One year on from the first national lockdown, the boss of one of the region’s leading business groups has said now should be a time to reflect on the tragedy, while looking to the future with fresh hope.
As the vaccine roll-out continues to beat initial expectations, Scott Knowles, chief executive of East Midlands Chamber, said the region’s businesses would be central to getting the country back to normal – creating new jobs and prosperity, as well as products and services to boost the economy.
Mr Knowles said business across the region were already forecasting growth after one of the toughest years imaginable.
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But he said sectors such as hospitality, tourism and traditional high street retailers would still need to adapt to the new world, and would need Boris Johnson to back up his “rhetoric with solid policies and announcements” on helping them get back to business.
He also said the pandemic had highlighted once again the continuing north/south divide.
Mr Knowles said: “After what has undoubtedly been a very difficult 12 months for businesses and communities, we look forward to the coming year with a renewed vigour.
“The roadmap announced by the Prime Minister a month ago has given us a light at the end of what has been a long, dark tunnel, and businesses are now approaching the next 12 months with great optimism.
“Results from our latest quarterly economic survey for the first three months of 2021 show that two-thirds of companies in the East Midlands expect their turnover to increase over the remainder of the year, and more than 50 per cent expect profitability to increase.
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“A quarter are also planning to invest more – in both capital projects and staff training – which illustrates that businesses are ready to be unleashed, along with the anticipated pent-up consumer demand, as the lockdown lifts.
“The negative economic impact – particularly on those sectors mandated to close and their employees – has been well covered, and rightly so.
“The scars that will ultimately be left will, for some, take a long time to heal, and some businesses may never return to operating as they did before March 2020.
“But with great challenges come great opportunities. The pandemic’s effect on mental health has created something of an awakening among many businesses that are now recognising its bottom-line impact, and therefore placing more emphasis on employee wellbeing than ever before.
“It’s perhaps never been more important to be a good employer, which can only be a positive move.
“While Covid-19 has turbo-charged trends such as online shopping and exposed fault lines in our economy that existed pre-pandemic, such as the struggles of the high street, it has given us a chance to rethink how we want our city centres to look in the future.
“The chamber has already done a lot of work in this respect, including a joint research project on the future of Leicester city centre, and we believe that learning from economic trends and the pandemic will help us to create better places for the future.
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“Many people are now reassessing how and where they want to live, which is resulting in businesses relocating from London and the South East to the regions.
“This presents opportunities for our towns and cities – and we’ve already noticed lots of enquiries to Derby, Leicester and Nottingham – but in order to take advantage, we must ensure we have sufficient high-quality workspace to offer them.
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“The exponential increase of e-commerce has also shone a light on our region’s burgeoning logistics offer and, along with the freeport that is set to be established at East Midlands Airport, we’re anticipating this industry to be a huge driver in replacing many of the jobs lost in towns and cities over the coming years.
“There’s no doubt we’ll look back upon this period as a turning point in how we approach economic growth, and we are fully tuned into the themes of ‘Building Back Better’ and ‘Building Back Greener’ coming out of Westminster.
“Given that the East Midlands unemployment rate has been higher than average throughout the pandemic – due to our large economic dependence on sectors such as hospitality, tourism and retail – coronavirus has highlighted the disproportionate regional economic impact.
“This means the levelling up agenda has never been more important and we are watching carefully to see whether the Prime Minister backs up rhetoric with solid policies and announcements in infrastructure schemes that will benefit our region – no more so than the HS2 Eastern Leg.
“We also have something of a blank canvas to approach economic growth after 海角视频 GDP nosedived by 9.9 per cent in 2020 and has continued to shrink in the early part of this year.
“Sustainability will therefore be at the top of the agenda once we come out the other side of this pandemic, Our Sustainable East Midlands campaign, launched at the end of last year, is geared up to support businesses to embrace this and reap the rewards associated with employee retention and recruitment, tender opportunities and cost efficiencies.
“So as we pay our respects to the devastating impact of Covid-19 on this National Day of Reflection, today also affords us the opportunity to look ahead to what we want our region to look like.
“No-one would have predicted what the past 12 months would bring and much uncertainty remains about the year ahead, but what is clear is that businesses will play a crucial role in helping our country and region to recover from the pandemic – creating the jobs, prosperity, and new products and services that will be at the centre of our post-Covid lives.”