Date: Fri 18th September, 2009
Venue:
Number of Guests Attended: 80
Regional business people crowded into the Park House Hotel in Shifnal, Shropshire, for Insider’s latest economic forum.
They heard a lively question and answer-based discussion chaired by Insider editor Andy Coyne and featuring Shropshire Council development boss Tom McCabe and NOM Dairy UK managing director David Potts, amongst others.
The debate ranged from the impact of the recession on the region’s economy, to relations between Telford and the rest of Shropshire via regeneration and inward investment.
Speaking about the recession, McCabe said: “Everything has ground to a halt in the construction industry. That has had a knock-on effect across all sorts of supporting sectors. The drying up of orders for manufacturing firms again has worked its way through the chain. If employment continues to rise that will have a big impact on the public purse.”
Ian Edwards, team leader of Advantage West Midlands’ Rural Regeneration Zone, said: “The largest impact is that we have not been able to invest in the products we would have liked to have done. Our budgets have been reduced and our land bank values have decreased.”
Better news came from Nom Dairy’s Potts who said the food industry has almost been recession proof.
And Frank Williams, financial director of local construction firm Frank Galliers, said it has acted quickly to refocus itself when the recession hit. “Ninety per cent per cent of our work was in the private sector. Pretty much overnight those opportunities dried up. Fortunately we were able to pick up very quickly public sector contracts and 12 months on the business is 90 per cent in the public sector,” he said.
What also came out of the debate was a desire for Telford and the rest of Shropshire to work more closely together. McCabe said: “The new established unitary authorities have got a lot in common and a large common agenda going forward. We will have a bigger voice working together.”
Read the full debate in the November issue of Midlands Business Insider.
