Business Roundtable Event - Time to put the North East on the Business Map

As a long-standing member of Do Business Network (DBN), I was delighted to be asked to attend the business roundtable discussion with Liz Twist MP for Blaydon and Consett, and Gareth Thomas MP, Minister in the Department for Business and Trade on Monday 9th December at Derwentside College.

Derwentside on the Map

It was great that as local businesses we were given an opportunity to speak directly to the minister about the often-unique issues that we face in the region.

The issues raided by larger companies included:

• The impact of the raised National Insurance contributions
• Energy costs and the impact on manufacturing
• New eco regulations that impact on buying and running new electric vehicles
• Another issue was raised about inheritance and how changes in national policy could impact on business being inherited in full, and not having to be broken up to cover inheritance contributions.

Improving the High Street

A wider discussion was then held about how we could improve the climate for small and medium sized businesses. The recent success of Councillor Kathryn Rooney’s farmer’s markets was used as an example of how there is a need for a stronger high street. We discussed ways to improve the high street, these included:

• Reduction in business rates,
• More realistic rents for local businesses
• Be more creative with empty properties – for example, use some of them for NHS services, to get people back into the habit of using the high streets
• Use examples like New Brighton and Altrincham as models for what we could achieve in our area.

Funding for Businesses

Business Durham suggested that creating new targets as a focus would help them identify those most in need. The Chamber of Commerce rep also made an interesting point about how in the past. EU money was historically not used in retail. Whereas as we are no longer tied to the EU for the terms of the funding, retailers could receive some targeted support. There is clear evidence that many small retail ventures struggle at key points, but with some clear intervention to help them over certain hurdles, they could go on for much greater long-term success.

Targeted Support for the North East

Our conversation then led onto the unique issues faced by the NE as a region. One suggestion was that as a region we should be empowered and given the opportunity to crate our own policies to support the employers and employees – and that initiatives that have been dreamt up in London, too often do not apply to the NE. For example:

• We don’t qualify for the support due to the criteria
• We are not rural enough – or urban enough to fit the criteria, but we face the issues linked to such business communities.
• The support on offer is not what the region needs, and the issues faced in the capital too often do not translate to the region.

Poor Literacy

A huge issue that was discussed was the high percentage of poor literacy in adults in the NE. The high percentage of adults with a reading age of below 8 is astonishing. This has an impact in the following ways:

• They don’t have the skills to apply for jobs
• They are not skilled enough to follow instructions for the most straightforward of jobs
• If they are employed, they take longer to train due to weak literacy
• Dependency on social services and welfare support leads to generational illiteracy and low aspirations
• Generational illiteracy – has an impact on their children and the future workforce.

Recruitment

In essence, it could be argued that due to such low literacy standards, the NE is in a poorer position when it comes to recruitment. What we need is some support in the region to break this cycle of deprivation. In turn, we have the potential to regenerate the region and develop an educated and strong workforce.

A Useful Exercise

We only had one hour – and there are limits to what can be achieved in such a short time, but it was a very useful exercise in that it gave us all an opportunity to highlight to our MP and the minister Gareth Thomas, what we consider to be the key issues in the region. Plus, give them some insight into how they could support and empower us to galvanise the region and help our area reach its full potential.

Thank you

Thank you to Liz Twist for organising the event, to Gareth Thomas for taking the time to listen to us, and to Derwentside College for being such great hosts. It was great to see a local venue and our local young people being championed in such a way,