Supply Chain Payment Survey 5 Minutes of Your Precious Time

Chairman’s Weekly Blog

Friday 3 July 2015

Supply Chain Payment Survey?? – 5 minutes of your precious time

Hello again

You will have noticed earlier that Douglas has just issued a repeat survey for you to complete.

Can I make a plea to you to spend just 5 minutes on them as the results are an important indicator as to whether you feel things are getting better or worse.

Those who returned last time provided a useful insight into where the problem areas (companies) exist and this time I would like to see a higher number of returns.

We are going to the media with an article on this subject by the end of July so PLEASE HELP.

CECA Joint Initiatives – Update

CECA, as you know is a lobbying voice into parliament but there is a famous saying by Aristotle which goes…“The whole isgreater than the sum of its parts” basically suggesting that people working together can accomplish greater things than if working individually.

The Greater Manchester Authority obviously agreed with that philosophy and now, in the North East, we have our own Combined Authority.

In an attempt to mirror this as well as potentially adding weight to our already successful lobbying, CECA is involved with a number of joined up approaches currently.

CECA / ICE / ACE

Our association with ICE and ACE continues and we are planning to jointly arrange a “DEVOLUTION FORUM” event in September sometime which will hopefully involve speakers from the NE Combined Authority, NECC and the LEPs.

CECA / RHA

CECA has joined up with the Road Haulage Association (RHA) to help add weight to its campaign for government funding to address the HGV drivers shortage.

(A press release will be covering this very soon)

CECA / FMB / NFB / NCBF (CAN)

CECA has been in discussions with the other main North East construction trade associations with a view to establishing CAN, which stands for Construction Alliance Northeast.

The idea is to be the single, representative voice for North East contractors with specific aims in protecting the interests of Local contractors in the areas of Procurement and Payment.

More information on this Alliance will unfold over the coming weeks.

Meetings with Elected MP’s

Having written to all elected MP’s in the North East, we have had a limited response to date however Douglas has secured (anddelivered) one to one meetings with 3 Labour MPs so far.

We have secured meetings with Conservative MP for Berwick, Anne Marie Trevelyan in August and Hexham MP, Guy Opperman for September.

We are confident we will secure some time with James Wharton (Stockton South MP) and Minister for Northern Powerhouse before the Autumn statement.

Please fire through any specific questions you may want us to ask these people during these meetings and we will relay their responses.

Bye for now.

Chris Dancer