IT was a real pleasure to host one of our local MPs Rishi Sunak last week, who spoke with great enthusiasm about the region and its potential.

His speech was very fulsome in its praise for our SMEs in particular and he told our guests that they were the ones in the region that get things done.

As part of his speech he took pains to list all of the attributes of these businesses including the facts they were risk-takers and innovators.

Rishi also made clear how important our Chambers members are in society as they are the people who often give people their first jobs or promotions, which in turn helps to support public services through the taxes they pay.

At the Chamber we campaign every year to ensure our young people get the support they need and I was delighted his speech focused on this. He highlighted the £25m that has been given to our region to build our future workforce’s skills and knowledge.

His view was that the new T-levels will improve the quantity and quality of non-graduate education. As expected he was keen to list the investment by the current Government on our infrastructure which has been a real benefit, such as the improvements on the A1, the dualling of the A66, the forthcoming new Metro trains. He also championed the new Heathrow runway, which is something for which we have long-campaigned. This improved connectivity to the rest of the world, when it is completed, will be so beneficial to many of our businesses.

I was delighted to hear him speak about his love of this part of the world and the fact he sees drive and ambition everywhere around him.

He explained we can’t be a museum but need to protect our heritage and still create an area that is vibrant and prosperous.

After all this positivity I was brought back to earth with, not quite a bump, but a small jolt nonetheless, on Tuesday, when our employment figures were issued. They showed a less positive picture that the past few months and mirror our last Quarterly Economic Survey results that indicated clearly a deterioration in confidence particularly amongst exporters and a decline in business growth.

Clarity on Brexit, which has been so long coming, would be a great start to reversing this. I hope by the time you read this there is some movement forward on it, but I’m not holding my breath.

n James Ramsbotham is chief executive of North East England Chamber of Commerce.