Chamber Reacts to News of Election
Commenting on the news that the country will go to the polls on 12th December, Chris Fletcher, Campaigns Director at Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, said: “Many will no doubt see this as an opportunity to break the Brexit deadlock in Parliament and as a way of potentially delivering a resolution to this issue. It is absolutely vital though that the election does not just become a quasi-second referendum, there is a lot more at stake on the result of this than what happens with Brexit.
“Our members and ourselves have been critical of government since the referendum for basically ignoring key domestic economic and social policy issues and viewing all decisions through the lens of Brexit soaking up resource, time and effort. The impact of this has been seen in our recent economic surveys and from what businesses are telling us on a day to day basis. It is less about Brexit and more about the day to day issues and lack of decisions being made that are frustrating them.
“We await to see and hear what the parties have in their manifestos. As regards our election ‘asks’ we have worked over the last few years with businesses, partners and other organisations across the spectrum to develop key activity on our Future of Skills and Connectivity and Innovation for Growth campaigns and these will underpin our election work.
“We need a radical overhaul of skills, massive investment in infrastructure and more devolved powers and funding to continue to make sure the region can perform. This is a crucial and pivotal election and hopefully it will rebalance the next government’s priorities so that whatever action is required can be quickly and effectively delivered and not lost in the quagmire of Brexit.”