County economic member greets recession news with cautious optimism
Warwickshire County Council’s portfolio holder for economic development, Councillor Peter Fowler, has welcomed the news that the UK has had its first quarter showing growth since early 2008, heralding an emergence from recession.
He also had words of praise for the support shown to local businesses by the county’s team of economic development officers who have been working to support local businesses and workers whose businesses and jobs have suffered during the recession.
But Cllr Fowler is wary of forecasting wholesale recovery with the 0.1% growth in the UK’s production and services sector in the last quarter of 2009 being less than analysts had hoped for. There are fears that the recovery has only been temporarily buoyed by Christmas and schemes such as the car scrappage scheme.
And he was clear that the help to local businesses and to the county’s workforce will continue as efforts are made to ensure stability. He singled out for praise the county council’s website’s recession page which went live 12 months ago.
He said: “Obviously there has been a lot of hardship in the last two years since the effects of the financial crisis started to be felt. By no means is the UK out of the woods and it will be interesting to see if the trend can continue to be reversed once seasonal factors and incentive schemes are not such decisive factors.”
The county council’s specialist webpage for help with the recession went live in January 2009 and received nearly 60,000 hits in its first 12 months. There was a peak in activity in the early months of 2009 with nearly 7,000 hits in February but it consistently received between 5,000 and 6,000 visits every month.
Categories included money, with help for individuals on managing budgets and debt, business, with advice including saving energy or downsizing premises, tax credits for families, support on housing including mortgage advice. The section on starting up small businesses was still busy despite the strained circumstances.
Cllr Fowler said: “Clearly, the recession has affected many people in many different ways and this has been reflected by how people have used our website. The help given has ranged from families looking for help on how to cope with financial difficulties to businesspeople looking at cutting their overheads.
“I hesitate to say that the country is out of the recession as time will tell. But this glimmer of good news does seem an opportune moment to pay tribute to the people who have worked so hard to ensure that the county has stayed open for business.”
Anyone looking for advice on any aspect of the recession, from help for businesses to financial advice for individuals who have been affected, can visit http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/recession