GLASGOW Chamber of Commerce’s chief executive has voiced fears over the impact of Brexit on technology-based investment and skills availability but declared he is otherwise “cumulatively more confident” about what the city has to offer.
Stuart Patrick meanwhile highlighted his view that people must be attracted back into Glasgow to live. He also flagged the importance of innovation districts which are being developed in the city, with the University of Glasgow and Strathclyde University among those playing key roles in these developments.
He emphasised investment in Glasgow’s digital and transport infrastructure was crucial. And he underlined the importance of the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre complex, which includes the SSE Hydro, and the proposed extension of the SECC’s conference space to the city’s economy.
Mr Patrick flagged the strength of Glasgow’s financial sector. He cited Barclays’ recent decision to create up to a further 2,500 jobs in the city as evidence of the continuing strength of what Glasgow’s International Financial Services District has to offer, 17 years on from its creation.
He also underlined Glasgow’s strengths in engineering, design, digital and the creative industries, as well as in low-carbon technologies and precision medicine and life sciences.
Mr Patrick said: “I suppose I sit here with the rollercoaster of Brexit, while feeling cumulatively more confident about what Glasgow has to offer irrespective of what comes its way and that [is] despite [the fact] you might say there has been a slight pause in the official statistics for Glasgow’s wider growth in 2017, specifically in employment.”
He noted Glasgow had “powered ahead” in employment terms in 2015 and 2016 but, based on the latest figures, had seen a “small step back” in 2017.
Mr Patrick said: “In a relative sense, Glasgow has still outperformed over that three-year period. The more I look at why it has outperformed, the more confident I get that it is developing an asset base that works.”
He emphasised his view that Glasgow should still be looked upon as the “commercial and industrial capital of Scotland”.
Mr Patrick added: “We just, as a country, haven’t supported that up until very recently.”
Expressing concerns over the impact of Brexit, while emphasising people could not “sit under a stone for two years” to wait and see what happened, he declared: “Skills is the one that seems like potentially a longer-lasting issue.”
He highlighted a need for Glasgow, in any case, to tackle a “skills mismatch” in areas such as financial services, engineering, digital and catering.
Citing the potential impact of Brexit on the hospitality sector as an example, he said: “If the hospitality industry gets absolutely hammered by Europeans heading home, and in some cases these are jobs locals are not that interested in taking, that could be a really serious problem for local businesses. We don’t see businesses at this stage closing down but they are certainly sending out signals of concern.”
Mr Patrick meanwhile lamented Brexit’s effect on technology-related investment in Glasgow.
He said: “When it comes to digital, tech, science-based industry, I worry about how much investment is being delayed, [until] circumstances become clear. We have always been in a situation in Scotland where we have been under-invested in R&D (research and development). The last thing we want is for investment in R&D to be delayed in Scotland.”
On Brexit, Mr Patrick flagged his belief that bigger corporates had done far more in terms of contingency planning than small firms. He highlighted his view that planning for the various possible outcomes of Brexit was beyond the scope of many small businesses.
He added: “The corporates are the ones that are telling us vigorously that Brexit is not something they want to be happening.”
Mr Patrick highlighted stockpiling caused by Brexit as a “dramatic issue”.
He added: “We don’t have any evidence of how widespread that is. We get some anecdotal stuff, and I am not surprised [people] are doing that.”
Mr Patrick declared Sauchiehall Street, which has been hit hard by two major fires and was facing challenges beforehand, should be an “early test-bed for the 21st-century high street” in terms of its redevelopment. He called for the inclusion of retail, leisure, and housing development, family attractions, innovative workspaces and craft and artisanal manufacturing.
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