Positive thinking needed to prosper in the future
Ian Handford says that despite some teething problems there are many post-Brexit opportunities for the UK economy
WITH the United Kingdom now in control of its own future following our decision to withdraw from the European Union, new trading opportunities open up to us from around the world. Even the Chancellor of the Exchequer saw fit to say: “In 2021 we won’t be Remainers or Leavers – only Believers”, which in my view was a positive message for the future. Mr Sunak needs to be positive again when he puts forward his budget package to Parliament on March 3, because our national debt is now more than £2trillion – so his task will not be easy.
The Victorian pace of growth has never been matched any time in history, yet in economic terms perhaps we have an opportunity to mirror this speed, although our policy makers and politicians now need to lead and, as the saying goes, also be up to the job.
One national newspaper recently ran a feature ‘Why newspaper columnists are such disastrous leaders’ – suggesting that self-confident pundits can ruin a country. Journalists often have poor judgement and dismal organising skills and are certainly poor decision makers – which may be why our Prime Minister was so ill-equipped at dealing with a life threatening country-wide pandemic.
Britain’s talent for creating new ideas and growing entrepreneurs will go on apace, yet even they require the support of Whitehall and Parliamentarians if the UK is to be assured of success. My own WMN pre-Christmas feature outlined a few new inventions and visionaries currently active in Britain. New mini-sized nuclear plants suitable for being built in a factory in partnership with RollsRoyce, futuristic solar power (from space) and geothermic power (created by the earth) and the probability of the largest offshore wind farm at Dogger Bank. All, UK climate-change projects – an area where currently the UK excels.
Looking at the economy and home-grown produce, various executives of our larger supermarkets are already planning change. Waitrose has announced it will purchase more British lamb in 2021 rather than relying on imports, while at Morrisons its executives have found that a majority of its customers want more farm-fresh UK produce, and even the German-owned Aldi pledge to increase their overall purchase of British produce by £3.5 billion over the next five years.
In finance Government quango the Financial Services Compensation Scheme has already arranged for foreign banks to have access to the UK Compensation Licence scheme, provided liquid funds are held in Britain. Commenced on January 1st 2002, depositors operating online banking can now be protected by the £85,000 guarantee.
One downside of leaving the EU is our Regulatory Institutions will not be able to certify British goods as suitable for sale in the EU which will affect exports. Yet even here it is worth noting that British produce to Europe, which had been 60%, has been consistently reducing and today forms only 40% of our exports.
Meanwhile, the high street recovery will rely on consumers switching from online buying and home delivery services once Covid ends, yet whether consumers return to shop traditionally remains speculative. Similarly, it is unclear how many thousands of employees working from home will wish to return, either part or full-time to a workplace once Covid has run its course – with an estimated £113billion of household costs saved to November 2020 (yet lost to the economy) this will surely be a point of interest to the Chancellor as he works on his budget proposals for 2021/2022.
Ian was National Policy spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses for four years prior to 1998.