South West Chambers

The South West Chamber of Commerce is a group of the major Chambers across the seven Counties that comprise the South West Region and aligns with the area covered by the South West of England Regional Development Authority and the Regional Assembly.

The Group was formed in 1998 when the legislation allowed for the formation of nine Regional unelected Assemblies (then called Chambers) across England and besides those members representing Local Authorities there were created a number of seats for Social and Economic Partners - covering Business, Transport, Trade Unions, Faith Communities, Environmental Groups. SWCC occupies a seat on the Assembly representing Business along with the CBI, FSB, Tourism and Agriculture. Besides formal Assembly meetings held quarterly, SWCC also sits on a variety of Advisory Groups for Spatial Planning, Transport and Economic Development, but there are other Groups for Environmental issues and Waste.

As a Regional group, SWCC is also called upon to represent Chambers on other bodies such as Infrastructure for SWERDA, Exports for UK Trade & Investment, and as a spokesman for Chambers on Regional topics.

Chambers are historically very 'local' organisations and range from Bristol with over 2300 members, providing a wide range of services to the smallest towns with just a few members who are usually retailers. They may differ in size but the concerns of their members are focused to ensure that the locality in which they trade is economically and socially attractive to do business.