Suffolk Chamber statement on Liz Truss becoming Prime Minister

“Essentially, our overall ask of Liz Truss is simple and straightforward: Suffolk Chamber’s members are looking to her to run the most business-friendly administration in recent times. 

“This must be a Government that seeks to practically support businesses during the kinds of exceptionally challenging conditions we are experiencing at the moment, but also one that allows firms to deliver their growth plans with a minimal level of input taxation and bureaucratic interference during more normal trading periods thereafter. 

“In the next week or so, therefore, it is vital that the new Prime Minister establishes beyond a shadow of a doubt that she ‘gets’ business.

“This means we will be looking to her administration to purposefully help businesses battle through not only the current energy price hikes, but also to address the other short-term headwinds that are impacting on firms’ cash flow, profitability and turnover, such as the short-term labour shortages being experienced by some of the county’s key sectors.

“In the longer-term, we must ensure that this country’s energy security is never so compromised as this again. This means accelerated investment incentives in a broad mix of net zero energy sources, improvements in energy storage and transmission infrastructure and a streamlining of regulations to speed up such investments which are frequently unreasonably delayed within the planning system. 

“Thinking specifically of Suffolk, we are looking to the Truss government to invest in the county’s road, rail and 5G networks so as to sustainably boost the whole country’s onward prosperity. This means prioritising improvements to Haughley junction to further spur the growth in east/west rail freight traffic, deliver on proposals to upgrade the whole of the A14 to expressway standards to improve the flow of goods in and out of the Port of Felixstowe and support mobile operators, rather than leaving Suffolk to last, to prioritise 5G rollout along our key transport corridors.”

“We are also keen that this Government looks to lower longer-term tax burdens on businesses by reversing the recent increase in NI Employer Contributions and re-opening a serious investigation into replacing the perverse and out-of-date business rates system.”