Westminster Calling

Date published: 20 October 2011

The Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce has broken new ground this week holding two meetings in the House of Commons to forge better links with Greater Manchester's MPs and explore ways to enhance local connections between business and Westminster.

Monday night's dinner was attended by nine MPs representing all three parties and Tuesday's breakfast saw a similar turn-out. Whilst individual contacts have been made in the past through the Chamber's Local Managers, this was the first time that group meetings had been held and the first time a serious discussion had taken place on how things could work going forward.

Chris Fletcher, the Chamber's Director of Policy, said: "These meetings represent the first step in a major piece of work looking at how we can develop more effective links with our local MPs. In some areas we already have good relationships, but we recognise that we can and should be doing more and it seems from our meetings that Greater Manchester's MPs want to play a greater part in this with us.

"A good number of ideas were discussed and it was encouraging to hear what MPs are already doing with businesses in their constituencies. We will be taking these ideas away to look at how we can implement them to get activity going. Now more than ever we need to explore every opportunity to get the voice of business heard and the Chamber has a crucial part to play in this working with Greater Manchester's MPs for the benefit of all."