Calling George Osborne. Do you read us loud and clear?

ENERGY

GEORGE RAFFERTY, chief executive of NOF Energy, the business development organisation for oil, gas, nuclear and offshore renewables sectors: “While oil and gas will remain at the core of our members’ activities, the supply chain will be looking on with interest at any announcements in the Autumn Statement relating to the emerging onshore gas market.

“There are considerable transferable skills and technologies developed by the supply chain for the offshore sector that can be effectively applied to the recovery of onshore resources such as shale gas.

George Rafferty, of NOF Energy

“To enable this to happen, the Government needs to create an attractive investment landscape through the introduction of tax incentives that allow the sector to really start to establish itself and allow operators to create a robust supply chain made up of existing, technology- led companies.”

SKILLS

JAMES GILL, director of North-East-based First Class Technical Recruitment. “While much of the skills agenda has been focused on resolving youth unemployment, this is part of a long-term strategy and a greater emphasis has to be placed on the short and medium-term issues facing industries with current and impending skills gaps due to ageing workforces.

“The Autumn Statement is the ideal opportunity for the Chancellor to allocate funds to support the transition of engineers and technical specialists whose high-level of skills and experience makes them extremely attractive to sectors such as chemical manufacturing, oil and gas and the power industry, which require an ever-increasing number of skilled personnel.

James Gill

“This will not only support those looking to move from declining industries such as ship building and the military, but also those keen to transfer to industries that are experiencing considerable levels of growth.”

BUSINESS RATES

RICHARD FARR, a partner at chartered surveyors Sanderson Weatherall. “The business rates system is not broken.

Where problems are arising is where the Government is making changes which simply do not benefit business, and a reversal of the proposal to defer the timings of the rebasing of rateable values should be seriously considered.

“For decades, this has been done every five years and the next revaluation was due in April 2015, based as always on figures from two years previous.

Richard Farr

“However, this has now been changed, apparently arbitrarily, and will not happen until April 2017, meaning another two years of rateable values based upon 2008, when the high street and other parts of the market were at a peak.

“This may benefit the Treasury’s coffers, but not businesses.

Surely, it is better that taxes are raised by businesses operating in an environment which allows them to grow, rather than businesses paying higher rates and struggling to survive.”

CONSTRUCTION

DOUGLAS KELL, director of Civil Engineering Contractors Association North-East, dismisses announcements that the North is receiving substantial funding as a red herring – “because the North is not the North-East”.

“Clear indication of the North-South divide in the financial allocations for infrastructure is the London for Transport (LfT) confirmation that £2,750 is spent per head of population in the London area but only £5 per head in the North-East. Does this seem reasonable?

We are not looking for the £2,745 difference per head, but an extra £5 to £10 a head would greatly improve our plight.

“Recognising the North-East as a stand-alone region in spend allocation – only making some amends for earlier shortfalls, after all – would enable the region’s employers to engage and train apprentices. That would also support two of the Government’s prime goals ahead of the next election by slashing unemployment and raising skills levels.”

John Dickson

JOHN DICKSON, chairman and owner of construction and engineering group Owen Pugh, a major North-East firm, says firms like his are aware the Government’s agenda is moving on from investment in infrastructure to addressing a skills shortage in the construction industry.

“This seems to be a response to the recovery construction is seeing in the South,” he said.

“That recovery is not evident here. As things stand, the Government’s response on increasing skills of our young people will only serve to equip our young people here for jobs in the South. If recovery does come to the North-East there will be a skills shortage here because young people from here will already have had to move South for their living.”

PAUL MOORE, group managing director of construction and development firm Southdale: “There are some unintended consequences of the positivity in the market which need addressing, because of the financial uncertainty in programming they are creating for contractors.

“Throughout the supply chain, shortages brought about by the steady return to health of the construction sector are resulting in demand outstripping supply in many areas. An example of this is in materials, such as bricks. When the downturn hit, kilns closed, but they have not been reopened. This means the number of bricks being produced has not been increased to meet current demand, so costs have risen dramatically.

Paul Moore, of Southdale

“Without some form of action to stabilise the situation it is impossible for people building affordable homes to price a job with any certainty, and there is no going back because our contract costs are fixed, unlike with those building private homes.

“A focus also needs to be placed on skills because when construction took a major blow in the recession people migrated from the industry, retraining into other sectors or even moving abroad looking for work.

The industry lost a lot of capacity and experience, and those people are not coming back. We need more training to fill that gap and it will be a slow process, but without that push on skills businesses within the sector will not be able to achieve their potential.

SMALL FIRMS

TED SALMON, North-East regional chairman, Federation of Small Businesses.

“Energy and business rates are an increasing cost burden for firms up and down the country and are two areas we have highlighted to the Chancellor as needing particular attention.

We therefore want to see recognition from him that the Government understands the huge impact these issues have on businesses.

“Clear proposals and timetables for reforms in both of these areas will lock in the confidence we have begun to see building among small firms.”

Steve Turner

STEVE TURNER, managing director of Serendipity Cleaning, a company supported by Redcar Enterprise Team: “I would like to see an increase in the personal tax allowance threshold and a simplification of the benefit system that allows parttime workers with ‘top up’ benefits the opportunity to increase the number of hours they work without disproportionately losing more in benefit.

“The current system makes it impossible for a small business like ours – one that relies on its workforce to increase their hours for short spells during busy periods.”