As we move through summer and wait for the recovery to take hold and the economy to begin to grow, it seems to me that most businesses are just going to have to get used to working as we do now.
We seem to have not a “V” shaped or indeed “U” shaped recovery but an “L” shaped one.
The boom of the last decade seems a long way away and those businesses that have survived the downturn now, with a few exceptions, have settled in to an “austerity mode”.
This of course by its very nature helps hold a recovery back as we inevitably consume less. So how do we stimulate the recovery when individuals and businesses are not spending and we no longer have the benefit of stimulation from old style public spending and procurement?
I think the government is sometimes unaware of how important its procurement programme is to the private sector, with many businesses, particularly small ones, living in the third or fourth tier of the public sector supply chain. We are told that the recovery will come from private sector growth, led by technology and exporting. So we will have to be brave or at least hope our customers are.
Surrey has ended up in an interesting situation with the county split between two Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs). The businesses in the west of the county are covered by “Enterprise M3” and the east by “Coast to Capital”, with the north not covered at all. Whether government supported economic growth strategies are a good thing or make a difference in the end, has been debated often over the years. We all know that business does not respect artificial boundaries and usually works with peers to best effect anyway.
However it cannot be healthy that some businesses will not be engaged. Additionally, even with the benefit of several Ministers having constituencies on our patch, without a “joined up” voice we will be disadvantaged in the corridors of Whitehall. We know that the northern cities are well organised and state their case very well for any government grants or infrastructure upgrades. The first round of Regional Growth Fund (RGF) monies were skewed heavily to the north with the nearest to Surrey going to Essex. Additionally the nearest Enterpise Zones to the South East are the Midlands and Bristol.
The mind numbingly obvious thing is that with coherent support Surrey can do even more and create increasing tax revenues. However, backing winners has never been popular with any government of whatever hue!
Whatever happens local networks both formal and informal where businesses can learn from each other, innovate, and trade are often useful.
A good thing for Surrey is that we now have the roll out of high speed broadband in the county. This is not only long overdue but extemely welcome.
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