North Norfolk to stage recession summit

A special 'recession summit' is being staged in north Norfolk next week in an attempt to find quick fixes for businesses struggling in the economic downturn.

More than 150 movers and shakers from across the county have been invited to Monday's session, which aims to assess whether enough is being done, and in the right places, as commerce faces its most challenging time for decades.

It has been called by North Norfolk District Council, whose leader, Virginia Gay stressed it was not 'simply a talking shop'. The summit would strive to agree an action plan to ride the recession and support a healthy local economy, she said.

Delegates at the afternoon and evening event at Pinewood Park conference centre, Upper Sheringham, include people from councils, businesses and support agencies, tourism, employment experts, planners, housing organisations, volunteers and artists.

The council's economic development officer, Robin Smith, said the recession had resulted in 600 job losses across north Norfolk over the past year, taking the number of unemployed to 1,500.

Those people were chasing just 100 vacancies.

The summit was called after the 'shock waves' of redundancies and business failures became more frequent.

But Mr Smith said: 'It is not too late. We have a better understanding now and can see the trends.'

The public sector had an important role to play, and the council might be able to do better itself with help in planning, rate relief and benefits and advice, he said. The key thing was for the summit, called Positive Local Leadership in a Recession, to find a few practical actions that could have an effect straightaway rather than looking at a longer-term strategy.