Steve Brine joined businesses from across the city as he addressed an annual Parliamentary business breakfast on Friday 20th February.
The Winchester MP spoke to representatives from around 40 city businesses and organisations at the Winchester Hotel & Spa, at the annual Parliamentary breakfast meeting, organised by Hampshire Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by Winchester BID and the Hampshire Chronicle.
Mr Brine provided his regular update on the national economic picture, and discussed the Prime Minister's speech to the national Chamber of Commerce the previous week, before reiterating that while government can provide the right conditions, it is local enterprises and organisations which really make it happen.
He praised the city for its fantastic Christmas, and highlighted how Winchester is well-known among his Parliamentary colleagues, who visit the city themselves for the wonderful festive shopping and ice rink.
He also said that was clear something had gone badly wrong in the city over Silver Hill, and stressed the importance of a credible independent inquiry gets to the bottom of what happened without delay, as well as reiterating that he did not want to see a penny of local taxpayers' money spent attempting to appeal the judge's decision in the courts.
After Mr Brine wrapped up discussing the opportunities with Station Approach, his work on our railway station and the new services that are provided, as well as the thriving Winnall business community, the breakfast heard from Prof Chris Turner, from Winchester BID. He explained how the indications were that as well as Christmas, February was looking like an excellent month, and how 35 local start-ups are making use of their business centre on Parchment Street.
Speaking afterwards, Steve said: "This is a real fixture in my calendar, and it is really important for me to be able to not only brief our business community on the national scene, but also to listen and feed back to central government what is happening right here in Winchester."
Before the meeting finished, Steve joined Chris Turner is presenting Spare Change for Real Change cheques, donated from the local business community, to Michele Price from Winchester Churches Night Shelter, and Michelle Gardner from Winchester Trinity.
Pictured; Steve addresses the audience, and joins Prof Chris Turner presenting the cheques to Michele Price and Michelle Gardner
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