Sheffield Chamber of Commerce is the fastest growing Chamber in the UK, a national survey has revealed.

Its membership is increasing at twice the total growth rate of the national Chamber network – an achievement described by chief executive Nigel Tomlinson as a tribute to the hard work and commitment of his team in building a value-added portfolio of services for members.

The benchmarking survey, by the British Chambers of Commerce, also puts the Sheffield Chamber top out of 54 others throughout the UK for the number of delegates attending its training courses, second only to London in the number of participants attracted to its events and second, to Greater Manchester, in the number of business courses it has run.

Mr Tomlinson added: “We have managed to put together a membership package which we think offers members really relevant services they can use to enhance their businesses across a wide variety of sectors. It is extremely important in the current economic climate to offer value for money and more besides and this continues to be our philosophy for the future.”

Other impressive figures from the survey show the Chamber in third place for the number of international trade inward missions it has organised and fourth for outward missions.

It was also fourth in the list for membership penetration of businesses with between 50 and 250 employees.

Mr Tomlinson added: “Ten or so years ago the Chamber’s main service to members was training which accounted for 70 per cent of our turnover but since then we have diversified and broadened our offer and I think the success of this is showing in the benchmarking results.”