Bernard Ginns: How to get involved in thinking local to boost economy

The point of Buy Yorkshire is to promote success stories in Yorkshire, help companies win contracts, strengthen supply chains and reform public sector procurement.

The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, so thank you all. I’ve also welcomed the opportunity to debate the aims and objectives of the campaign with a small minority of naysayers.

Today, I would like to invite Yorkshire companies of all shapes and sizes to get in touch and tell us who you want to do business with this year.

It might be a new market or sector that you want to sell into; it might be a new product or service that you need to buy.

The Yorkshire Post will endeavour to print your responses over the coming months in the hope that our readers might win new business or gain valuable intelligence.

The Yorkshire Post is also asking big companies to detail supply chain opportunities in Yorkshire to help potential suppliers understand how they can get involved.

We will be pushing for reform to public sector procurement where it excludes SMEs and we will be highlighting existing ‘buy local’ campaigns that promote Yorkshire goods and services.

Business leaders are supporting the campaign.

Andrew Palmer, regional director for the CBI, said: “The growth of the economy and future job creation could be given a massive boost by even a small increase in the percentage of goods sourced here, and we would encourage firms to invest time in refreshing supplier databases to try and find new trading relationships here in the region.”

Neil McLean, chairman of Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “Local supply chains are an issue raised with us by many businesses and we and a number of business organisations are already encouraging and supporting their development as a simple and effective means of growing the local economy.

“It is good to see the Yorkshire Post developing and supporting this initiative.”

A survey out yesterday from General Electric shows that British hi-tech manufacturers are increasingly purchasing goods and services from domestic suppliers as opposed to those in the Far East as wage growth in China and the weakness of sterling forces buyers to look closer to home.

This is welcome news for UK supply chains and shows how campaigns like Buy Yorkshire can make a real difference by highlighting the quality of companies in this region.

Watch out for the Buy Yorkshire logo.

MENTION the word Campari and what comes to mind?

For readers of a certain age, it will be the classic 1970s TV advert featuring Lorraine Chase as the object of affection of a well-spoken suitor in some exotic overseas locale.

“Were you truly wafted here from paradise?” asks the beau.

“No, Luton airport,” responds Chase in broadest Estuary English, earning her a place in the TV hall of fame.

For bankers schooled in the early 1980s, Campari has another meaning: it provided them with the key criteria for making lending decisions.

Peter Hill, the chief executive of Leeds Building Society, explains: “When I did my banking exams, we used mnemonics: C.A.M.P.A.R.I. Character, Ability, Means, Purpose, Amount, Repayment and Insurance.

“The first thing you look at is the character of the borrower. I don’t think it’s every been any different. I don’t think it ever will be any different.”

Three decades on, there are different tools available to assess some of these criteria, such as the individual’s credit record.

Lenders apply credit science to help them understand the likelihood that a borrower will run into difficulties.

We discussed the use of credit science during an interview.

Mr Hill, the finance professional, defended its use against my claim that the financial crisis was caused to a significant degree by poor models.

He told me: “If you create a set of assumptions that are around a buoyant environment then it’s likely to tell you that your risk of default is very low.

“If you put more distressed assumptions in, it’s likely to give you a different outcome.

“I don’t think it’s right to blame credit science for poor lending decisions. Because to some extent that’s the judgment that goes in that science can’t replace.”

Unfortunately, that judgment went out of the window at most of the big lenders over the last decade. Time for a Campari revival perhaps?

@bernardginns