THE best business to be in. I can remember an outstanding trainer and accountant called Tom Dixon who said to me, “What’s the best business to be in?”

It was a rhetorical question because he could not wait to tell me. “ Banks, Alan, banks! ... You get paid for looking after other people’s money!”

Now while I do not want to start a detailed debate about the merits of various forms of enterprise, I do think that there was something in what Tom Dixon had to say.

And talking of banks, why don’t we have a new regional one? Please do not laugh. I am serious.

It used to be that funds for investing in business were available from your very own regional bank. Let’s take a leaf out of the American book. I am not a fan of all that they do, but they start new banks in the States all the time.

We seem to think that you create a new bank once in a generation, but it does not need to be like this. There is nothing to stop this region setting one up. Just think that you could have a competition for the best name – Tyne/Tees Bank, Geordie Bank, Northumberland Bank ... but not Geordie Shore Bank.

So why don’t we have one? A proper regional industrial bank. A bank whose role would be to raise funds from shareholders, investors and the population of the region. And that bank would lend its funds to business of all shapes and sizes in our region.

You could have your own set of regional bank managers. Not only could these senior staff know you and your business, but they could make clear regional business decisions in their regional bank.

:: Alan J Hall is a North East business consultant working with Jacksons Law Firm