The Chamber has been very active in Bradford over the past few weeks, with its policy group highly engaged with what is happening in the business community and wider geographical area.
Our Property and Economic Forum event at The Light cinema heard about the exciting new plans for the City Village project.
Just a few days later, our Bradford Leadership Group convened its latest meeting at Schoefield Sweeney’s offices in Little Germany which included further updates on plans to develop the city centre, as well as an update on our Local Skills Improvement Plan for the region and the progress it is making.
The Chamber took on more lobbying work when it issued a statement on behalf of the region’s university sector.
The Chamber called for the rules around student visas to be loosened to allow for more of the brightest students around the world to study in Yorkshire and Britain.
Recent changes to the way Graduate Visas are granted are included in recent Government policy to cut migration numbers.
However, universities believe that this will slash Britain’s ability to benefit from the planet’s finest minds who will find coming to the UK to study to be more problematic, something that will have an impact on our economy.
Higher Education currently accounts for 77 per cent of our country’s research and innovation activity and a significant proportion of our start up community is born from joint innovation projects between the university and private sectors.
The Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) generates £8.30 for every £1 of funding and the HE sector is the second largest investor in research in the UK, spending £5.6billion on research in 2021.
Furthermore, there is increasing evidence that as many as half of international students would be minded to study elsewhere owing to the graduate visa programme changes, something that PwC modelling suggested would lead to four in five British universities running deficits by 2026.
As such the Chamber believes that the current Government policy needs to change.
Elsewhere, the Chamber joined with business leaders from all over the world in participating in a trade visit to Kenya.
Head of international Nikki Clow and chief executive James Mason flew into Nairobi to join with members of 15 other Chambers of Commerce from around the world, as well as delegates from Ghana, Zambia, Mauritius, Uganda, Rwanda and South Africa.
The Chamber was attending the InspireMe Conference, with a view to fostering new markets for the United Kingdom in sectors such as agribusiness, textiles, home décor, manufacturing, hospitality and service sectors.
The Chamber’s president Mark Cowgill reacted positively to the news that Airedale is seeking to build a new factory in Bradford.
Mr Cowgill said: “This investment from Airedale into Bradford is incredibly welcome.
“The new facility will create hundreds of well-paid and highly skilled jobs in the city. Airedale’s investment is yet further proof of Bradford’s highly diverse capability as an economic powerhouse.”
Ahead of the general election the Chamber published its own five-point plan for growth in the region.
Its key asks of the next Government were for the next Government to:
1) Deliver Stability: Businesses need the next Government to foster a pro-growth culture for start-ups, scale ups and any business wanting to create jobs, economic prosperity and export opportunities. A climate of stability will give our firms the confidence to carry out these measures and generate wealth for the region.
2) Infrastructure: The Chamber calls upon the next government to commit to improved connectivity between the east and west of the North of England, both by rail and by road.
3) Skills and digital: This remains the number one issue that businesses tell us they are facing, with 66 per cent of firms saying they struggle with the recruitment and retention of staff. On education, the curriculum currently in use if more than a decade old and contains no mention of the tools that will shape the future such as cyber security and artificial intelligence. This needs to change. Similarly, adults in need of upskilling require simpler access to apprenticeships and module learning. Much of these areas are already being successfully addressed through the Local Skills Improvement Plans that we and other Chambers are administering nationally. We would call for the LSIP programme to be extended beyond 2025.
4) Devolution: We would like to see our two Mayoral Combined Authorities handed greater controls over areas such as health and taxation, ensuring that key decisions are made by those who know the region best.
5) Backing for the hospitality sector: As the first sector to close and the last to reopen during the pandemic, we would wish to see greater support for this much-loved sector. A reduction in VAT has been something the Chamber has long called for to support the sector. We would also like to see further action taken to lessen the burden of energy bills and explore the possibility of adding the sector to the Shortage Occupation List to assist with the ongoing crisis around staffing.
Elsewhere, the Chamber staged a hugely informative awareness raising event on artificial intelligence, which included the University of Bradford’s Hassan Ugail as one of the main speakers.
Finally, Chamber staffers journeyed to London’s QEII centre for the annual British Chamber of Commerce’s Global Annual Conference.
They heard from the likes of Heathrow CEO Thomas Woldbye, Lady Nicola Mendelshon from Meta and Dame Amanda Blanc, ceo at Aviva, as well as then business secretary Kemmi Badenoch and then shadow business secretary Johnathan Reynolds.
Mark Casci, head of representation and policy at the Chamber, and the manifesto’s author, said: “Unlocking the potential of the North of England has been talked about for many years and this election campaign presents the perfect opportunity to commit to reform that can deliver opportunity more evenly around the country.”
