Business split on crucial EU Referendum
THREE leading south Warwickshire businessmen have told the Stratford-upon-Avon Herald want Britain out of the EU.
They are Denys Shortt, founder, chairman and chief executive of the DCS Group; Tony Bird, of the Bird Group of Companies; and Johnnie Arkwright, owner of Hatton Adventure World.
Mr Arkwright is chairing the pro-leave Business for Britain West Midlands group, which also lists Jeremy Pragnell, of George Pragnell’s Jewellers as a member of its Advisory Council.
But the issue is proving as divisive among the business community as it is politically and among the general public, the Herald has discovered.
Because on the opposite side of the EU fence is Sir Peter Rigby, chairman and chief executive of the Stratford-based Rigby Group, and Larry Coltman, who currently chairs the South Warwickshire branch of the Chamber of Commerce.
A show of hands at a recent Stratford Business Forum meeting saw an fairly even number of the 130 delegates from south Warwickshire businesses indicating whether they were either ‘in’, ‘out’ or ‘undecided’.
Louise Bennett, Chief Executive of the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “The debate around the EU referendum has caused uncertainty within the economy, of that there is no doubt.
“As a Chamber, we want to present as much information to our members as possible in order for them to make an informed choice on how staying in or coming out would affect their prospects in years to come.
“We have held an event with the Stronger In campaign team and will organise another event with the ‘out’ campaign ahead of the vote.”
Ms Bennett added: “It’s a huge decision and it’s vital that businesses across our patch, as well as their employees, understand the magnitude of the referendum.”
In February, Stratford MP, Nadhim Zahawi surprised many by rebelling against Prime Minister David Cameron and declaring he would vote ‘out’. This week, in a Business Matters special report, we speak to some of the key figures in the south warwickshire business community.
WHAT THEY SAID:
‘We’ll prosper outside the European Union’ - Tony Bird OBE, chairman of the
Stratford-based Bird Group of Companies: "THE European Union has failed. It is controlled by a huge, unelected bureaucracy based in Brussels which dominates the European Parliament, and the MEPs, who we elect to represent us, are powerless and ineffective in dealing with it. I have had first-hand experience of this when I was president of the European Steel Recycling Industry, which is a Brussels-based industrial confederation representing over 300,000 employees and supplying the needs of the European Electric Steelmaking Industry, amounting to 100 million tonnes of recycled raw material per annum and, in addition, bringing three billion euros in export sales into the EU. The Commissioner for the Steel Industry, equivalent to a Secretary of State in the UK, despite the efforts of a leading MEP, has always been too busy or important to meet with our industry, and it is generally not possible to change ill-thought out and over-complicated regulations, and it can take years to negotiate small changes. I am convinced that the UK will prosper outside the straightjacket of the European Union. EU companies carry a huge and ever-increasing burden of regulations and environmental taxes which make many industries uncompetitive in the world marketplace. Why should we remain in the EU when the Eurozone is a failing entity in so many areas, with high unemployment and stagnation in growth, yet our UK unemployment levels are amongst the lowest in the world, and our financial services sector is the best performing globally. Europe needs the UK market more than we need theirs. This country is flooded with German, French and Italian cars, while in Berlin, Paris and Madrid one does not see masses of British cars. French, Italian, Spanish and German wine producers, and also the fruit and vegetable growers, sell more of their products to the UK than vice versa. It is blatant scaremongering by the ‘in’ campaigners to state that the EU would impose tariffs on our goods when a tariff war would inflict much more damage to EU industries than to ours in the UK. Much of the scaremongering by the ‘in’ supporters is so clumsily fabricated by the government and so infantile that only the very naive are taken in. Many ‘on the fence’ voters, who feel their intelligence is being insulted, are now joining the ‘out’ campaign. Peace and security has been maintained in Europe since the war, but it is not correct for the EU to claim that it is the main reason for this, although trading and working closely within the European arena has made a good contribution to peace. The main reason for the security and peace in Europe has been the powerful presence of NATO. Just imagine relying on François Hollande in a time of need. It is now time that we became a Sovereign Nation again and made our own decisions and controlled our own frontiers. It is also time that we ensure that laws made by our Parliament are final and not subject to the EU or the European Court of Justice and that we put Britain’s interests first. We are the fifth largest trading nation in the world and with freedom from EU interference and regulations in running our own country, we will be heading to be the fourth."
‘Let’s take control of our own future’- Denys Shortt OBE, founder, chairman and chief executive of the Stratford-based DCS Group: "I AM an entrepreneur and running my own business with 350 employees. When you run your own business you are always in control of your own destiny. You work within your means and you do not overspend. If you add layers of people and bureaucracy then it should pay for itself many times over. I do not see this with the European Parliament. I believe it costs £1.33billion to run the European Parliament, which is three times what it costs to run our own government. I do not think David Cameron got a good deal from Europe — he is, after all, leaving his post at the end of this term. Would a business send an employee who has resigned to negotiate an important business deal? I don’t think so. I think he tried very hard but I do not think the Europeans are taking our wish to leave seriously. The migrant crisis should not be something that decides this vote, but it is real and it is here. The UK government is already cutting back with job cuts and austerity measures to balance the books. This inflow of people has the potential to cost our country a fortune through benefits, education, healthcare and more. The increased cost of policing and security at our borders, and from terror attacks similar to Paris, is already rising. I do feel the European Parliament has badly handled the migrant situation. The open invitation from Angela Merkel in Germany to over one million migrants has damaged Europe forever. The resulting flow of people is, and will continue to be, overwhelming. Recent news says Greece is overwhelmed and Merkel now wants a solution. Many of these people coming to Europe are economic migrants — they have just decided that there is a better life in Europe. There is no real plan to stop the flow. Europe effectively has no border controls and the migrants know that. Now winter is over I think we will see tens of thousands, perhaps millions, making that journey. Finally, aside from the migrant issue, I think Europe’s finances do not look good. Ireland, Portugal, Cyprus and Greece were forced to agree to bailouts from the EU/ECB/IMF Troika. Spain and Italy were placed under the economic equivalent of adult supervision with their budgets being closely scrutinised by the EU. Greece is almost certain to fail to meet the terms of its latest deal with the Troika, another Eurozone crisis is probably inevitable within the next 12 to 18 months. Now Germany is looking unwell and that could spill over to other countries. The UK pays more into the EU budget than it gets back — in 2015 the UK government paid £13billion to the EU budget, and EU spending on the UK was £4.5billion. So our ‘net contribution’ was around £8.5billion. The UK gets a discount on its contributions. This was worth nearly £5billion last year. So without it the UK would have been liable for £18billion in contributions. I think we should take control of our own future. I will be voting to leave."
‘We should believe in ourselves’ - Johnnie Arkwright, owner of the Hatton
Estate, which includes Hatton Aventure World and chairman of Business for Britain West Midlands: "FROM a business perspective free trade is the big issue — it’s why we went into the EU in the first place, and there is no doubt in my mind that we will have free trade after Brexit. Even the Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, has said a free trade area would be relatively easy to negotiate. In fact there is already a free trade zone of 42 countries, from Iceland to Turkey, that includes the 28 countries that belong to the EU. And it’s entirely logical. We are the EU’s biggest export market, and the EU exports £60billion more to the UK than the UK exports to the EU; for every one car that we export to the EU, we import two cars from the EU. The great European car manufacturers are hardly likely to let their governments set about a tariff war in such circumstances! Add taking back control of our immigration policy and laws, and saving the £350million per week (what a hospital costs to build and equip) we currently give the EU, it’s a no-brainer. The real danger is staying in — the euro is fundamentally flawed and as Mervyn King, until recently the Governor of the Bank of England, said the EU may well ‘explode’. In my view it’s just a matter of time, we want to stay as far from this as possible and the faster we develop new markets, the better. We’re already doing OK actually; the EU’s share of our exports has fallen from 55 per cent to 45 per cent over the last ten years . So, yes, I’m a passionate supporter of ‘leave’. We’re the 5th biggest economy in the world, our prospects are immensely exciting, and it’s high time we started believing in ourselves."
‘The economy will collapse’ - Larry Coltman is a solicitor and the Stratford-based chairman of the South Warwickshire branch of the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, but speaking on the EU in a personal capacity, he told the Herald: “Economically it’s essential we remain in the EU. If we weren’t, three million people would have to go home and the economy would collapse Industries like agriculture, fruit picking, the hotel and tourism industry can’t find the English workers. There are 1.5milion out of work and I am sure there are many of those who are genuinely unable to work, but in this country there does seem to be a culture of people preferring to stay at home rather than going out and finding work. The days of the Industrial Revolution have gone where people would travel wherever the work was, English people just would not dream of doing that now. We have seen people come from Poland to live six in a house in London just to get a job. There are a lot of myths and people do worry about immigration, but we are not producing enough of our own. There is a changing demographic, there’s been a baby boom in the UK and we need more schools. We also need more carers, but there are very few English people who would do those jobs.” On Nadhim Zahawi’s decision to call for the UK to leave the EU, Mr Coltman added: “I was disappointed, I thought he’d stick with it. But I have not been impressed with a lot of the people who have come out and said ‘out’. It’s important to think about the economy, but also the future of our children and our children’s children. Without the strong economy base we don’t have stability. We have just come out of the worst recession I can remember and if we vote to leave, I dread to think about the future."
‘No benefit from leaving’ - Sir Peter Rigby is Chairman and Chief Executive of Rigby Group plc, which has offices in Stratford and London, and one of the UK’s largest privately owned companies generating revenues of £1.6billion and employing 7,500 people: “Staying in the EU will continue our growth opportunities in the coming years and that is why I believe we have to stay in. I can see no benefit from leaving the EU and I speak as someone who does business within the EU all the time. I can only see economic uncertainty and chaos generated by us having to renegotiate our position if there was to be an ‘out’ vote. It is important that business has a voice on this issue, profitable businesses create the wealth and generate the taxes that pay for all the benefits we all enjoy: from healthcare, education and defence to police, fire and ambulance services.”
‘No doubt I will lose business’ - Jon Fletcher, Managing Director, of Alpha Quad, a digital marketing agency in Bidford: “Establishing an export element to your business in the service sector is challenging at best. We have worked long and hard to achieve a strong reputation and foothold in Europe, which will be significantly diminished by an exit from the EU. This is not speculation, it is communication from our EU colleagues and the result will be loss of revenue and potential jobs. I have been going backwards and forwards on the issues, being moved by arguments in both directions. What has persuaded me to vote to stay in the EU is pure pragmatism. If we leave then I am convinced that my company will lose both actual and potential business. I doubt that I will be swayed from this position.”
‘Maybe we are still great?’ - ROB Harris, of Snitterfield-based brand consultancy Glued Ltd, said: “I was 'in', but having read Nadhim Zahawi's article in the Herald I am now thinking. I was swayed by Nadhim’s rationale. I thought that a lot of the ‘out’ camp were xenophobic with the ‘We’re British’ mindset. But Nadhim is a man who has done business in a lot of countries, and he left me thinking maybe we can plough a lone furrow and maybe we are still great. Our business doesn’t do any business outside of this country, but we have benefitted from EU money in that our clients have successfully applied for it, and we have been paid using it. If I were to vote now I’d be ‘in’, if businesses begin leaning towards ‘out’ I would have to follow, but that would simply be a case of me following their lead.”
‘I need to see some hard facts’ - Neil Johnson, Operations Director at Apex Recruitment in Warwick: “At this stage I am still pretty much on the fence. Everything that I read and hear about Brexit seems to come from someone with an ulterior motive and who is trying to put their side of the story across. I am very much a person who prefers to look at the facts relating to an issue and to then make my decision from there. I think that it is a very tough decision to make as ultimately nobody knows exactly the impact of an exit and what the impact on the country will be in. Whatever the result I think that it is going to be very close.”
"Both sides are producing flimsy arguments' - Sharon Walpole, Chief Executive Officer of Stratford-based Walpole Media Group: “Although I have lived in the UK 26 years and in Stratford for 22 of those, I am an American citizen and cannot vote. However, as a local business owner, I am struggling to find any good quality information about either staying in Europe, or leaving. I haven’t found any serious debate at the moment to make any informed opinion. Both sides have so far produced very flimsy arguments. I would also say that there is some weight to the argument that Europe will struggle to create and sustain a strong political union, without which there can be no strong economic union. And, there is a bigger world to trade with than just Europe.”
Have your say by e-mailing your views to news@stratford-herald.com
