Speaker 1: Semil and Halvlan. Thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 1: I want to get in straight away to a conversation
Speaker 1: around what the shape of the next UK government might
Speaker 1: look like. How much time does Andy Burnham have to
Speaker 1: turn the tides you think and to help UK businesses?
Speaker 2: Well, good morning.
Speaker 3: Andy Burnham has what two and a half years to
Speaker 3: the next general election, so he has a very short
Speaker 3: amount of time to turn the tide. He You know,
Speaker 3: whoever comes into Downing Street next is going to face
Speaker 3: the same challenges that we are currently looking at.
Speaker 2: And what he.
Speaker 3: Needs to have laser focus on is delivering economic growth.
Speaker 2: And why is that the case?
Speaker 3: Because growing businesses mean more jobs, which means more taxes
Speaker 3: back to the chances, and which means more money to
Speaker 3: pay for teachers and nurses. Right the fiscal tights fiscal
Speaker 3: situation that government is in, so that needs to be
Speaker 3: his number one.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: When Kirs Sarma came into government, we gave him a
Speaker 1: little bit strangely one hundred days and it's based on
Speaker 1: the US system. Does Burnham get that much time this
Speaker 1: time round?
Speaker 2: I think so.
Speaker 3: I think that's only one hundred days is probably only fair.
Speaker 3: You know, we are all of course still waiting to
Speaker 3: see and in Burnham lay out his economic strategy. We
Speaker 3: of course have been delighted to advise him on what
Speaker 3: we think is going on. You know, at the Chambers,
Speaker 3: I have the delight of traveling the country meeting businesses
Speaker 3: week in and week out, and they will tell me
Speaker 3: the same thing, which is at the moment they are
Speaker 3: really are really struggling. You know, Successive governments have added
Speaker 3: more and more cost to business. We estimate there's been
Speaker 3: a seventy percent increase in cost of business over ten years.
Speaker 3: You know. More recently we've seen increases national insurance and
Speaker 3: in A wages gone up forty five percent in the
Speaker 3: last five years. It is really hard and we are
Speaker 3: shackling that ambition. With that tsunami of costs, we are
Speaker 3: not going to see growth. So A, the government needs
Speaker 3: to look very quickly at how we can relieve some
Speaker 3: of that. But what I'm going to talk about today
Speaker 3: at our global conference where we have seven hundred businesses
Speaker 3: in the q ET Center, is actually there are some
Speaker 3: leavers that government need to pour very quickly around increasing trade,
Speaker 3: helping sme supply chains and really helping UKPLC adopt AIS
Speaker 3: it's coming down the track.
Speaker 1: Okay. Can we be honest about how bad it was
Speaker 1: for business under kised Arma, tanking, confidence, dismal growth, raising taxes.
Speaker 1: The Starma government was pretty bad, wasn't it for British business?
Speaker 1: Is that how you see it?
Speaker 2: The current government are now outgoing government.
Speaker 3: Look had some difficult they had some difficult geopolitical headwinds.
Speaker 2: Adapt to. They did some good things, but they did
Speaker 2: some things that really were hard for business.
Speaker 3: So the national insurance increase, we expected an increase, but
Speaker 3: not as much as that, and not with increasing the threshold.
Speaker 3: The idea was of course that then the government we're
Speaker 3: going to do some other things to help business. So
Speaker 3: we did see some great stuff on more infrastructure being
Speaker 3: signed off, you know, expansion of Heathrow, Gatwick, Northern Powerhouse, rail,
Speaker 3: new nuclear, et cetera. And that's really good for local
Speaker 3: supply chains. We saw free trade agreements being signed. You know,
Speaker 3: we need to make those useful for business. But the
Speaker 3: additional taxes along with global tariffs et cetera. Businesses haven't
Speaker 3: yet managed to recover from that. And as I said,
Speaker 3: successive governments have added cost to business and we we
Speaker 3: really feel like we're at breaking.
Speaker 1: Point, breaking point? Okay, what happens if an incoming administration
Speaker 1: it seems highly likely that it will be led by
Speaker 1: Andy Burnham. What happens if that incoming UK government becomes
Speaker 1: even more left wing than what we've seen before? Would
Speaker 1: that be worse?
Speaker 2: What do you mean by left wing?
Speaker 1: Well in terms of you know, the possibility of higher
Speaker 1: taxes for higher spending. Would the BCC, for example, be
Speaker 1: in favor of a major spending plan for UK infrastructure,
Speaker 1: even if that means boring.
Speaker 3: More So, any new government has to have economic growth
Speaker 3: as it's number one focus. Literally, increasing taxes for business
Speaker 3: will be a road to ruin. There is absolutely no
Speaker 3: way that increasing tax and business is going to get
Speaker 3: anywhere near economic growth, and we are just going to
Speaker 3: spiral down more lack of confidence from business, more holding
Speaker 3: onto their money, lack of investment.
Speaker 2: It is a vicious circle.
Speaker 3: So we absolutely have to see no new tax for
Speaker 3: business on the On the upside, there are a huge
Speaker 3: number of opportunities. So we have fantastic businesses. Entrepreneurial can
Speaker 3: do solution orientated. They want to be let go to
Speaker 3: drive economic growth. They want opportunities for infrastructure, for example,
Speaker 3: so if you look at Size well C Nuclear Power
Speaker 3: Building Suffolk, the Chamber helped build a supply chain there.
Speaker 3: They've put one point four billion into local businesses through
Speaker 3: Size World project.
Speaker 2: That's incredible for.
Speaker 3: The local economy. You know, we can see more of
Speaker 3: that across the country. If we help businesses trade more
Speaker 3: around the world, that's actually the quickest way to growth
Speaker 3: the economy. There are huge opportunities for ukpoc our businesses
Speaker 3: are amazing. They just need to be released to make
Speaker 3: the most of that ambition.
Speaker 1: Okay, it's no secret that you're president of the BCC
Speaker 1: is Andy hal Dane, that he is advising the Burnham
Speaker 1: team alongside others including Jim O'Neil. That's going to put
Speaker 1: particular focus, I think on what Andy hal Dane has
Speaker 1: to say at your conference, you know, in a few
Speaker 1: hours time, in terms of that advice no new taxes
Speaker 1: and all the other bits of advice that, to be honest,
Speaker 1: you've given many times before to governments. Is it going
Speaker 1: to be more clearly heard and actually adopted in your view, well.
Speaker 3: I think the challenges that these countries have are having
Speaker 3: are pretty clear, and our political turmoil is a reflection
Speaker 3: of what is working or not working.
Speaker 2: So I think the.
Speaker 3: New government would be very wise to listen to the
Speaker 3: great advice of people like Andy Haldane, obviously a great
Speaker 3: economic mind. As the Chambers of Commerce, we work with
Speaker 3: politicians of all colors to give them advice on how
Speaker 3: to help grow the economy what businesses need to see.
Speaker 3: So we are looking forward to working with whoever's in
Speaker 3: the chair at number ten because the same issues are
Speaker 3: going to be there for the next person coming in.
Speaker 1: Okay, who do you think your members would want to
Speaker 1: see as chancellor? Are they as anti ed Millerband as
Speaker 1: the City of London seems to be.
Speaker 3: So for us, it's not about personalities. You know, Andy
Speaker 3: Burnham will choose his cabinet. It's about policies and it's
Speaker 3: about what those people do in those roles, and it's
Speaker 3: about ensuring that across government that everybody is focused on
Speaker 3: the same thing. You know, we have seen some really
Speaker 3: good stuff with this government. We've also seen some difficult parts.
Speaker 3: We've got the Employment Rights Act still coming down the track.
Speaker 3: We have going to make sure that works for business.
Speaker 3: At the moment the government themselves suggests that's one billion
Speaker 3: pound extra price tag for business, so we need to
Speaker 3: make sure that doesn't hobble growth. So whoever's in that role,
Speaker 3: they just need to be clear on what we need
Speaker 3: to deliver for the country. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean the pick though of the individual chance and
Speaker 1: who that is is obviously hugely important as a signal
Speaker 1: for what the government is going to look like in
Speaker 1: terms of the shape of its policies. Do you think
Speaker 1: that if it is Andy Burnham who leads the government,
Speaker 1: do you think he's going to lower costs for businesses?
Speaker 3: I think if you look at what Andy Burnham's done
Speaker 3: in his role in Manchester, what you'll see is a
Speaker 3: really strong partnership between the public sector and the private sector,
Speaker 3: so real public private partnership and growing the city and
Speaker 3: getting things done because I think we you know, ideas
Speaker 3: are great, but actually we're really in a place now
Speaker 3: we've got to deliver and you know, structures like the
Speaker 3: Shames of Commerce that Andy's Burnham's work with in Manchester,
Speaker 3: these are the infrastructure we have to make this stuff happen.
Speaker 3: So whoever he picks as Chancellor and Business Secretary and
Speaker 3: the rest of his cabinet, you know, our message to
Speaker 3: them is work with us. Work in partnership with us.
Speaker 3: You can see it's worked in Manchester. We can help
Speaker 3: deliver this much more quickly in a way you need.
Speaker 1: You have a lot of the political parties that all
Speaker 1: the major political parties joining at your conference, Polanski, Generic, Stride, Davy,
Speaker 1: are any of them offering more realistic policy proposals? I
Speaker 1: say realistic because the recent criticism at previous elections has
Speaker 1: been that parties are not grappling with the realities of
Speaker 1: Britain's economic situation. Do you think that in this current
Speaker 1: climate there are policies in any of those other political
Speaker 1: parties that have great appeal with your business members.
Speaker 3: Well, having all five political parties with us today, Caroline,
Speaker 3: is the first time we've done this, and I think
Speaker 3: it's probably the first time for a major business conference.
Speaker 3: And we've done this because it reflects you know, multi
Speaker 3: party politics in the UK now and actually it's going
Speaker 3: to be It's obviously interesting for those people to hear
Speaker 3: from the business in the room. But what the reason
Speaker 3: we've invited them is so they can lay out what
Speaker 3: their business friendly policies are going to be. They can
Speaker 3: lay out what they are going to do to drive
Speaker 3: the economy because we haven't heard from most of them
Speaker 3: for some time in that sort of really clear laid
Speaker 3: out way, so I'm really looking forward to hearing from
Speaker 3: them all.
Speaker 1: How much you think social media is reshaping business confidence
Speaker 1: in Britain.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's a good question.
Speaker 3: Not something we necessarily talk to our members about a
Speaker 3: great deal, but of course from a personal and business
Speaker 3: point of view, we are all using that. We're using
Speaker 3: that to communicate what we do as businesses to grow
Speaker 3: our businesses marketing, sales, etc. I mean, it's I mean,
Speaker 3: you and I've been around a while, so it's massively changed.
Speaker 2: You know. This is the second time round with AI.
Speaker 3: We talked a lot to our businesses about how they're
Speaker 3: adopting AI think that we are seeing a huge increase
Speaker 3: in adoption, but it's a lot more still about helping
Speaker 3: me write my emails and it is re engineering my
Speaker 3: business processes and there's a huge productivity gain if we
Speaker 3: can get this right for UKLPLC.
Speaker 2: So that's really where we're helping them focus At the moment.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you about social media because you've
Speaker 1: talked a lot about confidence and the main issue, as
Speaker 1: you see it is that Britain needs to be more confident.
Speaker 1: Businesses want more confidence and that is the thing that
Speaker 1: then unlocks investment and economic growth. And so you know,
Speaker 1: when you see as the labor Mayor of London City
Speaker 1: KHN has said, you know, targeted social media as and
Speaker 1: campaigns against, for example, cities like London, you know, really
Speaker 1: talking down London and the UK is a place to live.
Speaker 1: Those sorts of social media driven issues which maybe don't
Speaker 1: a lot of people feel don't reflect the reality. I
Speaker 1: suppose that's what I'm asking, that kind of criticism, that
Speaker 1: talking down of the UK, whether that's a worry for
Speaker 1: you confidence wise.
Speaker 2: So it is a worry.
Speaker 3: And actually when we travel around the world we do
Speaker 3: hear that people do. I have been asked about it,
Speaker 3: and hence we feed that back to the London Chamber,
Speaker 3: to the mayor and really delighted to see him standing
Speaker 3: up and stepping out and being loud and proud for
Speaker 3: London as we are for London and the whole of
Speaker 3: the UK when we travel around around the world.
Speaker 2: And I think.
Speaker 3: Those on the right side of facts need to be
Speaker 3: a lot louder and prouder on social media too. But
Speaker 3: I would say that bram Britain is still very strong
Speaker 3: around the world. So when I turn up in different places,
Speaker 3: people are really delighted to see Team UK there. I
Speaker 3: think that's a really positive for UK business and we
Speaker 3: need to keep making the most of that.
Speaker 1: Apprenticeships a lot has been talked about the high number
Speaker 1: of people who are young people who are out of work,
Speaker 1: not in trade and training. You know, the acronym needs
Speaker 1: in the UK. Andy Burnham was again talking about apprenticeships
Speaker 1: and then the need to guarantee young people work and
Speaker 1: training in the UK are just in the last few days.
Speaker 1: How is it possible for government to really deliver on
Speaker 1: if there is a kind of bigger guarantee for apprenticeships,
Speaker 1: how can government deliver on that.
Speaker 3: Well, Government can't deliver on it on their own. They
Speaker 3: have to deliver it in partnership with business. And look,
Speaker 3: businesses really want to implore young people, they really do.
Speaker 2: They want to implore young people from their community.
Speaker 3: We mean, the vast majority of our businesses are small
Speaker 3: and medium sized businesses and they're part of their places.
Speaker 3: But it's become increasingly difficult. You know, if you think
Speaker 3: about our kids at school, you know, our schools are
Speaker 3: measured by OFFSTED measures, not a single one of those measures.
Speaker 2: It's about work readiness.
Speaker 3: We are not producing young people who coming out of
Speaker 3: school ready for the workplace. So businesses tell us they're
Speaker 3: more than happy to train young people on the.
Speaker 2: Actual hard skills, but they're really.
Speaker 3: Struggling to find young people who have the soft skills
Speaker 3: ready to go into the workplace. So we need to
Speaker 3: do a lot more with our educators to make sure that,
Speaker 3: you know, we're getting young people ready for the workplace.
Speaker 3: But I think you know the government has produced you know,
Speaker 3: we've got the new Youth Guarantee Scheme coming online which
Speaker 3: is helping on people who have been out the workplace
Speaker 3: for a while to get back in in a sort
Speaker 3: of low risk way, and government subsidizing some of their wages.
Speaker 2: Those are good things.
Speaker 3: Looks a bit like Kickstart if you remember that from
Speaker 3: COVID Times. So what I know to be true is
Speaker 3: businesses absolutely want to employ those young people. They need
Speaker 3: to wrap around care to help them get into work,
Speaker 3: settle in, you know, know it's right for them. They
Speaker 3: and they will work really closely with their local authorities
Speaker 3: and central government as we will to make that happen.
Speaker 1: What do your members think about potentially well, it will
Speaker 1: be probably a seventh What do you think? What do
Speaker 1: your members think about a seventh UK Prime minister in
Speaker 1: ten years? You know we're thinking also about the anniversary
Speaker 1: it breaks. It's how disappointed, frustrated, hopeful are they?
Speaker 2: So I've been in this job running the British Chamins
Speaker 2: of Commerce.
Speaker 3: For five years this month, with a new prime minister
Speaker 3: next month, thanks very much. It'll be my fifth prime
Speaker 3: minister in five It's not a way to it's certainly
Speaker 3: it's not a way to run a country, and it's
Speaker 3: certainly not a way to run a business. If you
Speaker 3: had that many CEOs in that many years, you'd be
Speaker 3: out of your business. Would be will be out, would
Speaker 3: be out of business. So you know what business want.
Speaker 3: How we work. We work on long term horizons. We
Speaker 3: work on plans, We work on five ten uere strategies
Speaker 3: and that's the sort of horizon you need to have
Speaker 3: the confidence to invest and know that the political landscape,
Speaker 3: the regulatory landscape, the costs landscape, lanning laws, you pick,
Speaker 3: it will be what you need for that investment. So
Speaker 3: it's time for some political stability.
Speaker 1: Who is to blame for that.
Speaker 2: That's quite hard.
Speaker 3: That's that's quite hard to know, I would say, I
Speaker 3: mean since Brexit, I guess we haven't really been able
Speaker 3: to work out, you know, the political parties haven't been
Speaker 3: able to find somebody who can bring everyone together.
Speaker 2: I mean we you know, general election was two years ago.
Speaker 2: Is it next week?
Speaker 3: And I think we all you know, we worked really
Speaker 3: closely with the Labor Party. We had eighty two of
Speaker 3: our recommendations going to that manifesto. What's happened with politics
Speaker 3: us getting a new prime minister is you know that
Speaker 3: was driven by the party and obviously by the local elections.
Speaker 3: But we as a country don't vote in prime ministers,
Speaker 3: do we We vote in the party. We vote in
Speaker 3: the manifesto of that party. So you know, really it's
Speaker 3: down to that party to de liver that manifesto each time.