Shropshire Star comment: Signs of hope for business

With Brexit now just two months away – if all goes to what we will laughingly call to plan – the language in some quarters of pessimism, fear, and gloom is pervasive and continuing, backed up by various analyses and forecasts of doom.

What might happen, and some think will definitely happen, is not necessary the same as what is actually happening, as borne out by new figures which show that a record number of new business were established across the region last year.

In terms of new companies, 2,634 were registered in Shropshire, which is an increase of 6.5 per cent; 32,571 in the West Midlands, which is up 5.1 per cent; and 6,474 in Staffordshire, a rise of 1.7 per cent.

Are these entrepreneurs and business people reckless, or blind to the economic environment into which they are now taking the plunge? Of course not. These are figures which indicate confidence. That’s confidence in their own ability to provide a product or a service which can thrive. And confidence that whatever the future may hold, they are equal to the challenge.

A lot of these new businesses will have a domestic and local dimension rather than an international one, so will not be affected by Brexit, at least not directly, in the same way as concerns which rely on imports and exports and for whom any delays at the ports will have an immediate impact.

There is an oft-repeated sentiment in the country at the moment in relation to Brexit from the lips of ordinary people, and that is that the politicians should just get on with it.

Our politicians, for all sorts of reasons, have struggled to deliver on that simple concept. The people who do “just get on with it” in all circumstances are business people.

Whether the economic climate is favourable or less favourable, for the world of business, the show goes on.

Amid the dire predictions, these figures tell a more optimistic story, that innovation and entrepreneurship continue to flourish despite the challenging outlook.

Of course, this is but one measure, and who knows how long these new companies will survive. Yet at a time when the outlook is often painted as being bleak, they are a sign of hope triumphing over fear.