THERE has been a great, much-heralded shift upwards in the fortunes of Tees Valley with the inaugural Loganair flights to Aberdeen and Norwich from Durham Tees Valley Airport.

This route is a tremendous boost to our connectivity to the rest of the country and the all-important oil and gas industry.

We wish the route every success and have confidence our companies will find it hugely beneficial for their clients and themselves.

The issue of confidence is often a crucial ingredient for a company’s success and future prospects.

We take a regular barometer of business attitudes, including their view on what they anticipate coming over the horizon.

These statistics show levels of confidence and also help guide Government officials on what they may need to tackle to support businesses.

Our latest North-East England Quarterly Economic Survey holds a host of key statistics showing how businesses expect to fare in the coming year. The results show a distinct difference in manufacturers’ positive current performance and their confidence in the future, which is down dramatically. A fact which appears to be almost counter-intuitive.

They also show a very different picture in future confidence for the service sector.

This is still more positive compared to the views from the manufacturing sector.

I think it is easy to make quick suppositions about the reason for this outlook.

The hard reality is that there are a number of factors that affect business confidence.

However, the ongoing uncertainty about our future trading relationship with Europe is clearly having an impact on our exporters’ abilities to plan.

At the Chamber, we have been pushing the Government to provide reassurance and clarity to businesses.

Regardless of individual perspectives on the referendum and Brexit, it is imperative our manufacturers are safe in the knowledge they will be able to access all potential markets.

If this reassurance is provided then, hopefully, the fears expressed in this survey will not become our reality.

These results overall, the largest independent analysis of business opinions in the region, show key indicators are generally in positive territory. Companies’ sales and orders, in the UK and overseas, are growing with regional firms continuing to perform strongly and showing a substantial increase on this time last year.

On the back of this success, it is evident the lack of certainty will begin to hold back companies and, one year before we leave the EU, there must be progress to ensure they know what the way ahead looks like.

James Ramsbotham is chief executive at the North East England Chamber of Commerce