Preparations to take part in the European elections are now well under way following the collapse of cross-party talks between Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn.

Despite unemployment being at the lowest levels since 1974, businesses have been taking the hit of Brexit chaos as the lack of clarity over the UK’s future relationship with the European Union is now having an impact on investment intentions in both the manufacturing and services sectors in particular.

To explore the current business conditions and to identify what companies consider their key issues to growth, Herefordshire & Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce has now launched its latest Quarterly Economic Survey (QES) in the two counties.

Some businesses may be familiar with our quarterly surveys, but for those who are not, the QES is the largest private sector business survey in the UK.

Findings of the QES are used to measure business sentiment, and the survey is nationally monitored by the Bank of England, HM Treasury and the European Commision as a leading indicator of business conditions.

Feedback from the anonymous survey will help us to prioritise the main concerns in the business community, allowing you to have your voice heard and for the Chamber to lobby at both local and national government on your behalf.

The survey, which takes around three minutes to complete, is online at surveymonkey.com/r/2019QESQ2 and will close for completion on Monday, June 10.

I’d like to thank local businesses for taking part in this survey, which will help us to outline the key policy priorities for the 2019-2020 period, and create invaluable documents that detail how ‘real time’ decisions are now impacting our businesses.