CHARLIE MULLINS OBE

Chairman, Pimlico Plumbers

THE country is still being dragged back by a corona virus induced“ghost recession ”, but the latest numbers show we’re heading in the right direction.

Rishi Sunak has done a great job keeping the economy on life-support in the pandemic and we are starting to see the country on the road to recovery.

Instead of the pointless task of comparing apples with oranges by judging previous years’ economic figures against current performance, it’s worth getting a flavour of what’s happening for businesses.

At Pimlico Plumbers we’ve enjoyed an outstanding first quarter of the year achieving record sales in two of the three months, including our highest ever trading month in March.

It’s putting us on course for a record year, something we couldn’t have predicted when the country was put into lockdown in March last year.

From the chats I’m having with other entrepreneurs, this is not an isolated trend.

The business community is coming out of hibernation and is ready to follow through with the investments it postponed.

But we can’t expect the immediate bounce back to give the economy the momentum it needs for future growth.

Backing the millions of UK SME’s is vital with support and investment in skills.

The UK’s private sector is fundamental to ensuring the country can maintain growth.

We’ve done it in every recession in the past and we’ll play our part in exorcising the Covid-ghost recession too.