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Businesses from across the UK are invited to compete in the fourteenth annual Chamber Business Awards – hosted by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC).

The prestigious competition is one of the showpiece events in the business calendar, recognising and promoting the best of British business through a series of regional heats, culminating in a Gala Awards Dinner, which will take place at the Brewery, London on 30 November.

Entries open on Monday 13 March and will run until Friday 30 June. This year’s Awards are being launched at the London Stock Exchange, where last year’s winner of Business of the Year, Scientifica, have won the special honour of opening the Exchange as a prize. Next year’s winners will have the same chance to do so, a rare opportunity for a private business. 

Companies can enter nine categories, covering exports, small business, people development, technology, high-growth, customer service, partnerships with the education sector, social media, and health and wellbeing.

Francis Martin, President of the British Chambers of Commerce said:

“Businesses are the driving force of the UK economy, creating jobs, growth and prosperity, and helping Britain to maintain its reputation internationally. This is exactly why it is important for us to recognise and celebrate the contribution they make to their local communities and the wider economy.

“The broad spread of categories in the Chamber Business Awards reflects both the diversity of industries and skills of British firms, and the range of achievements and projects that they have been involved with.

“Each time I visit Chamber member businesses, it is inspiring to see so many companies finding innovative ways to grow their business in every corner of the UK. The Awards acknowledge the relentless efforts of these businesses and their talented employees.”

Adrian Corbin of Scientifica, Winner of the ‘Business of the Year’ award last year, said:

“Everyone at Scientifica is incredibly proud that the company won Business of the Year at the Chamber Business Awards 2016. It is an enormous achievement and a fitting testimony to all the hard work that has gone into creating such a great company.

“We are at the forefront of high-tech British manufacturing, exporting our products to more than forty countries worldwide. We employ a highly-educated and international workforce who are all committed to producing innovative products to help further neuroscience research, and the winning of this award will undoubtedly help us expand into even more markets around the world.”

(Based on April 2017 data releases)

Monthly headlines:

• UK economic growth slows in Q1 as output from consumer-focused industries weakened    
• UK consumer price inflation holds steady, but wage growth slows further  
• US GDP growth weakens as the outlook for the Eurozone continues to improve  

The UK economy grew by 0.3% in Q1 2017, slower than the growth of 0.7% recorded in Q4.  Weakening GDP growth in Q1 was mainly due to growth in service sector output, which accounts for over three quarters of UK economic output.

UK CPI inflation stood at 2.3% in March 2017, unchanged from February but still above the Bank of England’s 2% target.  Rising prices for food, clothing and footwear were the main contributors to the change in rate.

The first estimate of US GDP revealed that the US economy, the world’s largest, grew at an annualised rate of 0.7% in Q1 2017.  This was the slowest rate of growth since Q1 2014.  The slowdown was largely driven by consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of US economic output.

For full details of this month’s economic review click here.

Commenting on various Labour and Conservative proposals on worker’s rights, Nova Fairbank, Public Affairs Manager for Norfolk Chamber said:

“There is little appetite within the Norfolk business community for a roll-back of employment rights.  Businesses worry about the prospect of costly or bureaucratic new obligations, no matter how well-intentioned.

“Norfolk Chamber will watch closely as more detail emerges on the various proposals, to ensure that they do not give rise to expensive new obligations or unintended consequences – especially for the thousands of civic-minded local businesses who already do everything in their power to engage, support, train and reward their workforce.

“In the past, we have seen campaign-season promises on workplace rights create unrealistic expectations, and undermine relationships that have been painstakingly built up between firms and employees over many years. That must not be allowed to occur if some, or all, of these proposals become the law of the land.

“Some of the headline propositions in the Labour Party manifesto will give business communities across Norfolk real cause for concern. High personal taxation, sweeping nationalisation and deep intervention in business decision-making are not the hallmarks of an ambitious and enterprising society.  However, there are some bright spots in Labour’s manifesto, notably clear and specific commitments to reform Britain’s broken business rates system, which successive governments have failed to implement.

Commenting specifically on the proposals to increase the national minimum wage which is proposed by both Conservative and Labour, Mrs Fairbank said:

“Low pay and low social mobility are a challenge to the Norfolk economy, but they won’t be solved just by driving up wage rates. The best way to get a high-wage economy is through better education, training, and investment, by schools, universities and businesses alike.”

“Whilst many companies would have the ability to increase pay, others would struggle to do so alongside pensions auto-enrolment, the apprenticeship levy, employer National Insurance contributions, and other up-front costs. Some may have to divert money from training and investment to increase pay, which could hurt their productivity. Others may stop hiring altogether.”

Commenting on the Lib Dem promise of £100-a-week for budding entrepreneurs

“Promising budding entrepreneurs an £100-a-week allowance to help with living costs is welcomed, as it will help support start up and entrepreneurial businesses, however these businesses still face many up front costs and taxes, including business rates.

“Norfolk Chamber believes that fundamental change to the business rates system is needed, including stripping plant and machinery from rates assessments that does so much to discourage business investment.  We would call on a future government to re-visit the detail of reform package previously discussed to address the serious concerns business ratepayers have, and as an interim fix the appeals system which is no longer fit for purpose.”

The National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) are offering advice to businesses following the coordinated ransomware attack on thousands of private and public sector organisations on Friday.

MESSAGE FROM NATIONAL CYBER SECURITY CENTRE (NCSC) “Since the global coordinated ransomware attack on thousands of private and public sector organisations across dozens of countries on Friday, there have been no sustained new attacks of that kind.  But it is important to understand that the way these attacks work means that compromises of machines and networks that have already occurred may not yet have been detected, and that existing infections from the malware can spread within networks.

This means that as a new working week begins it is likely, in the UK and elsewhere, that further cases of ransomware may come to light, possibly at a significant scale.

Our national focus must therefore be on two lines of defence.

The first is to limit the spread and impact of the attacks that have already occurred.  Due to broad government and partner efforts, a variety of tools are now publicly available to help organisations to do this.  This guidance can be found on our homepage – ncsc.gov.uk – under the title Protecting Your Organisation From Ransomware: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/guidance/ransomware-latest-ncsc-guidance 

We know already that there have been attempts to attack organisations beyond the National Health Service. It is therefore absolutely imperative that any organisation that believes they may be affected, follows and implements this guidance. We have set out two pieces of guidance: one for organisations and one for private individuals and SMEs which can be applicable regardless of the age of the software in question.  It will be updated as and when further mitigations become available and we will announce when updates have been made on Twitter (@ncsc) and elsewhere.

Secondly, it is possible that a ransomware attack of this type and on this scale could recur, though we have no specific evidence that this is the case.  What is certain is that ransomware attacks are some of the most immediately damaging forms of cyber attack that affects home users, enterprises and governments equally.

It is also the case that there are a number of easy-to-implement defences against ransomware which very considerably reduce the risk of attack and the impact of successful attacks.  These simple steps to protect against ransomware are not being applied by either the public or organisations as thoroughly as they should be.

Three simple steps for companies to undertake which are also set out on our website (https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/guidance/protecting-your-organisation-ransomware) and can be summarised as follows:

1. Keep your organisation’s security software patches up to date
2. Use proper anti-virus software services
3. Most importantly for ransomware, back up the data that matters to you, because you can’t be held to ransom for data you hold somewhere else.

Home users and small businesses can take the following steps to protect themselves:

1. Run Windows Update
2. Make sure your AntiVirus product is up to date and run a scan – If you don’t have one install one of the free trial versions from a reputable vendor
3. If you have not done so before, this is a good time to think about backing important data up – You can’t be held to ransom if you’ve got the data somewhere else.

In the days ahead, the NCSC, working closely with the National Crime Agency in support of their criminal investigation, and with international partners in both other governments and the commercial sector, will continue our round-the-clock effort to get ahead of this threat.  We would like to reassure the public that resources from the Government, law enforcement and public and private sector organisation are working together to manage further disruption from the current attack and to increase protection against any further attacks in the coming days. The country’s security and law enforcement agencies are working round the clock to protect the public. Private sector efforts have made a very significant contribution to mitigate the cyber attacks so far and to  prevent further disruption.

We will provide further updates as and when appropriate.”