Chamber members call for help at meeting with the Scottish Government

A cross-section of Fife Chamber members held a meeting with Ivan McKee, Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism, and Investment, in the Scottish Government at Carnegie Conference Centre, Dunfermline on 12th October. At a time when businesses are facing relentless pressures on their margins, (of a scale to make some firms worry about their very existence), because of rapidly escalating costs.

In a recent Fife Chamber survey of its members, it was revealed that energy costs, raw material costs, skills shortages, transport and logistics and wage inflation were the most common challenges and all the recent data shows that these pressures are significantly reducing confidence levels. The latest Quarterly Economic Indicator from the British Chambers of Commerce showing 40% of businesses expecting their profitability to fall and fewer businesses reporting increased sales.

Commenting on the meeting with Ivan McKee, Alan Mitchell, Chief Executive of Fife Chamber said:

“As you would expect when diverse businesses were at the meeting, the questions came thick and fast and were varied, from procurement to Digital Development Grants to biomass to tax to international trade. But there were common themes, particularly how difficult and frustrating it can be to interact with public agencies and funding and other programmes that are supposed to help business. Funding is hard to access. Decision making is slow and not always transparent. Programmes are too complex and bureaucratic. It was important for the Minister to hear these frustrations at first hand and the specific examples that members were able to give him really painted a clear picture for him. We are delighted that he came to discuss them with us, now we look to him to take what he heard and make these processes more business friendly.

“Fife Chamber is better known for its B2B networking, but economic advocacy is an important part of our work, and we take every available opportunity to give members access to political and economic decision makers. We are inviting the Secretary of State for Scotland to Fife to meet members and we already have a significant figure from the Bank of England coming to Fife in November, Dave Ramsden, its Deputy Governor.”

Click here to view the latest BCC Quarterly Economic Indicator

Click here to book for the Navigating the Economic Crisis Lunch with the Bank of England