THE North East has been warned to be cautious of its dependency on Nissan as experts look at the economic and political threats to the region.
Think tank IPPR North has broken ranks and publicly questioned the real worth of the region’s much-praised exporting credentials.
In a speech on the North East economy, director Ed Cox called for people to be on guard against complacency as Nissan continues to play a bigger and bigger role in the region’s success.
In his George Hawks lecture in Gateshead, the IPPR boss said that:
London is still getting 100 times more per head on transport a year after stunning spending disparities first emerged;
The Government is following a policy of “divide and conquer” in the North East;
Political in-fighting has “seen parochial loyalties blocking and fudging good decision-making”.
The IPPR boss risked upsetting ministers and business leaders alike who have all repeatedly praised the North East economy for its manufacturing exporting work.
The North East is, they say, the only region in the country with a positive balance of trade, sending out more to the world than it brings in.
While insisting Nissan is successful and “fundamentally important,” Mr Cox’s speech raises questions over what else the region should be doing to boost its private sector.
“We need to exercise caution not to overstate these strengths or to ignore the signs of the times,” Mr Cox said. “Without vehicle exports, the positive balance of trade for the third quarter in 2012 was around £400k – less than half a per cent of the (UK’s) quarter’s total exports.
