One of the Bank of England big guns was the guest at a special breakfast briefing for the Wrexham Business Group.
Andrew Sentance, one of the Bank’s nine wise men who make up the Monetary Policy Committee, was at the Ramada Hotel for to talk to local business leaders over breakfast.
Dr Sentance is one of the nine charged with setting the UK’s bank interest rates every month and when they met most recently to vote for no change in the current interest rate of half a per cent he was one of three members who voted for a rise.
He gave a wide-ranging though off-the-record briefing to 49 members of the Business Group dealing with inflation and growth in the UK economy and the effects of factors such as the falling value of the pound: “The biggest depreciation of the pound since we left the Gold Standard in 1931,” he said.
Afterwards Dr Sentance, who leaves the MPC in May, said: “Visits like this are a very good way of meeting with businesses first hand and seeing how they are dealing with the issues in their lives.
“We’re looking to do two things through these visits. It helps give us an insight into what’s going on in different sectors of the economy and in different areas of the country as well.
“It’s also very important for the credibility and standing of the MPC that we are seen to be accessible to the business community and they are able to ask us questions and they can participate in discussions such as this.
“It makes us more accountable and able to express our views – I have spoken to about 100 business groups and 140 companies since I was appointed in 2006.”
Dr Sentance, a former Chief Economist at British Airways, was accompanied by Neil Ashbridge, the Bank of England’s Agent for Wales, who said: “Professionals need to network and events like this are a good opportunity for that to happen and for areas like Wrexham to build a strong professional sector.”
Peter McVeigh, of Coxeys Accountants, in Wrexham, who helped found the Wrexham Business Group two years ago, said they were delighted to have attracted Dr Sentance to their meeting.
He said: “It helps clarify for us the way the Bank of England is thinking. Traditionally they have adjusted interest rates which are at an all-time low at the moment.
“In the news this morning the talk was of them going up to six per cent but Dr Sentance has argued that the Bank should put them up gradually rather than them jumping up.
“Andrew Sentance is in favour of a rise in interest rates and has voted since June last year for a rise on the basis of slow and steady.
“But it is very much a coup for us to get him here. He’s one of the nine on the MPC and they’re very much the masters of the financial universe in this country.”
Peter Butler, of solicitors GHP Legal, another founder member of the group, said: “The support we’ve had from the Bank has been tremendous and for him to come along and address us is wonderful.
“It indicates the profile that the group has managed to achieve in such a short space of time.
“It started as an association of solicitors and accountants to manage the profile of commercial work in North Wales and to make it clear to people in the area that we have here the skills and talent to provide services to the community and there is no need to look elsewhere, over the border, for those services.”
Photograph: Dr Andrew Sentance, second left, member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, at a breakfast meeting of Wrexham Business Group at the Ramada Plaza Hotel, from left, Gareth Kelly, of solicitors Cyril Jones and Co, Peter Butler, of GHP Legal, Neil Ashbridge, Bank of England Agent for Wales, and Peter McVeigh, of Coxeys Accountants
