Why firms should keep it local

The benefits to the region of buying local are so obvious that it's a wonder anyone needs to be chivvied into doing more of it.

Yet there is plenty of scope for billions of pounds more business to be done locally, as the North-East Regional Information Partnership has revealed.

In every sector, suppliers based outside the region win a majority of the expenditure. And the sums involved are vast.

This is not just an issue for big business, either. For local authorities, small firms and individuals can make an important contribution to the wellbeing of the North-East as well.

Northumberland County Council's decision to seek a quote from at least one local company before it puts a contract out to tender, provides one excellent example.

Applied to grass cutting contracts, it allows small, very local companies to compete without shutting the door on bigger operators.

Individuals can do much the same by deciding to purchase locally produced or provided goods and services when it makes financial sense to do so.

If the people who make the buying decisions in every boardroom, office, showroom, shop and living room in the North-East vowed to do just 10% more of their business within the region, it would have an enormous effect.

But half that would be fantastic and double it utterly amazing. And the region's fortunes would be transformed in the process.

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Dare we take this step?

The power of a bridge to change how an area is perceived and the way it functions will be recognised by many who have visited Gateshead.

Its Millennium Bridge, and the graceful power it exudes, fills almost all who view it with awe. No wonder its weekly visitors are numbered in their thousands or that their money is visibly changing the local economy.

The Oresund Bridge between Sweden and Denmark has had a similar effect, but on a far larger scale. It has also altered fundamentally the way people work, live and socialise on both sides of the border.

Do the same between the North-East and Scotland's great cities - only this time do it with an ultra-high speed rail link instead of a bridge - and that impact would be repeated, perhaps even exceeded.

The resulting North British super region would boast such economic power that it would improve prospects, raise ambitions and change forever the way in which its component regions are regarded from the outside.

The line itself is not what matters, though, but the door of opportunity it opens to the future. Dare we step through it?

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