle the recovery, threatening jobs and constraining business activity and investment.
“Others who have weathered the immediate storm may yet need access to finance for working capital to help their businesses recover and grow. Ministers should consider whether some loan schemes should be extended beyond the autumn to help.
“Over the coming months, Government, regulators and banks must work together with business communities to find solutions that help firms repay Coronavirus loans sustainably ,and access the support and services they need at this challenging time.”
TSB CEO, Debbie Crosbie said:
“Banks have a vital role to play in helping small businesses survive and thrive. It is very clear they need banks that can provide a full suite of services, including lending, face to face advice and outstanding technology to help them build back better. TSB is focussed on providing this mix for small businesses across the country.”
The Norfolk Chambers of Commerce, Department of Work and Pensions and Thetford Town Council are working in collaboration to host this year’s job fair at the Carnegie on Wednesday the 11th of March, 09:00 – 13:00.
The event has been setup to bring employers face to face with jobseekers whilst giving them a spotlight to promote their business and create brand awareness amongst other businesses and those seeking employment.
Attending businesses will have an advanced look at potential candidates, which in turn will aid towards saving time and resources during the recruitment process. The event is also free to exhibit with Wi-Fi and refreshments provided by the venue.
Businesses that take part will be advertised prior to the event taking place which will attract potential candidates.
If you have any questions or require more information, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Chris at the Norfolk Chambers – chris.bone@norfolkchambers.co.uk / 01603 729 711
Help us give a warm welcome to the newest members of Norfolk Chambers of Commerce for the month of December 2019.
Visit their business to explore what they have to offer. Click on a business name below to view the full listing in our Member Directory.
Akcela Akcela supports businesses that have made a positive commitment to improve their business performance and understand there is a need to engage with external support.
Bourgee Bourgee is a must for night owls and foodies alike. We source produce from prestigious suppliers, whilst in-house chefs’ craft these expertly selected ingredients into deliciously creative dishes, all served in a modern, cutting edge-designed venue with superb service and unrivalled atmosphere.
Dad’s Boats Dad’s Boats is a family run business. We manufacture and sell boats designed by David Williams (the Dad). The first of his boats is The Pedal Boat.
Get Indemnity As a digital insurance broker, we offer competitive premiums, knowledgeable support and tailored insurance products to transfer our customer’s risk. With technical underwriting and claim management backgrounds, we have the capacity to leverage our knowledge, experience and digital tools to the benefit of our customers.
Hawkins Ryan Solicitors Hawkins Ryan Solicitors is a traditional provincial firm of solicitors with a difference. We are based in historic King’s Lynn but act for clients right across the country and beyond. We offer a broad range of services for both private individuals and commercial clients.
Just Perfect Property Maintenance Your search for a company that provides property maintenance ends with Just Perfect Property Maintenance in East Harling. We serve domestic customers across Thetford, Attleborough, Wymondham, Bury St Edmunds, Watton and Garboldisham.
Keith Bird – Business Growth Mentor I will show you how to quickly explode your Sales and Profits. If you do not receive a dramatic increase in your Sales and Profits then you do not pay me a penny and that’s my GUARANTEE.
Media In A Box Media in a Box was created by people who have worked within the media industry, and with local businesses for some time. Our business can count over fifty years of experience within media, and well over 2 million media campaigns constructed across all media channels, with a significant amount of websites developed and launched in that time.
Redhead Architects At Redhead Architects, the plan is surprisingly simple: Be nice, work hard, listen to our clients and produce the best designs we can, whilst making sure that they love them. We offer a full architectural service and over 25 years experience delivering high spec. residential, hotel, commercial and hospitality projects.
Think Maintenance Think Maintenance is about delivering a service which benefits our clients and putting our necks on the line by saying we WILL ENSURE your Heating and Plumbing services are the best that they can possibly be.