Figures show rise in private sector activity

The Economic Index on key business data, collated by law firm Baxter Caulfield, found that more than £800m worth of new contract wins were reported across the region between January and June 2013 compared to £240m during the whole of 2012.

In addition, at least 1,027 private sector jobs were created in the region and £10m of new investment was created.

Stephen Newman, senior partner at Baxter Caulfield, said: “I don’t think the improvement in economic activity is sector specific.

“There was a period of nine months last year where very little happened and looking back I attribute that entirely to the uncertainty in the eurozone.”

Baxter Caulfield, based in Huddersfield, is also reporting an increase in activity within its own firm, receiving an extra £100,000 worth of fees from new transactional work between April and June this year.

Mr Newman said Baxter Caulfield would double the number of transactions it completed in this quarter compared to the previous 12 months.

On average, Baxter Caulfield completes six deals worth £3.5m a year but in the year to the end of March 2013 it only completed three. “That is the poorest year I have known since I started in 1984 in terms of transactional work,” Mr Newman said. “But now things are picking up.

“I think people have got fed up of waiting. We had this when the property crash happened in the first nine months of 2009. I had a lot of clients who were sat on significant amounts of cash which wasn’t earning them any money and they wanted to buy investment properties. They waited almost nine months because they couldn’t decide what was worth buying but then decided they were no further on in terms of knowing what the future would be and decided to carry on.

“That is exactly what happened after the eurozone uncertainty. Towards the back end of the year everyone said ‘stuff it, we have got to do something’.”

He added: “The new data makes for very positive reading and suggests that confidence may be returning. This bodes well for our tentative recovery which has been amply demonstrated by current GDP figures.”

Last week, new figures showed the dominant service sector grew much faster than expected in May, underpinned by the sharpest rate of new business growth in more than three years.

The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for services rose to 54.9 in May from 52.9 in April, its strongest reading since March 2012 and easily beating forecasts.

Although the figures do not cover retailers of the public sector, when combined with last week’s manufacturing and construction surveys they point to a possible GDP growth of 0.5 per cent in the second three months of the year, according to Markit.

Britain’s economy grew 0.3 per cent in the first three months of 2013.

Mr Newman said: “I think it is the start of confidence returning. People are finally coming to terms with the fact that there is no quick fix for the economy and they have to get out there and do something. In many ways manufacturers are probably finding it easier than retailers. If you have a good product it is becoming more competitive to make things in the UK again.”

Last week, Tom Vosa, chief economist at Yorkshire Bank said the Yorkshire economy was “probably... slightly underperforming”.

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