Jes Staley: Bank on Barclays and its commitment to Britain

Barclays has extended its support to the farming community.

In the 12 months since the EU referendum, the single most important role of the banks has been to keep that oxygen flowing through the economy, holding the lending taps open to ensure that capital is available to those who want to put it to work.

In periods of heightened uncertainty, it would be understandable to press pause, take stock and reconsider – but my view continues to be that any hesitation after the Brexit vote would have turned a political shock into an economic one.

On Tuesday, I was in Leeds and Harrogate to visit colleagues in the region and talk to clients from a wide range of businesses, including Yorkshire’s farming community at the Great Yorkshire Show.

I heard very clearly the message that every sector is having to cope with the uncertainty of what happens after Brexit and how it will affect their business.

Farming has felt that uncertainty particularly acutely, so I’m delighted that we were able to mark the anniversary of the creation of our £100m fund for farming by doubling that to £200m this year.

We remain absolutely committed to helping our 24 million UK customers to navigate uncertainty and reach for new opportunities, just as we have done for more than 325 years.

Beyond Brexit, we now have an opportunity to take a fresh look at our economy, our current and potential strengths, and how we can create a modern, thriving economy which works for everyone and is renowned the world over for intellect, inventiveness and expertise.

Here, Yorkshire stands as an example. If banks are the oxygen of commerce, the great cities of the North were its lungs through the industrial revolution and beyond.

The legacies are everywhere to see in the civic architecture, and of course the great northern universities driving so much of today’s growth. They are the lasting legacy of a culture of enterprise and innovation that was rooted and connected to these places, and proud of its contribution to them.

Today, the North is on the march again, and many of the drivers of this resurgence are similar to those that powered the Industrial Revolution  – new technology, new sources of energy, new infrastructure and now,  with Brexit, a wider, global horizon for trade.

What will be crucial to the future success of Yorkshire – and the UK – is our ability to connect these drivers, creating powerful networks of growth and opportunity.

We need to ensure that universities like Sheffield, Leeds and York, carrying out cutting-edge commercial research, are connected to each other and to business.

We need to know that institutions and entrepreneurs have the financial oxygen to turn ideas and expertise into commercial opportunity, to grow and create jobs, and that research and business clusters are connected by modern infrastructure.

Two centuries ago, we played a crucial role in creating these networks of opportunity, funding for example the construction of the Leeds-Liverpool canal, the breakthrough infrastructure of its day. Just as in the 19th century, today finance is crucial to realising the opportunities ahead of us.

And here the UK has a very significant home advantage in the global pre-eminence of the City of London.

We are home to one of the world’s great capital markets, connecting investors across the globe to investment opportunities in research, business and infrastructure.

I’m very proud that Barclays continues to back Britain, leading the way in channelling that investment to drive growth and prosperity for the long term in Yorkshire and across the UK.

Jes Staley is chief executive of Barclays.