Taking North East business voices to Westminster

North East businesses don’t need anyone to speak for them. They need the right opportunities to be heard.

That’s the thinking behind our new partnership with The Northern Echo and BUSINESSiQ North East, which will bring the experiences and priorities of businesses across the region closer to conversations taking place in Westminster.

Through its Impact campaign, BUSINESSiQ has built a platform for some of the North East’s leading businesses to talk openly about what is working, what is holding them back and what needs to change.

There is no shortage of expertise or ambition in the North East. Businesses here are investing, creating jobs, developing new technologies and navigating the practical consequences of decisions made at both local and national level. They know where the opportunities are, but they also know where policy, regulation or infrastructure can get in the way.

Those experiences matter.

The challenge is making sure they are heard beyond the region, particularly when decisions affecting investment, growth and jobs are being made nationally.

Our role in the partnership is to help create that connection. Working with The Northern Echo and BUSINESSiQ, we will help bring the issues raised through the Impact campaign into Westminster and closer to the policymakers and decision-makers considering them.

This isn’t about putting words into businesses’ mouths or trying to create a single “North East view”. The region’s economy is too diverse for that. It is about making sure businesses have opportunities to make their own case, explain what they are seeing on the ground and contribute directly to national discussions.

For us, that fits closely with how we have always approached public affairs.

Being based in the North East, with a presence in Westminster, means we spend a lot of our time connecting what is happening in places with conversations taking place nationally. Good policy needs that connection. Decisions look very different when viewed from the businesses and communities that ultimately have to live with them.

The North East has plenty to say. Through this partnership, we want to help make sure the right people are listening.

Local insight. National impact.