Recession is no "phoney war"

As job losses mount and nerves fray in the new economy of fear, businesses around London want answers.

So London Chamber of Commerce CEO Colin Stanbridge went out to get them, and came back with London Mayor Boris Johnson.

The capital's verbose figurehead pedaled to the Chamber's Queen Street base last week for his first dedicated business Q&A since taking office last year.

But this wasn't just an excuse for a cheery snap and a tea party. The BBC were among the minglers upstairs, shooting a clip for a news report about the impact of the recession.

The LCCI had canvassed their members on the effects of the downturn in January, and discovered that nearly 64 per cent of larger businesses had been forced to make redundancies, while nearly a third were struggling to attain credit.

Mr Stanbridge said: "That figure quite surprised me.

"There's no doubt that if anyone thought the recession was a phoney war, that's definitely over and it's having an impact now.

"The last thing companies - especially smaller companies - want is to lay off good trained staff, so it must be bad for this sort of thing to happen."

Organisers revealed they had drawn up "waiting lists for waiting lists" to attend the event, during which the Mayor strove to inspire businesses to push on through the downturn.

As he gesticulated wildly from the podium, Mr Johnson said: "What will get this city through this recession will be prudent and sensible investment of the kind that will make us more competitive in the long term.

"It's my deep belief that London will not only come through this, but that if you give Londoners the skills and infrastructure they need, they will show the protean shape-shifting ability to adapt that they've shown for hundreds of years."

In the minutes leading up to the talk, Mr Stanbridge was fully expecting an entertaining display. But he was also looking for something else.

He said: "He's obviously got the ability to charm people. But I think there's a real feeling among members, especially members running smaller businesses, that they're very vulnerable at the moment.

"Members will be keen to find out if some of it is just words, or whether there's something practical in there that will help them in their day-to-day business.

"People are talking about how the Mayor is scrapping the Western congestion charge, and whether there's a way to suspend the central charge for six months to cut costs during the worst of the crisis."

The London Chamber of Commerce and Industry includes over 3,300 members, from small companies to big organisations such as Thames Water and London City Airport.
So what do these people want as they struggle with the effects of a recession?

He said: "One of the things we've been saying very loudly to the Mayor is that, with the pound at such a low point, it's an ideal time to think about encouraging more companies to export.

"The Government used to give more grants to businesses trying to do that and we want the Mayor's help to push for the reinstatement of that sort of support.

"We want people out there looking for business and selling goods and services. We've still got lots of lawyers and accountants with great international reputations.

"There's also much talk about bringing forward major infrastructure projects such as Crossrail and the tube. I know the Mayor's looking into it.

"We want to see the expansion of airports in the South East. Boris is in an interesting situation there, in that he's said he's definitely against a third runway at Heathrow, and we've said he's wrong about that.

"We think that if we're going to cement our status as a world leader, we need to look at expansion.

"London City Airport does great work as well and we've got to make sure their plans for expansion are looked at."

The Chamber also helped set up the London Business Network to provide businesses with opportunities to get involved in the 2012 games. Members have been urged to register at Competefor, a website on which companies can vie for available Olympic contracts.

Mr Stanbridge said: "We've had some success. There are about 2,500 contracts and 17,000 London companies registered on it.

"We want to roll it out to organisations such as Transport for London and the Metropolitan Police. The public sector are going to be offering contracts when perhaps others will not, and this service could be a real help, especially to small businesses."

World leaders will be gathering at Excel for the G20 summit on April 2, but Mr Stanbridge hopes the Government will consider commissioning another convention centre to rival the biggest in the world.

He said: "We're great fans of Excel, but there's an argument that we could do with an international convention centre of the size of the ones in New York and Sydney, one that could cater for those huge associations with thousands of people. It would complement Excel rather than be a competitor.

"It's great to see East London getting attention, with the arrival of the Olympics and the success of Canary Wharf, and the G20 will hopefully be yet another confirmation of the importance of East London to the city."

Mr Stanbridge describes the Mayor as an important conduit between businesses and the Government. But how does he feel they have handled the downturn?

He said: "The Government can't be criticised for not coming up with initiatives. We have members who have benefited from these measures, but a lot of them don't know enough about what's available.

"They need to spend a lot more money publicising what's out there. You see a whole plethora of initiatives, but finding about them is the crucial test.

"Companies need to be able to access training and funding, and I feel that this hasn't been organised as well as it should have been. But it's a heck of a job."