Fears over hung Parliament

The Yorkshire Shadow Monetary Policy Committee said that the region's economy was already frustrated with the uncertainty of waiting for the election result.

The committee, which at its last meeting voted to maintain interest rates at their current level, raised concerns that inflation needed to be controlled and said they could not vote to change interest rates until after the election had been held.

Chairman Jonathan Oxley, senior partner at Lee and Priestley solicitors, said the committee did not have a political position but it was clear that certainty from Government was needed.

"The markets will want certainty, they will definitely prefer a clear majority," he said.

The committee also defended the work of regional development agency Yorkshire Forward, which had been threatened with closure by an incoming Tory government.