Recession is officially over

MP for Milnrow and Newhey and minister for the North-West Phil Woolas has welcomed figures which show the UK is out of recession — but warned against withdrawing Government support until the economy fully recovers.

Figures published by the Office of National Statistics show that the UK economy has started to grow.

Mr Woolas said: “This is good news for the North-West and for Britain, but also a reminder that there is no room for complacency.

“We will continue to do everything we can to protect communities across the region and keep the economy growing.

“During this difficult period, Labour is taking action to help people in the North-West back into work and to support local businesses.

“We introduced the ‘Time to Pay’ scheme, which allows struggling companies to postpone tax payments and helps keep businesses afloat. And we will continue to help local people who have lost their jobs to stay in their homes through our mortgage support schemes.”

Commenting on the announcement that the UK has officially exited the recession, Brian Sloan, Head of Business and Economic Policy at Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, said: “As widely expected, today’s GDP figures show the UK economy expanded in the last quarter of 2009 and technically exited recession. Whilst there is considerable optimism amongst businesses in Greater Manchester for the coming year, the scale of growth recorded in the national figure is no surprise given recent disappointing manufacturing data for November and retail figures for December. These highlight that the recovery is still fragile and Government needs to support business as this is the only means to secure a sustained recovery. A useful start would be to encourage banks to increase lending to small and medium sized businesses and delay the introduction of the planned 1% increase in employers’ national insurance contributions in April 2011.”