New ‘levelling up’ call follows business survey
Business confidence in the North East has improved – but retail and hospitality are still facing challenging times, according to a new survey.
The latest North East England Chamber of Commerce economic survey shows further improvements in business confidence as a the country emerges from the pandemic but many indicators still firmly in negative territory.
Sales, exports and cash remain major concerns for all businesses.
Chamber President, Lesley Moody, said: “These survey results give us the first picture of what the past year has done to our businesses.
"From the initial, catastrophic economic shock, through months of uncertainty and ever-changing restrictions, firms in the North East have been through a lot.
“The data from the start of the year shows that overall confidence, while still very low, is improving. Yet this masks enormous disparities between those sectors that have been able to return to something akin to normality and those who remain under the tightest restrictions.”
She added: “These results show that businesses foresee a much better year ahead. However, factors beyond Covid also hinder our firms, as the impact of Brexit on our export performance shows.
“We must not allow this positivity to hide the challenge that now faces us. ‘Levelling up’ has become more important than ever.”
Respondents stressed the value they found in customer loyalty and the strength of existing relationships.
Businesses praised customers who had stuck with them during difficult times and who had been responsive to new ways of product and service delivery.