Brexit blues

As the Chamber completes a major survey of North East business leaders’ views of Brexit, members express their hopes and fears

The first solely North East business barometer of Brexit views reports that 53% of business people in the region believe it will have a negative impact on their business, while 14% see it being beneficial.

Gathering data from 400 member and nonmember business figures across the North East, the results showed the top three Brexit concerns are:

• the cost of trade

• changes in standards and regulation

• changes to tax and VAT

According to the survey, two in five business people (40%) also feel their business is underprepared, while more people feel completely unprepared (7%) than completely pepared (5%) for Brexit.

Lesley Moody MBE, from Chamber member AES Digital Solutions, who had wanted to remain in the EU says: “When the referendum results were announced, two years seemed a long way away, but there are still way too many grey areas with Brexit. I’m not surprised by these Chamber survey results. As a business community we now all need partywide agreement on the way forward. We also have to get full details on the Chequers deal so we can fully understand what is being proposed.”

The survey asked respondents where they would look for business advice on leaving the EU. Respondents cited the Chamber itself (30%) and professional consultants such as accountants (14%) and solicitors (12%).

Government trails behind business and industry as just the fifth most popular source of advice and support for Brexit.

Chamber chief executive James Ramsbotham says: “Since 2016, there has been a total lack of leadership and clarity in the negotiation process. At the Chamber we’ve been helping our members to start making preparations, but now, with only seven months to go, businesses are still in the dark on the realities of Brexit and are still waiting for Government to give clear answers to fundamental questions.”

Businesses were also given the opportunity to include a message for the Government and the results were wide-ranging. The predominant theme was frustration with the lack of progress and engagement by the Government. There were also views that as the decision had been made negotiations now needed to proceed swiftly.

Ramy Zack, owner of Tyne Moulds & Machinery Ltd in Newcastle and a Chamber member, voted to leave the EU. He says: “My views haven’t changed. I think the EU should be a loose federation of trading nations. With regard to the overall survey results I agree we need clarity. The Government has messed it up by doing Brexit half-heartedly so the EU has us on the back foot. We should have gone in guns blazing. However, I believe business will prevail as we buy substantially more goods from the EU than it sells to us. As regards frictionless customs, necessity is the mother of all inventions. Spain doesn’t want to have lorry loads of rotting vegetables on Calais docks, the EU needs to compromise. There needs to be common sense where we have mutual interests such as security, pharmacology, IP, safety standards and many more. The EU has to ditch this vindictive idea, that once we leave we will be cut off completely.”

Since the referendum, the Chamber has been proactive in helping its members get Brexit ready. It has published guides, such as how to create a Brexit Ready Supply Chain, a Brexit Checklist and hosted a Brexit Summit for 120 regional business leaders. It is now working with a range of partner members to expand and supplement its range of Preparing for Brexit support services, especially focusing on the top three issues as identified in this survey.