Welcome to the June newsletter.
April and May have been busy months for the Chamber with the Shop Local campaign in full swing, the hosting of the 2024 State of the City breakfast and the welcoming of the launch of the inaugural Regional Leaders event by alliance partner BusinessNSW.
The Shop Local campaign continues to amaze me with over $1 Million in sales already – well on the way to beating last year’s target and with over 136 registered business already participating this year the level of support from our members and the local community is great to see.
The State of the City event gave us a chance to hear from Mark Sleiman from PRD discussing the local real estate market and from the Tamworth Regional Council Mayor Russell Webb and General Manager Paul Bennett discussing their vision for the future of the Tamworth region. For those unable to make this event I started the morning with a snapshot of our regional economy including an overview of where we live, how we live, what we do for work and our general spending patterns compared to our Greater Sydney residents. For a copy of these statistics give Kate or Fiona a call and they can send them out.
At the event Mark noted that although property sales had slowed down in recent months after the recent interest rate rises, the demand for rental accommodation and good quality homes in the $750,000 and above still remained. I have included an article this month looking at the great wealth transfer happening at the moment and whether parents should be the “bank of mum & dad”.
Russell and Paul provided an update on various matters including Ray Walsh House, the UNE Campus, water security and the Baiada development, the Aquatic centre, the Global Gateway park and the flight training school at the airport precinct. Overall the future looks bright for the region but there remains a number of challenges around State and Federal funding and the availability of skilled staff for construction and town planning that are acting as a handbrake on many of these opportunities.
The inaugural BusinessNSW Regional Leaders event was a great opportunity for business from right across the New Enland North West region to come together, share their wisdom and learn from some of the great leaders we have in our community. I was inspired by Peter Baines OAM from Hand Across the Water (and a former Tamworth police officer) who spoke about why leadership matters and his experiences in the face of adversity. We also heard from The from the Hon. Tara Moriaty MLC - Minister for Regional NSW, Agriculture and Western NSW, and the Hon. Aileen McDonald OAM, MLC – Shadow Minister for Youth Justice about living and working in regional NSW. We heard from many business executives from right across the region including local members such as Stephen Doley (Challenge Disability Services), Geoff Bower (Andromeda), Sue Thomson (McLean Care), Paul Bennett and Barry Harley (TRC), Adam Arndell (C7EVEN), Maree McKenzie (Homes North), David Errington (Apollo Engineering), Belinda Kotris (TFSS), Andrew Mahony (Rural Fit). BusinessNSW Directors David Harding and Julian Arndt also addressed the audience on housing reform and the changes to IR laws under the Closing the Loopholes changes. A number of our Board members attended on behalf of their own business and Kate and Fiona attended on behalf of the Chamber so if you are keen to hear why leadership matters please reach out to one of our team and we can help. Remember as Tamworth Business Chamber members you have the opportunity to be an affiliate member with BusinessNSW. Ask Kate and Fiona for details on how to join if you haven’t already.
I provided an update on the Federal budget during the month but in May we also received the March 2024 quarterly Business Conditions Survey from BusinessNSW. A copy of the report is attached. For our region business confidence has risen to -43.8 this quarter up from -62.5 and expected to increase further to -32.8 in the June quarter helped but more favourable confidence in Agriculture and Healthcare. Retail trade, Accommodation, Manufacturing and Construction have all experienced a slight decline in confidence but are expected to bounce back in Q2 2024. The report also outlines the business impact of the cost-of-living pressures and notes 95% of businesses are experiencing some impacts including reduced customer demand for their products or services, cashflow disruptions ad increased wage expectations as the three key outcomes. Consumer buying behaviour has changed over the past few months with buyers searching for lower cost substitutes, negotiating for a better price and buying less frequently or less per order as the main changes noted in the survey. Insurances, taxes and energy costs remain the top three business costs that keep owners awake at night and over 70% of respondents noted that they will spend less on non-essential office supplies and decorations in the coming months. The report outlined a number of other indicators including worker shortages, supply chain disruptions, cost drivers, interest rate concerns and policy areas needing immediate attention. I recommend reviewing the report and keeping an eye out on the next quarter survey to complete to ensure our region has a voice in these key outcomes.
We have a number of events being scheduled over the coming months including a new approach to our monthly networking events and we will lock in the State of the State leaders forum for July.
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