Dear Members and Friends of the BLCC,
Good news for importers and investors: much to everyone’s surprise, the UK economy did grow and showed resilience in Q2 of this year despite the many wars going on around us.
If I say ‘around us’, British Army Generals are increasingly warning us in the UK media that we are already at war with Russia. As this is not a classic war, business is not really taking much notice. We will, however, have to start building up our resilience against this new type of warfare, and this will undoubtedly come with a cost. The BLCC will keep you posted on how this further unfolds and what can be done to mitigate this challenge in the coming months.
Back to good news: I am delighted to welcome JM Finn as our newest Patron Member. Patron Members are among the most established and respected names in the Anglo-Belux business community, and JM Finn is a very worthy addition. As part of Delen Private Bank, one of Belgium’s leading wealth management firms, JM Finn provides personalised investment management and financial planning to private clients, companies, charities and trusts, and I know many of our members will value its expertise (learn more). A very warm welcome to the whole JM Finn team.
In other news, Virgin Trains will be allowed to run services from London to Brussels, Amsterdam and Paris from 2030. This will bring an end to the monopoly of Eurostar, which many members have described as underperforming and underwhelming. Hopefully, competition will bring prices down and improve services such as properly working Wifi…
I am also pleased to announce that H.E. Mr Georges Friden has become a Freeman of the City of London. Congratulations to the Ambassador of Luxembourg for receiving this Honour. The tradition goes back many centuries. In 1996, Nelson Mandela was the first ‘alien’ (the old word for foreign) national to receive this Honorary Freedom of the City of London. It is the highest honour the City of London can bestow and is nowadays given to all nationalities, including myself for my involvement in the Flanders Fields Memorial Garden project in 2014. One of the many advantages includes driving over one’s sheep over London Bridge free of charge…
As members who are using our Salary Administration services will have noticed, employing non-British nationals is not without its challenges and pitfalls. The BLCC has stepped up checking each new employee whom our members are employing in the UK. This is part of the Right to Work changes which will be implemented from 1 October 2026. In order to mitigate any risks and high penalties, we are currently looking into using the same software to check each new employee as the one we started using for every director and UBO since the beginning of this year. I am afraid it is more red tape and cost, but in the current anti-immigration climate, it is a good and necessary investment. Payroll members will be kept updated separately, but you have read it here.
In September, we welcomed a delegation of Fevia, the Belgian Food & Beverage organisation, in collaboration with FIT and the Belgian Embassy. Food exports from Belgium have more than doubled in monetary terms since 2019. Interestingly, one of the speakers was from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Although she was not allowed to spill the beans, it seems that the new SPS agreement will come to fruition in 2027. The intended agreement will dynamically align Great Britain with relevant EU sanitary, phytosanitary, food and certain related rules, with the aim of removing the vast majority of certificates and routine border checks on agri-food trade. The BLCC wholeheartedly supports this overdue agreement as it will make our F&B members’ lives easier when shipping their goods.
And as usual, we end with a BLCC London office update. Our Belgian JUUNOO pods have arrived, boosting the whole co-working experience and making the Work Lounge even look cooler. Our online booking system, Skedda, is now also live, and soon you will be invited to book your co-working desk, your pod or the meeting room, increasing your productivity when in London. When you visit, you will be welcomed by our new intern, Tanguy and by Estee, who will be temporarily replacing Olivia, who is leaving us at the end of September.
Best wishes
Michel Vanhoonacker
BLCC Chairman