It looks like the business community has a new friend in the form of the new Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney.
The Canadian has crossed the Atlantic like a warm weather front with the substance and style that will bring a little sunshine to the UK economy.
In his Inflation Report last week he all but guaranteed us, bar a disaster, a low interest environment for the next three years, which will seriously help businesses.
As the national chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, John Allan, suggests, it could give investors and firms the confidence to bring forward work, which will, in turn, help increase employment.
Which leads me to the new Governor’s other bold move of linking any rise in interest rates to the challenge of reducing unemployment to seven per cent.
I was also impressed with his views on the UK banking industry, which he characterised as having become insular and ‘socially useless’.
The full quote was: “It’s the loss of that focus, its finance that becomes disconnected from the economy, from society, finance that only talks to itself and deals with each other, that becomes socially useless.
“One of my other responsibilities is chairing the Financial Stability Board and a lot of what we’re doing there internationally is to strip out that type of behaviour.”
While it’s easy to say ‘tell us something we didn’t know’, it’s refreshing to hear what much of the country has thought for some time from the man who acts as chief watchdog over the banking system in his role as chair of the financial policy committee.
A truly great start, which is aided in no small way by all the positive economic news from manufacturing, the motor industry and the service sector, including my own business’ record sales figures for the last year, might I add!
I think Mark Carney will have his place in history, and not just for being the first foreign Bank of England Governor.
I do, however, think we shouldn’t forget Mervyn King, the former governor, who guided us through the worst economic patch for three decades.
In contrast to Mr Carney’s apparent attitude of very publicly being seen to pull the strings of the economy, Mr King appeared to be more like a clerk in Gringott’s Bank from the Harry Potter movies, feverishly working away in the background.
His work paid off to a degree and has given the new Guv’nor the springboard needed to take the economy forward, boost business and reclaim our AAA credit rating faster than you can say Thomas Crapper!
Charlie Mullins is CEO and founder of Pimlico Plumbers.
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