Business writer Ian Garner attended an economic update by the Bank of England on the 11th of November at the York Guildhall - 'The Future of UK Economic Growth with The Bank of England.'

Built in the 15th century, the historic York Guildhall underwent refurbishment as recently as 2022. City of York Council owns the Guildhall complex. The restored Guildhall with its offices, meeting rooms, a café, and conference space was a perfect backdrop to the event, giving a feeling of dignity and history to the occasion.

The free session was open to the public and attracted a sizeable audience of business people from the public, private, and charitable sectors who packed the ancient York Guildhall and listened intently to the speakers.

The event was sponsored by Barclay’s Eagle Lab, which has a presence in the Guildhall. Barclays Eagle Labs are an entrepreneurial network supporting ambitious startups and scaleups. The Labs provide support to founders at the initial idea stage, starting up a new business, and beyond. They can connect businesses to mentors with a range of knowledge and expertise, offering tailored advice to help them succeed. Businesses can access a variety of learning content and thought leadership reports and join growth programmes designed to help accelerate business; this includes physical coworking spaces with local managers who bring together a community built to foster innovation and collaboration.

The keynote speaker was Paul Mount, Bank of England Deputy Agent for Yorkshire & the Humber. Paul represents the Bank in the region, engaging with business and public sector leaders to understand the environment they face and to explain the policy stance and work of the Bank.

Paul gathers information from businesses in Yorkshire, and the Humber and other agents do similar across the UK. Paul and his colleagues feed the market intelligence from their local economies to the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), who meet eight times a year to set the bank rate.

Paul echoed the update of last week by Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England, and explained inflation fell back to the 2% target in May of this year from a peak of just over 11% in 2022.

Since May, inflation has stayed close to the target. The easing of inflationary pressures meant the bank’s MPC reduced the bank rate from 5% to 4.75%, reflecting the continued progress recently in reducing inflation.

The Bank expects inflation to rise slightly again over the next year, to around 2¾%, and inflation is expected to fall back to the 2% target after that. The Bank can’t rule out more global shocks that keep inflation high. For example, developments in the Middle East could increase inflation by causing oil prices to rise.

Cat Smith, a Senior Manager at the British Business Bank (BBB), was the next speaker. Cat offered her perspectives on a recent report from the BBB, providing an overview of the current regional landscape.

Cat explained that Yorkshire and the Humber add £5 billion to the UK economy.

She asked the audience to show their awareness of the BBB, but less than 50% raised their hands. Clearly, BBB needs to improve their public profile.

BBB invests £17.5 billion into UK markets, is a great source of support, and has research available for businesses to use to plan their future. The BBB supports almost 64,000 small and medium businesses.

Yorkshire & the Humber businesses have shown a 44% increase in the use of external finance.

In March, the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund launched its second round of business funding of £660 million, including £50 million specifically aimed at the ‘Invest in Women Taskforce,’ which has been created to make the UK the best place in the world to be a female entrepreneur.

The discussions covered a range of topics relevant to businesses and individuals, including an outlook for economic growth, employment, inflation, and interest rates.

Attendees had the opportunity to engage in the discussion with a dynamic Q&A session. It was also an opportunity to network with the local business community and speakers.