It was a busy constituency Friday last week and an early start as I teamed up with Lancing Business Park and medical services firm Eschmann to host a business export breakfast. Fortified by some excellent bacon rolls 40 local businesses came along to hear from Department for Business and Trade officials about the support available for firms looking to break into the export market or expand existing operations.
Studies show that companies who export are far more resilient and able to spread the risk of downturns in particular sectors. Whenever I go on delegations abroad it is clear that our embassies are now much more geared up to promoting UK plc and recent trade deals are bringing lots more opportunities. Last week we signed a trade deal with the state of Texas, the 8th largest economy in the world, bigger than Australia, Canda or Russia.
The event was a great success with requests for a follow up event so let me know if your business would be interested. It was then on to Shoreham where for the first time in my 27 years in Parliament I opened a bank branch rather than campaigned against closing one. The new Shoreham Banking Hub in the High Street is up and running and it is already proving a great success. It follows on from the proposed closure of the last bank branch in my constituency with Nat West in Shoreham due to shut its doors soon. We requested a review of whether we qualified for a banking hub and Cash Access UK, responsible for protecting access to cash, said yes.
Customers of five different banks can now use the hub five days a week with representatives from each bank on site in person for a set day for face-to-face advice. Now all we need is a hub in Lancing too, which has been bankless since Nationwide withdrew.
For those affected by the ongoing flooding problems around Southwick Green I have published the recording of our virtual meeting between Southview Road residents and Southern Water representatives on my website, and we will arrange a follow-up if necessary.
