A year of opportunity - a year for business

ITFC Charitable Trust Professor Dave Muller (Image: PAGEPIX LTD 07976 935738)

It was good to see the shops and streets of Ipswich bustling with shoppers over the Festive period.

As we enter 2015 there is no doubt local, regional and national visitors that shopped and visited here over Christmas will come back to experience what we have to offer through the rest of the year and play an important part in our thriving economy.

There is another big part we will all play in the year ahead and that is the election of a new Government as we go to the polls on 7 May 2015.

As we go back to work in the New Year the last thing that most of us are thinking about is politics but there is no doubt that the voice of business has to be heard by those seeking our support at the polls in the spring.

The Prime Minister was right when he said that business would be the key to the recovery from the economic downturn that hit the UK and the global economy.

While that recovery continues and firms report improved trading conditions it is more important than ever business big and small leads the clarion call as to what is needed from the new Government that will be formed after May.

Decisions made at Westminster have the potential to impact what we do on an everyday basis in Ipswich.

It was the Government that announced proposals to toll the A14 which would have had a terrible effect on our economy and that of the whole of Suffolk. It was business, led by the Chamber of Commerce that campaigned and lobbied our local and national decision makers that ensured the reversing of the proposals.

Business does not want a hand out from Government but it rightly expects investment made in the right places at the right time in the right way. We should never forget that Suffolk is one of the few counties that is a ‘net contributor’ to UK plc – that means we put in more than we take out.

If ever there was a case that political parties should ‘back winners’ then Ipswich and the whole of the county is exactly that.

Your Chamber of Commerce and its members will be ensuring that over the next five months as political parties and aspiring Members of Parliament canvass for votes, business, the success it brings and the investment it makes will be heard loud and clear.

Dave Muller

chair

Ipswich Chamber of Commerce