Minutes:
Ms Terri Johnson, Vice President, South East London Chamber of Commerce gave an overview of the Chambers’ role.
The South East London Chamber of Commerce provides their members with a point of contact to resolve issues with their business. The Chamber were able to provide businesses with practical support and help. A new President, Helen McIntosh, had been appointed and Ms Johnson had been appointed to the role of Vice President. The Chamber of Commerce covered four boroughs. It had been established in the Greenwich borough, but had since expanded to cover Bromley, Bexley and Lewisham.
The Chamber of Commerce had previously distributed a publication named Masthead, which had become unviable, but due to an increase in membership it was to be reinstated. Members of the Partnership were advised that each quarter a different borough would be focused on, and they were welcome to advertise their businesses if they wished. The Chamber were also looking for new facilities and venues in which to meet, for events such as their Link ‘n’ Drink networking event and Chamber lunches which usually involved between 40-60 members.
The next meeting of the Chamber would involve a presentation on their Talent Bank which connected young graduates to local employers. Businesses were able to advertise at a low cost and source graduates from the Chambers’ database. Members of the Partnership were advised that Ms Johnson could be contacted if they were interested in being involved.
Ms Johnson informed the Partnership of the results of a Brexit Referendum survey that the South East London Chamber of Commerce had carried out.
The Chamber had conducted two surveys to forecast how local people would vote in the Brexit Referendum. The survey had been conducted via Survey Monkey and had been sent out to over 4,000 people on the Chamber’s database. The first survey had been sent out on Wednesday 24th February 2016 and received 259 responses. The results were in favour of staying in the European Union (EU), with 48% of the vote. 42% of respondents said they would vote to leave the EU and 10% did not know how they would vote. The second survey had been sent out on Monday 23rd May 2016, a month before the Brexit Referendum vote. There were 134 responses, with 54% of respondents inclined to vote to stay in the EU. 43% said they were inclined to vote to leave the EU and 3% did not know how they would vote.
It was noted that despite the majority of respondents wanting to remain in the EU, the members of the South East London Chamber of Commerce had reported that their businesses had not yet been affected by the decision to leave.
The Chairman thanked Ms Johnson for her presentation, and asked members of the Partnership for any feedback regarding the consequences of the Brexit Referendum. Members commented that they were not yet seeing any effects of the vote to leave the EU, and those that exported products overseas saw the current weak exchange rate as a bonus. Some members expressed the view that they felt the United Kingdom was currently the most competitive place to do business in the western world.