Economy is not getting worse says CBI chief
THE head of the CBI told an audience of Yorkshire business leaders that he believes the economy has “stabilised” but there will be a long road ahead to recovery.
Richard Lambert, director general of the employers’ organisation, told a 500-strong audience at its Yorkshire & Humber annual dinner in York that things were “not getting any worse” in the UK economy but there remains a “big question mark over credit”.
Speaking at the National Railway Museum at the event, sponsored by Royal Bank of Scotland, Business Link, Yorkshire Forward and the Open University, Mr Lambert, being questioned by Evan Davis, who presents the BBC’s Today programme and Dragons’ Den, said: “Our members don’t know where demand is going to come from in the second half of next year.”
He said that both public and private investment would be key.
“Confidence needs to be restored….there is uncertainty but there is a lot of stuff that needs investing in around the country.
“Private investment is a driver forward and we certainly need it but we need more confidence first.”
Mr Lambert said that he believes the reputation of business in Britain has “taken a dip in the past couple of years” and cases like that of the so-called ‘Phoenix Four’ who acquired Rover and took vast rewards despite the failure of the company, did not help.
“I worry that the public will think that is how business behaves,” he added.
Mr Lambert has been at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester this week, and observed: “There was a lot of policy. George Osborne gave a brave speech. It is not usual for a politician who wants to be in Government in eight months time to tell us that things are going to get bad.”
Evan Davis, who appeared at the dinner despite having to be up at 3.15am today to present the Today programme from the Tory conference in Manchester, told the audience that he believed that people who did not predict recession – politicians, bankers, journalists and many others – ought to be more “humble”.
“It was a lack of humility that got us into this crisis,” he said. “The way the sensible people respond is to ask questions of themselves before things go wrong. A lot of people blame others, but you should look at the mistakes we made.”
He said that his Dragons’ Den colleague, successful businessman Duncan Bannatyne, says that “the mark of a good entrepreneur is someone who doesn’t blame others or the economy when things go wrong but they blame themselves”.
