Date: Wed 19th May, 2010
Venue: Venue Cymru, The Promenade, Llandudno, LL30 1BB
Enquire about this event
Government spending cuts, transport and bank funding and sparked a lively discussion at Insider’s North Wales debate in Llandudno.
With the ink still drying on the UK coalition government’s plans, Jeremy Salisbury, chairman of the CBI in North Wales and director of Salisbury & Company, said some firms could benefit: “Risk-takers see huge opportunities in these times. I worry, but I also look forward and there are people who will do well out of this.”
Reduced spending should result in closer working between business and government, said Ian Williams, director for North Wales enterprise at the Welsh Assembly Government. He called on the coalition to make an early decision on a nuclear power station for Wylfa on Anglesey: “Having a decision about whether it’s going to go ahead would be an enormous boon to us trying to develop economic policy here in North Wales. Even a negative decision would be helpful because we wouldn’t then put a whole load of economic eggs in one basket.”
Iestyn Garlick, director of TV company Antena, called for the balance of government support to be tipped towards local companies: “We should stop giving huge grants to companies from outside the UK to come here, sit around for a few years then go off.”
But he was challenged on this by the Assembly Government’s Williams, who said that grants had attracted big employers such as Sharp, Toyota and Airbus.
Asked how they would spend £800,000, the subsidy for the Anglesey to Cardiff air link, most panelists agreed that the service was worth the cost. Salisbury said: “I have been persuaded that an air link is helpful, particularly with so many civil servants coming up to Llandudno Junction soon. If the air link helps communications, I would throw the £800,000 at the plane.”
But he added that onward links at either end of the service should be improved, and called for more “joined-up thinking” about roadworks on the A55.
David Williams, chairman of the North Wales Business Club and deputy chairman of council at Bangor University, said the air subsidy was “a drop in the ocean” in the transport budget. He suggested low-cost improvements should be made to the A470 north-south road: “One way we can improve it is as they do in New Zealand, identify pinch points so that you won’t travel more than five or ten miles before you come to an overtaking point of about half mile. I’d like us to learn from other countries.”
Garlick said using the plane saved time, but opposed its environmental effects: “There is certainly no stress value if you go by plan or train. I’d probably spend it on the train because it’s greener.”
Asked about funding, Garlick said applying for public sector grants was “exhausting”, and said the banks should do more to help firms: “They have been taking our money all these years. I don’t understand why the government is not forcing them to help us like we helped them.”
David Williams said: “Much of the problem has been the way banks have moved away from proper relationship management. As banks are presently structured, it’s going to be difficult to ensure that the proper flow of funds is attained. I’m looking to other forms of finance for smaller businesses. Maybe it’s new entrants into the market, perhaps Richard Branson or Tesco – new banks that don’t bring the baggage of the past with them.”
But Salisbury said the situation should improve soon: “There’s not a necessarily a reluctance to lend, but a difficulty in lending on the criteria that a lot of people would like to borrow at. Businesses have to do the basics, they have to make sure they have a sound business plan and they have to look at alternative lenders like Finance Wales or banks’ secondary lines – the problem is that money becomes even more expensive. It’s going to get easier, but it’s coming from a very difficult place.”
