Yorkshire business leaders hail pick-up in region’s economy

Members of the Shadow Monetary Policy Committee, a partnership between the Yorkshire Post and the law firm Lupton Fawcett Lee & Priestley, welcomed recent figures suggesting the recovery is taking hold.

But they shared a common view that the outlook of the business world remains relatively cautious.

David Bagley, who holds a series of non-executive directorships, said: “For the last three years we have been saying the issue we are facing is a lack of confidence in the market. We are seeing that confidence coming back.”

But Mr Bagley warned that issues with eurozone economies had still not been properly addressed and could return to threaten the recovery.

“There is still some potential for big shocks to the economy which could damage confidence. Until there are proper fixes for them there is always going to be that shadow hanging over businesses thinking about investing.”

The warning was echoed by Matthew Stroh, representing the Institute of Directors.

He said: “Statistics suggest confidence is there but tweak interest rates and you start to mess up mortgage rates and suddenly that little bit of spare cash that people have got they decide to squirrel away again.”

Paul Etherington, from Grant Thornton, said metropolitan areas were quicker to see the signs of economic recovery.

“It is patchy, you don’t have to move very far from a centre like Leeds to find areas that are still really suffering on the back of cuts, where jobs are being created but not fast enough.”

Members of the eight-strong committee voted unanimously to keep the Bank of England base rate and its quantitative easing programme at their current levels.

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee will deliver its latest view on interest rates tomorrow.

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