The businessman

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), April 12, 2008

RICHARD Bottomley is senior office partner at accountants KPMG in Newcastle and president of the North East Chamber of Commerce.

He said the cut in interest rates was good for business but, ideally, he would have like to have seen a larger cut.

Richard, pictured, said: "This is good because where we have rising costs this will bring about a reduction in some of the costs associated with business - in particular for anyone borrowing money.

"Personally, though, I would have liked to have seen a reduction of another 0.25% and for the Bank of England to really make a statement with the cut.

"But you have to commend it for reducing the rate again.

"The worrying thing is that there was talk that some lenders would not pass on the cut to customers, which is obviously not so good. Here in the North East the news will be particularly well-received by the manufacturing sector, which is facing higher energy costs and tightening of credit in financial markets.

"We are pleased that the Bank of England has decided to reduce interest rates which will enable us to maintain and stimulate economic growth in the region and keep our rate of growth above that of many other UK regions and the national average."