Warning as the recession starts to bite
Mar 12 2009 By Adrian Pearson, The Journal
Professor John Tomaney at Newcastle University, who edited the think tank’s report, said the North East was yet to feel the full impact of the recession. In his report Prof Tomaney warns of increased hardship for families in the region as it becomes obvious that the impact of the millions of pounds spent creating jobs in the region could be short lived.
He points to unemployment figures which show that despite confidence that the region is well placed to "weather the storm" the recession has actually given the North the fastest rising unemployment in the UK.
Prof Tomaney said: "In the short run, the credit crisis has had a particularly severe impact on regeneration, with projects in regions like the North East shown to be at greater risk than those in the South East."
Alan Clarke, head of development agency One North East, last night said many of the problems identified in the report were "by no means unique to the region". He said: "There are many parts I agree with and would welcome but I do not think he is right to say the last five years have been just a blip. I don’t acknowledge that.
"We have significantly increased our economic performance and while that is likely to be affected by the recession I don’t think the changes we have made to the economy will just go away." Asked what concerns he had about future funding arrangements for the agency, Mr Clarke said that while most capital projects were continuing as planned, there was a sense that staff had to be more "fleet of foot" in responding to changing events.
"At the moment we are looking at the next two financial years.
"No one really knows what will be announced for us in the next budget but we know we already have budget reductions to make."
Mr Clarke agreed with the think tank’s suggestion that North East manufacturing and "green collar jobs" could soon be responsible for a much larger parts of the country’s economy as the financial services and banking sector continues to suffer.
