The role of business support
Aug 21 2009 By Andrew Hebden, The Journal
WHAT a year it’s been. Anyone caught talking about recession in the North East as recently as last September would find themselves quickly shouted down by those who insisted that the region was still getting along quite nicely, thank you.
Unfortunately, that’s no longer the case today.
As the regular surveys from the North east Chamber of Commerce clearly demonstrate, the downturn in confidence among the region’s business community has been stark and rapid, with manufacturers being particularly hard hit. The downturn is being felt in varying measures across different parts of the region, too, with unemployment being a particular concern in County Durham.
At such times, many firms need as much help and support as they can get, and it’s gratifying for many that the North East is well served by some of the best-equipped business support groups in the country.
As well as the support offered through development agency One North East, the region has a wealth of private companies which exist – first and foremost – to offer support and guidance to businesses in both good times and bad, as well as providing a campaigning voice on their behalf at a regional and national level.
The North East Chamber of Commerce is one of the largest in the UK, the organisation having being formed in 1995, when the former Tyne and Wear, Teesside and Tynedale chambers united to form one body with a strong regional voice. Today, the organisation has some 4,000 members and its own policy team which provides an influential voice for business at a regional
policy level in particular.
The chamber has gone through its own reorganisation over the course of the past 12 months and it recently appointed new president Martyn Pellew, who joins the Most Influential list for the first time this year. In the chief executive’s chair remains James Ramsbotham who is still one of the most widely quoted voices of business in the region and a champion of the North East in the national media, in particular.
The leading organisation of large business, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), is also powerfully represented in the region where its figurehead remains regional director Sarah Green.
There has been a change in the chairmanship at the CBI, too, with Dickinson Dees senior partner Robin Bloom (featured in the legal section rather than here) succeeding former Arriva chief executive Bob Davies in that role. The CBI has been one of the driving forces behind The Journal’s Great North Revolution campaign, aimed at getting the North East economy fit for the 21st century.
Sarah Green has been a major advocate of the drive to put the North East at the forefront of the development of new technologies such as low carbon vehicles and offshore wind power, an effort that is beginning to bear fruit with the recent announcements regarding Nissan’s Sunderland plant.
With the (EEF) – fronted by Alan Hall and Tony Sarginson in the region – championing manufacturing, and North East businessman John Wright still national chair of the Federation of Small Businesses, qualified help is always at hand for businesses in the region.
