Budget 2024
The fallout from the recent Budget is rumbling on and we are still interested to hear of its impact on Members, which may be over the coming months rather than immediate.
Whilst we would not expect any U-turns by government in the short term we would hope that if the Budget backfires i.e. dampens the prospects for growth and blows the government’s stated priorities off course then some steps will be taken to ameliorate its effects. But for this to happen the government will need to be convinced and that means hard evidence will be required. Some of that will come via the usual headline economic indicators but it is also helpful to have specific examples. So do please feel free to tell us if, say, the changes to NI or the minimum wage or employment rights, in isolation or in combination, are having a direct impact on your ability to grow, or maintain employment levels, or to pause investment. We would use any intelligence of this nature sensitively (of course anonymously if required) but it would help to build up a bank of evidence that we can ensure gets through to government, through the British Chambers of Commerce and though our own direct engagement with local MPs.
Please send any comment on the Budget to Iain McNab, Head of Policy at Essex Chambers via email iain.mcnab@essexchambers.co.uk or call 07929 522 951.
Greater Essex Business Board
Essex County Council has been working with Southend and Thurrock councils to put together a new Greater Essex Business Board. The Chambers has assisted by encouraging Member companies to put forward suitable candidates. The membership of the Board which so far as possible will achieve a balance of both sectors and places within Essex, will be announced in early December and it will meet for the first time later in the month.
Since the transfer of responsibilities from local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) to local authorities the Board will be an important forum for getting business views across to local authorities in Essex as they move towards what we hope will be a devolution deal, ideally a full deal with an executive mayor. And even absent a deal it will be critical to the direction taken on growth and economic development in Essex including how the government’s new industrial strategy, once published in the Spring of 2025, translates into Essex.
The consultation on the government’s green paper on that national industrial strategy, flagged in the last update, closed on 24 November but it is not too late to feed in views to us at the Chambers if you wish as the policy will not be finalised until the new year. Here is the link again to the consultation.
Get Britain Working
On 26 November the government published its Get Britain Working White Paper, which sets out the steps it intends to take to tackle economic inactivity.
We have 2.8 million people out of work due to long-term sickness or disability, 1 in 8 young people are NEET (not in employment, education or training) and nearly one in five working age adults do not hold at least a level 2 qualification which would help them get on in life and work. This is an issue identified in many Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) including the Essex LSIP on which the Chambers took the lead.
Tackling this problem is critical to delivering the Growth mission – we need to get more people into work, and particularly skilled work, to make productivity gains and to meet the skills needs of employers in a wide range of sectors and places across the country.
It's worth having a look at the White Paper, which we will cover in more depth in next month’s update. Again, any comments or feedback are very welcome.