Nick Fletcher MP Meets With Doncaster Businesses To Discuss the City’s Economic Challenges and Its Future

A group of Doncaster businesses were invited to an important event last week, where they had an opportunity to speak face-to-face with one of their political representatives.

Organised by the local Chamber of Commerce, this open forum was part of an ongoing series of roundtable discussions themed around the future of Doncaster’s economy. Taking place on a regular basis, these sessions aim to convene influential figures and business leaders, bringing them together under the same roof so that they can hash out the most pressing issues of the day. For example, previous iterations have seen Chamber members engage with representatives from The Bank of England as well as South Yorkshire’s Mayor, Oliver Coppard.

The Chamber also works with each of Doncaster’s three Members of Parliament to arrange roundtables with firms from their respective constituencies, thus ensuring that they are appraised of the challenges and opportunities facing businesses on their patch.

The most recent of these events took place on Friday the 19^th May, with Nick Fletcher, MP for Don Valley. Without a rigid agenda in place, delegates were able to broach any subject that was relevant to them or to the wider business community: raising concerns; asking burning questions; and emphasising what they think needs to be on Nick’s radar.

The conversation spanned a wide range of topics, from the financial impact of business rates, Corporation Tax and the cost of doing business, through to the barriers that companies are facing when trying to meet their net-zero targets, and the pervasiveness of business crime.

Reflecting on the discussion, Nick Fletcher, MP for Don Valley, enthused: “I always find meetings like this to be extremely useful. Local firms are a cornerstone of our economy and we need to do everything we can to help support them. With that said, I have really come away from today’s session with fresh insights into what more can be done to help Doncaster’s businesses prosper and flourish.”

Echoing these sentiments, Dan Fell, Chief Exec of Doncaster Chamber, added: “I would like to thank Nick for giving his time to speak with our business community and, as always, for his candour and willingness to listen.

“This roundtable produced a lot of healthy debate on a wide range of issues but, more importantly, we also have a lot of homework to be getting on with. In particular, we now have actions that can be taken forward to help Doncaster get more organised in the green space, and will also be looking at how we can address some of the other big themes that were talked about in the room, including the need for our country to re-think its approach to business rates. The conversation is not over.

“On that note, I am pleased to say that Nick will be returning for our flagship business conference on the 6^th of June, where we will be diving more extensively into a lot of the issues that we touched upon here. With a range of prominent guest speakers and over 200 business in attendance, this will be a chance to join an important discussion about the future of Doncaster, to generate new ideas and to think about the ways that we can galvanise our economy.”

The Nick Fletcher roundtable was kindly hosted by Woodland Group (who were also delegates).

About this, Luke Fermor, Head of Global Fulfilment at Woodland Group, said: "It was a pleasure to host the Doncaster Chamber of Commerce Roundtable event at our local facility at Doncaster iPort. Providing a space for healthy and productive exchange, and sharing of knowledge and ideas between local businesses and political representatives, was important to us as part of our continued commitment to support the creation of opportunity and growth locally. Thanks to everyone who took the time to make the event worthwhile. The collaborative approach and solution-oriented conversations between all attendees were fantastic to be part of and we look forward to attending and hosting more events in the future."

Separate roundtable events for Ed Miliband, MP for Doncaster North, and Rosie Winterton, MP for Doncaster Central, are scheduled for later this year (on the 30^th of June and the 8^th of September respectively), and will give both of those politicians a similar opportunity to engage with businesses in their constituencies.  All three MPs, alongside Mayor of Doncaster, Ros Jones, will then gather together for a group breakfast event in October.

For more information about the upcoming Doncaster, What’s Next? Business Conference — including details on the full speaker line-up — click the link below.