EAST Lancashire Chamber of Commerce chief executive Mike Damms explains why developments in the region’s economy give reason for optimism.

WILL 2013 become known as 'The Year That East Lancashire Came Back Into Fashion and Civic Pride Started To Be Rediscovered?’

There is still a widely held view, not just in London, that East Lancashire is an area whose forward prospects are really about managing economic decline.

It is certainly true that the South East and City’s economic performance is formidable, but comparison with it is meaningless when it is the world, let alone UK, leader.

It is though unhelpful that there is a concentration on the negatives of this area, and there are a few, including for example some of the housing, without taking stock of the positives, and there are many.

There is belatedly perhaps, national recognition of a need to rebalance the economy, by lifting the North and from an over-reliance on service growth, which means nurturing manufacturing. In addition, the national economy appears to be on the mend.

So the political and economic environment is more favourable for us than it has been for a long while – so what?

As the business saying goes ‘ I never met a successful negative salesman’. If East Lancashire businesses were a collective company, we’d probably be happy with the assets – especially but not exclusively manufacturing, with our brand which is probably stronger internationally than nationally, with some research and development, and with the skills and approach of our workforce which has been nurtured and crafted over 100 years. We’d also be pleased that our business was in a pleasant landscape and within striking distance of seven million consumers We’d probably have a few concerns about our transport system and its links, and possibly about our ability to raise finance, and about the lack of public investment and some aspects of education.

On balance we’d almost certainly be pleased with our overall inheritance.

There have though been two interrelated missing ingredients. Firstly we don’t get recognition that we deserve for the pluses; manufacturing never went away, is world-competitive and across a diverse and hence secure range of products. Secondly, while there is some justification in our feeling that we never lost faith that the UK needed some manufacturing capability, it is the others that lost their way and have now returned, it is in part a problem of our own making.

We have to ask ourselves whether the ‘my wife/ husband/ partner doesn’t understand me’ cliché has applied to us a little bit in the past. The good news is that the private sector is stepping up to the mark and while it has been getting louder-and-prouder for a little while, it now has a better environment to operate in, and it is getting better organised.

The Chamber continues to represent East Lancashire as a whole and to develop its International Trade capability and capacity as well as addressing supply chain capability; it has also considerably strengthened its networks, with 60 ‘Diamond Ambassadors’ from all sectors acting as the policy-focus group, and a Board of Directors now 25 strong to ensure full representation.

However this sits side-by-side with the emergence of ‘Business Leaders’ Groups in the 6 sub-regions ; Burnley Bondholders, Blackburn & Darwen’s ‘HIVE’, Pendle Vision Board, and the Hyndburn, Rossendale and Ribble Valley Business Leaders Groups’. These are all rediscovering and cranking up civic pride, as local business networks but more importantly shining a very bright light on the positives of their towns. At the height of Britain’s industrial might, it was business that led their communities and towns, and our businesses are on the move.

Burnley’s wonderful recognition as ‘The Most Enterprising Place in the UK’ is an early foretaste of what can be achieved.

As well as having over double the national manufacturing employment average (and the LEP’s Enterprise Zone, Burnley Bridge, Michelin/Aircelle etc yet to come) which suits the area to be a platform for the UK’s Export Challenge to double in 10 years there are other major positives for these groups to capitalise on. Rail links to Manchester’s growing economy, a youthful population, exporting capability, a growing service sector with the likes of Capita, New Call Telecom, Hoseasons, BT, Daisy, spread across East Lancashire.

We could do with a little more public investment and national policy support, but East Lancashire is ‘up for it’ and events like the Lancashire Telegraph Business Awards give us the chance to show what we’re capable of.