Blackfriar: Northern delights for firms who feel no Brexit effects

Elland-based Marshalls is seeing none of this and it makes you wonder why.

Last week Northern housebuilder Avant Homes identified an interesting new trend: People who voted for Brexit see nothing but good news in the years ahead now that Prime Minster Theresa May has triggered Article 50, kicking off the two-year process to leave the EU.

Avant said an excellent trading performance over the past year is expected to result in record revenues, profits and land investment in prime Northern UK locations.

​​The group said it has seen no impact from the Brexit vote or the impending General Election.

Chief executive Colin Lewis said: “We’ve seen nothing whatsoever. People in the North are shrugging off Brexit concerns. We are seeing increasing economic activity. People talking about the North doing well are generating confidence.

“The vote for Leave was stronger in the North. They are saying: ‘We wanted to get out. It’s up to the Government to sort it out’.”

With Marshalls, bear in mind that many of its customers fit the Brexit profile perfectly – older people, many of whom have secure pensions – and you can see why their customers are optimistic.

Threatened job losses and rising shop prices will have little impact on retirees who are keen to spend their pension pots while they have time to enjoy the money. In addition the threat of rising interest rates to counter inflation won’t have any impact if they’ve paid off their mortgages.

​Marshalls’ chief executive Martyn Coffey said​: ​​“Our stand-out number is the domestic performance. Consumer confidence has stayed high. There was a lot of concern over Brexit, but we haven’t seen that.”

He said the group is not complacent about how things will turn out now that Article 50 has been triggered, but there is nothing worrying yet.

“We are going into a new era, but we haven’t seen any effect. Two thirds of people who own houses in Britain are over 55,” he recently said.

“A lot of them were supporters of Brexit. We haven’t seen a cancelled order since the referendum.”

It’s a question of perception. People who voted for Brexit believe that Theresa ‘strong and stable’ May can pull off a coup against the EU and get Britain a great deal.

Those who are more sceptical believe that in two years time, the talks will be in tatters, the Brexit backlash will be gaining steam and people will be very angry about job losses and the falling pound.

For those of you who like to criticise Blackfriar for being an unrepentant Remoaner, this was an off the record forecast from a FTSE 100 chairman, who spoke on the absolute understanding that it was anonymous. Publicly this chairman sits on the sidelines, saying nothing.

In this strange political climate, Remainers keep shtum in public or face a barrage of vitriol.

After decades covering General Elections, Blackfriar has to say this is the weirdest yet. Another four Bank Holidays? Why the hell not. Bring back fox hunting? Go for it. Hike corporation tax by more than a third to save our schools? Sure.

Bonkers promises are being made across the political spectrum. Labour can promise whatever it likes and it doesn’t matter as it doesn’t stand a chance of winning. Meanwhile the Brexit camp and the Tories know that a broken promise is just par for the course these days.

£350m for the NHS? No, we didn’t actually mean it. There will be no early General Election. Oh actually there will be. These are crazy times.

Meanwhile, I have never come across more people who simply can’t be bothered to vote this time.

Apathy, a dislike of all the political parties and a feeling of desperation have set in.