Rising operational costs and their direct impact on profitability, skills, and investment were the main talking points at an event last week, as Yorkshire finance leaders met with senior figures from the Bank of England.
The exclusive roundtable event, hosted and organised by accountancy and business advisory firm BDO LLP, brought together regional businesses for a session with Sarah Breeden, Deputy Governor for Financial Stability at the Bank of England.
Breeden – who sits on the Monetary Policy Committee, Financial Policy Committee, Prudential Regulation Committee, and the Bank’s Court of Directors – provided regional business leaders with an update on the current economic environment, policy landscape, and outlook.
During the discussion, Breeden posed three key questions to the room: how business costs have evolved due to the conflict in the Middle East and the impact on energy costs; how this is impacting profitability and decision-making around hiring and investment; and how inflationary pressure is translating into wages and customer pricing.
Yorkshire’s finance leaders from across a range of sectors, including manufacturing, construction, and services, discussed the growing pressures facing their businesses. Key concerns raised included supply chain challenges, the impact of tariffs, energy costs, the availability of skills, regulation, and the impact of upcoming increases to the National Living Wage.
Dan Brookes, interim regional managing partner at BDO in Yorkshire and the North East, said: “The mid-market plays a vital role in delivering economic growth in the region, whether that’s through creating high-quality jobs, providing local investment, or by driving innovation. This event was an opportunity for finance leaders to engage with senior decision-makers at the Bank of England, setting out their ambitions while addressing the significant challenges to growth that currently exist.”
The session forms part of the Bank of England’s ongoing efforts to engage directly with businesses across the UK regions to gain a greater understanding of those challenges and how businesses are evolving to remain resilient in a changing world.
Alex Golledge, The Bank of England Agent for Yorkshire & the Humber, said: “The roundtable provides the Bank of England with valuable insight on the impact that macro factors are having on businesses in the region. These firsthand observations are hugely important. Reviewing data alone does not always provide the same level of understanding – something that is extremely valuable to policy makers.”
Earlier this year, BDO published its latest Mid-Market Manifesto, a series of calls to action for the government to help maximise growth across the sector.
The manifesto includes measures to address skill shortages across sectors and regions – such as protecting access to apprenticeships in management, leadership, and digital transformation – alongside sector-specific recommendations to boost growth in constrained industries and proposals to simplify the tax regime to promote investment, employment, and entrepreneurship.
