• Swindon & Wiltshire Economy
• Wednesday November 27 2024
• Author Name: Peter Davison

Chamber of Commerce urges government not to ignore Thames Valley region in new national growth strategy

Ministers must ensure business communities outside of prioritised city regions can continue to contribute to the solutions and growth required by the whole of the UK, Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce is demanding.

The government says the Industrial Strategy will be published in Spring 2025, alongside the multi-year Spending Review.

The Green Paper says: “The industrial strategy will concentrate efforts on places with the greatest potential for our growth sectors: city regions, high-potential clusters, and strategic industrial sites.”

Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce covers strategic towns and hubs including Swindon, Oxford, Reading, and Heathrow but also represents businesses across Oxfordshire, West Berkshire, and Buckinghamshire.

Responding to the Industrial Strategy Green Paper, Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce has urged the government to consider how and where dynamic levels of growth have been achieved in localities such as the Thames Valley, with comparatively limited local policy interventions.

CEO Paul Britton said: “To be successful government should also prepare and support a different timetable for places that may not fit with a city region growth agenda.

“The Thames Valley should also have a resourced plan, both local to reflect the existing public sector institutions but also pan-regional, cross-sector and visionary across a wider economic geography. This will help us compete.

“Growth in these geographies is still important, perhaps no more important than in the Thames Valley as the risk of increased global competition or disinvestment of innovative knowledge-based SMEs and multinationals will also have a significant impact on the whole of the UK.

“We want the government to use data to measure the supply chain and wider economic impact of our business communities in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Swindon, and across the whole of the UK”.

A number of Chamber members met with the policy leads for the British Chambers of Commerce earlier this month to share the views of Thames Valley industry.

“We are pleased to see that the BCC are making the case for all regions of the UK and flagging that to be successful a competitive tax environment, skilled workforce and an enabling regulatory environment must be in place,” said Paul.