Chamber Views

Date published: 09 February 2012

The second of our new weekly surveys, Chamber Views, asked your opinions on a variety of subjects this week including the public perception of business, Fred Goodwin’s “Sir-cumcision”, industrial policies and super-highspeed broadband.

Last week saw the launch of the British Chambers of Commerce’s latest campaign, Business is Good for Britain. It’s designed to highlight the good work that business does across the country, hoping to reverse some of the damage done to the brand by the banking crisis. 53% of you agreed that business has taken an ‘image hit’ in the eyes of the public; Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce will be doing its bit to promote the campaign and you should see some material on “Business is Good for Manchester” soon.

In a similar vein, we asked about the removal of Fred Goodwin’s knighthood and Stephen Hester having so much pressure placed on him that he turned down his bonus. Whilst 27% of you thought that these were important signs of the banking industry apologising for its recent failings and seeking some recompense in the public’s view, 53% said that they were a political distraction and meaningless and a further 20% said that it actively sends out the message that Britain punishes business.

Manufacturing and engineering were seen as positive areas in which the country should develop a specific Industrial Policy according to 73% of you, whilst a further 13% said an Industrial Policy is required, but should be in other sectors. Only 2% said that a policy isn’t required at all. The Chamber’s Economic Committee discussed this this week, so keep an eye on our website for more on this: we may well be mentioning this to the Chancellor in advance of the Budget.

Our final topic was super-highspeed broadband. BT announced a technical breakthrough in delivering fibre directly to premises last week, paving the way for 300Mbps connections. An overwhelming 95.5% of you said that high-speed connectivity was either a useful (62.2% or essential (33.3%) tool to deliver economic growth in the future but, in what is going to be a big problem for BT and the government to resolve, only 35% of people are prepared to pay more than they currently do for their broadband.

The next survey will be launched on Friday at noon, as usual. If you’d like to be on our panel, then email the Chamber’s Research Manager at christian.spence@gmchamber.co.uk