Chamber news from Peter Carey

Peter Carey

Peter Carey is the Rochdale President of Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce.

As the festive period fades into a distant memory, our thoughts are firmly fixed on business activities for the coming quarter, and the Chamber has been working on a number of initiatives to try and boost opportunities for its members. We held our Construction Sector event on 25 January 25 which has newly been opened to businesses based within Rochdale. Previously the Chamber had worked with Oldham Council to present tendering opportunities to construction firms within the Oldham borough, but due to the event’s success and popularity, Rochdale Council and Rochdale businesses are now onboard as well.

We welcomed approximately 100 attendees to Rochdale Town Hall to hear about the current opportunities with McLaren Construction and Rochdale Boroughwide Housing and hope the next event on 25 April will prove just as popular.

The latest Chamber Council meeting took place recently, which is where the Chamber’s policy work for the forthcoming quarter is decided upon. We were pleased to welcome Simon Danczuk MP to the meeting who spoke about some of the problems businesses in our borough are currently facing. We have held a number of meetings with Simon over the past few months and will continue to feed back to him the main problems businesses are encountering, so let us know which issues are impacting your business at the moment.

With Apprenticeship Week now underway, businesses are being encouraged to recruit apprentices. Our borough’s firms have certainly been doing their bit, working alongside Rochdale Council to exceed the national average. Last year, there was a 60 per cent increase in employers in Rochdale, Heywood and Middleton taking on apprentices, which takes the grand total of businesses employing apprentices to well over 600. If you think your business can benefit from an apprentice, e-mail Andrew.turner@rochdale.gov.uk for further details.

Finally, don’t forget our next networking lunch, ‘Doing Business in Rochdale’, on 22 February at the Lancashire Health and Racquets Club in Middleton. There will be one-minute rounds, giving attendees the opportunity to talk about their businesses, plus chance to network over lunch. Visit our website to book a place and I hope to see you there.”

For more information about the Chamber’s work in Rochdale, email peter.carey@sedgwick-phelan.co.uk.

Members can also get in touch with Michelle Geoghegan, Rochdale Local Policy Manager, about any issues they’d like to discuss: michelle.geoghegan@gmchamber.co.uk.