COMMENT
THE
LAST WORD
JEAN MOUNTAIN, Chamber President, on the issues that are worth talking about
CONGRATULATIONS LIZ I want to start my Last Word this month by offering my sincerest congratulations to the Chamber’s Immediate Past- President – and my good friend – Liz Fothergill on her installation as High Sheriff of Derbyshire. What a wonderful honour for a woman who has always
given so much back to the communities of Derby and Derbyshire, even while building and running a hugely successful business. I can’t think of anyone more worthy of the position.
PRAISE FOR GROWTH HUB While on the subject of congratulations and praise, can I add my tuppenyworth to the praise being showered on the D2N2 Growth Hub? It might sound like a very simple thing to do to set up a
website to guide businesses in the right direction to find the help they need, but it’s an ongoing project, requiring constant attention, to make sure that it is always up-to- date. For 90% of clients to say they would recommend it to other users says it all really.
INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION Here’s another building success story – the Phoenix-like return from the ashes of Leicester’s oldest factory, the historic Friars Mill site. The Chamber has now made Friars Mill its home, is managing the site for Leicester City Council and is looking forward to having lots of new neighbours. This is a case of genuine industrial evolution as the Chamber helps drive the site on to the next phase in its lifecycle.
GET HS2 ON TRACK The debate about HS2 seems to be dragging on and on. Two years since the preferred route for the second phase
of the new rail link – the stretch from Birmingham to Leeds via the East Midlands - was announced, we are still no closer to knowing whether we are going to get a Station Hub or, if we are, where it will be. And now, with the advent of the Northern Powerhouse
and HS3 – which would be cheaper than HS2 – linking Leeds and Manchester, I get the feeling that questions are being asked about the viability of the Eastern Leg of HS2. We don’t need doubts, we need answers. We need confirmation that the Eastern Leg of HS2 is going to go ahead.
50 business network May 2016
We need to know that we will be getting an East Midlands Station Hub. We need to know where that Station Hub is going to be
so that we can put in place the necessary infrastructure and start to maximise the economic benefits we were told would come from HS2. Enough talk, let’s get this line on track.
CORE MATHS I am delighted that the Chamber has supported the Core Maths project being driven by the Department for Education. Maths is vital, both in the workplace and in many leisure
activities, and there is no reason why it should not be part of the post-16 education curriculum.
RIPPLES OVER NATIONAL LIVING WAGE It didn’t take long for the ripples of discontent to flow from Chancellor George Osborne’s heftily-lobbed pebble that he called National Living Wage. It became law at the beginning of April and within two
weeks MPs and other organisations have come out and said what the Chamber said from the outset – that it will probably cause a recruitment slow down, will potentially lead to job losses and will cause employers to find ways to mitigate the costs, especially when considered alongside pensions reforms and increased employee on costs. From a business perspective, the road to hell really is paved with good intentions.
NOT THE SMARTEST MOVE My raspberry of the month – not that I really have one – has to go to the Copyright Licencing Agency which contacted the Chamber’s communications team to tell us we needed a licence to receive and distribute press cuttings. We knew that. We already had a licence from the
Newspaper Licencing Agency which we were entirely sure covered all our needs. The CLA – a licence from which could have cost anything
up to £10,000 a year - was determined to convince us otherwise, even citing a list of titles for which we needed a licence to reproduce cuttings including, you guessed it, Business Network. That really was not the smartest business move ever. It changed its tune quite quickly when we asked for
proof that we had authorised it to collect royalties on our behalf and how much it had collected.
AGREE OR DISAGREE? Join the debate by following @EMChamberNews and Tweet using the hashtag #LastWord
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