The General Election pantomime is beginning and the various political parties are starting to test the messages that will eventually arrive in their manifestos. Views are forming and as a sector we need to engage in the debate at a national and local level to make our voice heard. Now is the ideal time to be engaging with your local MPs and candidates to tell them how they can help you.
In speeches and broadcasts we are starting to see policy messages being tested and core themes emerging. BWF Council Member Amarjit Binji of AJB Group (a Leicestershire based joinery company) attended on behalf of the BWF a Labour Party SME Briefing during which we saw labour emphasising that they see themselves as the party for small business, with Ed Miliband stating:
“So to earn and grow our way to a better standard of living, Britain doesn’t just need a small number of large businesses to succeed, it needs a large number of small businesses to prosper.“
The meeting was also attended by rising political star Chuka Umunna MP, currently the Shadow Business Secretary. In speeches, the persistent problem of late payment for the small business also cropped up, although Europe was not really discussed in any great detail.
Amarjit followed up his involvement in the meeting with a letter emphasising the core issues affecting him as a joinery company in the UK and how he feels government can help.
In a recent reception hosted by City Network, Iain McIlwee, BWF CEO had the opportunity to meet with Nick Clegg MP who in his speech emphasised again his commitment to Europe. He volunteered that the old ideologies of the left and right were changing and the fault line was now centred on "open and closed" politics in the wake of the remorseless changes of globalisation. Iain was able to raise the question of Housing, and the response was to emphasise the importance of maintaining current growth. An excellent question was also put to Mr Clegg on late payment and he seemed convinced that this was and should be a priority. The detail was a little vague!
BWF continues to engage with the main political parties, both through the conventional lobby routes, through the consensus bodies that we work with (Construction Products Association, National Specialist Contractors Confederation, The Fire Sector Federation, The Passive Fire Protection Federation, Cut the VAT Coalition etc) and vitally today, social media. At a local level, however, we would like to rally your support to ensure that the needs of the £3.8 billion woodworking sector are factored in to their policy plans.
To this end BWF is currently drawing together a toolkit to help you to interact with your local representatives (and potential representatives) and we will be encouraging you to take any points that you wish from this and to to engage with your own MPs and candidates locally, inviting them to tell you how they can and will help you.
We will be circulating further details in the very near future.
BWF Policy Executive, Matt Mahony
