When the recession began there were many predictions on how Bradford and its business community would fare. Some thought that there would be immediate, large-scale job losses. In fact, there were fewer jobs lost in Bradford as a result of the recession than predicted.

Companies who had found it hard to attract staff with the right skills and experience, preferred to consider cutting salaries rather than losing good people if they could.

Similarly, there was an expectation that no-one would be paying for training once the downturn took hold. Whether due to public funding through Train To Gain, or whether it was easier to release staff because the workload was lower, investment in training continued.

Our latest survey showed that 65 per cent of businesses had trained staff in the previous 12 months. They wanted to be in good shape for the upturn.

Some in the creative sector thought that marketing budgets would be pulled dramatically. That happened to some extent, but we’ve seen a renewed interest in networking, use of social media and promotional activity to generate new sales. It seems more likely that it will be the public sector cuts being made this year that will have a bigger impact on those who deal with job advertising, conferences and consultancy.

We’re still helping people who want to start their own business. I think the entrepreneurial spirit is continuing in Bradford and there are many talented people building successful companies – the Bradford Means Business Awards showed that.