It’s not often that the CBI and the TUC completely agree on matters but when it comes to the effect on towns and cities in North East England of a no-deal Brexit you would think they were joined at the hip.
Both massive and powerful organisations commissioned work in 2018 to locate the areas that will be worst hit and north east England topped the list when the outturns were revealed. Since then both sets of data have been scrutinised and expanded on by a number of data specialists.
Francis O’Grady said that “a no-deal Brexit would be devastating fo working people in the North-East”. and went on to say “employers are losing confidence in Brexit.” As Boris Johnson prepares the nation for a no-deal outcome.
The CBI reported that “North-East England would suffer the biggest decline in economic output of any U.K. regions if the country leaves the EU without a comprise agreement with Brussels. The gross value added (GVA) a measure of economic value of goods and services could be reduced by as much as 10.5% when compared against the current U.K. Arrangements”.
Exports from the region as a total of total exports is as high as 59% meaning that the region and the council areas within it are exposed to a higher risk of being affected by tariffs and trade costs.
Experts have looked at localised affects on jobs across the region and in Northumberland, where some of its most well off, formerly resilient to recession towns will be hit hardest by a Johnson no-deal scenario. Cramlington, Morpeth, Ponteland along with some towns who‘s economy is or they rely on the economic base of agricultural wealth may slip into serious recession through this process, Hexham, Rothbury, Alnwick and Berwick are possibly facing a bleak future.
This whole process manipulated by the brexiteers to suit their own and their supporters agendas is unbelievably dangerous for Northumberland who have recently joined in a combined authority with two large Scottish Councils, known as the Borderlands CA, which covers 10% of the U.K. geographically It allows Northumberland to access a share of £395m yet Brexit may remove 50% of the geographical area of the Borderlands into another country, Scotland, that is to remain part of the EU and that huge sum of money will be lost to Northumberland for ever.
With Labour now against a no-deal brexit and firmly against accepting a poor deal from the new PM and with the Tories folding up and collapsing in a number of recent elections we may see some change in the County of Northumberland for the better.
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