Last week I attended a meeting of the CBI’s Trade Association Council. This group comprises the chief executives of the UK’s major trade associations who meet once a quarter with members of the CBI senior team to provide feedback and guidance to CBI policy and strategy and to receive up-to-date briefings.
There are no prizes for guessing the dominant topic; nearly every sector is experiencing the kind of fall in business with which we are sadly all too familiar at the moment. However, what struck me was the way the spectre of adversity had sharpened everyone’s thinking and argument. I cannot remember a time when the CBI and its constituent trade body members had debated with such authority the business and public policy responses necessary to deal with the problems besetting us.
It gave me a great deal of hope and inspiration for when this is all over; a time when a closer partnership between business and government combined with timely responses leads to a new era of country-friendly public policy and implementation.
Pie in the sky, maybe, but at times like this it is the bigger thinking that will see us through. Despite problems with implementation (which should not be underestimated), and whomever you think is to blame, at least the current crisis has been met with the kinds of fiscal response that will give us the chance to get things moving again.
At a business level there are schemes in place to get money to SMEs. It would be interesting to hear if anyone has made use of them.
However, there remains one key problem. Can the downward momentum in the economy be stayed? If not, the problem will not be access to credit, but demand for it.
It is going to be a tough year for us all, but with luck and judgment we will get through. And if there is anything the TTF or your other trade bodies can do to help our industry then let us know. We are fighting hard on your behalf across a whole raft of issues designed to place this business in the best possible place to weather the storm and benefit from the upturn.
