Steve Rankin has returned to his roots to take up the position of regional director of the CBI for the North-East, a position he previously held 25 years ago. Business Editor Jonathan Jones found out more.

THE North-East must have changed for the better in the past quarter of a century, otherwise Steve Rankin wouldn't be here.

The 55-year-old new regional director of the CBI has returned to his roots 25 years after holding the position for the first time at the end of the 1970s.

Technically a Cumbrian, born in Alston, but a Geordie by background - his mother's from Wallsend and his father is from the west end of Newcastle - Mr Rankin has spent much of the past 25 years in Brussels, the US and Paris.

He said: "When the opportunity came along to return to the North-East, I had to ask the question - had anything changed in the past 25 years.

"If the answer had been no, then the attraction would have been less, because you never want to go back and do exactly what you were doing before.

"Fortunately, the answer was that everything has changed. The region has changed and the political climate in the UK has changed."

He continued: "The CBI is a different kind of organisation now and, indeed, I'm different. I looked at it as a totally new appointment, so I moved back to the region."

Mr Rankin says the CBI always had an impact on Government policy, but now it is more responsive to the needs of business, and helps to shape business-friendly Government policy.

He said: "The CBI is a much more nimble organisation than it used to be.

"The CBI is a lobbying organisation that represents the views of business to Government, whether that's Whitehall, Westminster, Brussels or at a regional level with local councils.

"We have to make sure that the policy-makers not only hear what business says, but understand what business is all about.

"Hopefully, the Government can take on board the issues that affect business.

"A particular problem often cited by business is the level of red tape. Bureaucracy is affecting small and large firms alike, and over-regulation is one of the key issues of moment.

"The British economy has always had two advantages over its competitors - low tax and flexible business-friendly employment markets.

"The problem is that we might be starting to lose that advantage through too much employment legislation, which threatens the competitiveness of British companies."

On the matter of the UK's links with Europe, Mr Rankin is certain that the UK must remain an integral part of the European set- up.

He said: "Having worked in Europe for a great part of my life, I've become a Europhile.

"Whether the UK likes it or not, it is involved in Europe. The question is how much further do we want to get involved?

"If we become involved reluctantly then we are going to suffer. What isn't realised is that there is an enormous amount of goodwill towards the UK from the rest of Europe and it's a pity that we aren't exploiting that as much as we could and should.

"However, I believe there is no chance that the UK will withdraw from Europe altogether. We are part of the fabric."

Ironically, Mr Rankin's love affair with Europe was started by the CBI.

He said: "After my time as regional director for the CBI in the North-East, I took up a similar position in the West Midlands.

"At the start of the 1980s the CBI asked me to go out to Brussels to run the office there. They always said it would be a limited tour of duty.

"After about five years, or maybe a bit more, they brought me back here to London, but by that time I had caught the Brussels bug.

"I left the London office and went back out to Brussels to run a lobbying consultancy.

"I ended up running the Brussels office of GlaxoWellcome, lobbying the European Parliament for the pharmaceutical industry."

On the future of the North-East, and the next 25 years, Mr Rankin said: "Over the next 25 years we have to create a set of circumstances in the region that encourage diversity, creating a friendly environment in which people can do business.

"We have to focus on creating closer links between business and universities and streamline our planning processes to make things easier to achieve for business. If we create that kind of environment, we can then sit back and see what happens.

"We need to concentrate on selling the merits of the region in an increasingly tough global market."