Chamber positive about outlook

Hardly a day goes by without some fresh piece of gloomy economic news. But whilst Bath Chamber of Commerce is realistic about prospects, it is also working actively on a number of fronts to ensure that the local business has the best possible chance of coming through unscathed, as Executive Director, Ian Bell explains.

Our members are quite clear about the challenges they are facing, but our approach is to remain optimistic and to work in practical ways which will help the local economy.

For example, we have developed good, constructive relations with the Council which puts us in a good position to influence the way policies develop. We have been closely consulted about the strategy for parking charges and of course have highlighted the negative impact on businesses by increases of any kind. However, we have to face the fact that the Council needs to increase its income and parking fees must play a part in that.

The critically important thing for the Chamber is that the Council have taken on board two of our principal recommendations. First that since we rely so much on people staying for longer periods to shop and enjoy the attractions, we wanted to see charges for them kept in check and secondly we would like to see investment in new technologies which make the process of paying as simple as possible. Both of these have been included in the latest proposals.

Another promising development arose from the last meeting of the Initiative in B&NES, when a presentation was made by BT about proposals for bringing super-fast broadband to the district. They were clear about likely demand from existing businesses but had a less detailed understanding about the potential requirements from businesses occupying new buildings yet to be created.

As a result, a follow up meeting was held with the South West Regional Director and a National Super-Fast Broadband Project Director to further explain our aspirations to grow a knowledge based economy. The Council also shared with them details about the principal sites in the City Centre. The National Director congratulated the Council and the business community for holding the meeting: “This is the first time that such a meeting has been held with a local authority so far ahead of the implementation of the programme. As a result of the additional exchange of information we can show the rest of the UK how this should be done.”

There are plenty of other concrete examples of progress. It looks as though we will shortly see a planning application for a development of the Bath Press site which will produce some much needed modern office space and we know that a number of interested parties are exploring ideas to expand the number of hotel beds, though there are still issues about appropriate size and sites.

The Chamber has also continued to support the programme to encourage more students to stay to live and work in the area after graduating from our two universities, so growing our talent pool and also helped the Council build links with Jiangxi province in China. Another recent delegation to Bath underlined their enthusiasm to deal with our companies and we intend to send a delegation of business people to the Central China Expo in Nanchang at the end of September in the hope that the formal contacts will lead to contracts.

Finally, since the Chamber is part of the broader GWE Business West family, we can play a part in the creation of a Local Economic Partnership, the grouping the Government says it wants to replace Regional Development Agencies. Plans will emerge over the next few weeks.

We must not get too carried away with tales of an upturn, but we can remain optimistic and be active in the way we help ourselves in order to generate prosperity which will benefit everyone.