Business West, the organisation behind Bristol Chamber of Commerce and the Bristol Initiative, has called on all political parties contesting next week’s General Election to focus on policies that promote growth in the light figures showing a slowdown over the past three months.
It said the official GDP statistics published earlier this week, which revealed first-quarter growth fell from 0.6% to 0.3%, reflected a decrease in many measures in its own regional business survey. 
However, it said despite this, confidence levels among West of England businesses had increased – and it was up to politicians to prioritise policies that would encourage growth in the final few days of the election campaign.
Business West managing director Phil Smith, pictured, said: “The slowdown in GDP growth was expected following weak construction and production figures.
“In the South West we also saw a decrease in most major indicators such as sales recruitment and cashflow when we polled over 800 firms in our Local Business Survey in Q1.
“Whilst disappointing figures this quarter are cause for concern, economic output is 2.4% higher than a year earlier and 4% larger than before the recession and locally we also see that business confidence remains high.
“These results reinforce the drive to ensure that the incoming government focuses on the growth aspirations of business. We are in the middle of the campaign for the most wide open election in recent memory, and during this time of uncertainty, businesses need assurance that politicians will adopt a relentless focus on policies that deliver jobs and growth, instead of short term point scoring in the polls.”
Earlier this year, ahead of the election campaign starting, Business West produced its own business manifesto which lays out a set of ‘asks’ of potential local MPs and has been sent to every prospective parliamentary candidate in the region.
Among these are protecting Bristol Airport from any unfair competition created by the devolution of Air Passenger Duty power to Wales . The 15 key policy areas in the manifesto are framed by an absolute requirement for political leaders to place the economy and business at the heart of their plans as they approach polling day next Thursday.
