17 September 2026
Members of the Yorkshire Shadow MPC almost unanimously voted to hold interest rates, with only one dissenters, voting to raise by .25%.
The Yorkshire Shadow MPC, a partnership between Recognition PR, Clive Owen and The York Press.
Graham Robb, senior partner at Recognition PR, voted for a small rise, he said: “My reason for a potential rate increase is that we’ve got to remember that this isn’t just about our businesses, it’s about the whole economy. There are a lot of people on fixed incomes who rely on interest rates being paid on their savings accounts and so on, and they are very subdued at the moment. Also, there is inflationary pressure. I think we should nip it in the bud and then as the economy deteriorates, as I think it will, there’ll be a bit of scope left, a bit of fuel in the fire to reduce rates.”
Ian Jarvis, outsourcing partner at Clive Owen, said: “To be honest, people are still remarkably optimistic. A lot of clients I’ve got are not holding back on projects, where they’ve got secure funding and where they’ve got demand.
“I think it’s very much sector by sector and really imbalanced. And for that reason, I don’t think I would want to raise rates.”
Steve Lowe, Sales Director at Newsquest, the parent company of The York Press, said: It’s all about confidence for me. I think with the change of Prime Minister and a budget that we don’t know what’s coming, putting a rate rise in now, and then a budget that we don’t know what’s there, I think could blow confidence. And I think confidence is a big factor when there’s so many things that we can’t control.”
Olga Watterich, Deputy Regional Director for Yorkshire and Humber at the CBI said: “I think from the CBI’s perspective, we think that the MPC will be balancing the inflationary risks from the higher global energy costs that we’ve all talked about and how that is going to feed through to domestic prices and domestic wage growth as well. But also on the flip side of that, the soft labour market and the spare capacity in the economy is keeping some of that in check. And we do think that possibly more members of the MPC might vote for a rise, but we still think that it will be a hold this time.”
Luke Lodge, partner at Evelyn Partners a leading wealth management firm, said: “The inflation figures are being driven by global energy prices to some extent. and a raise in interest rates wouldn’t really temper that. And the economy itself is still pretty fragile and it’s whether it could stand a rate rise.”
Dave Broadbent, from insolvency practitioners Begbies Traynor, said: “I think there’s so many businesses we’re seeing at the moment, they’re just too highly geared and they’ve got far too much borrowing. People are still trying to borrow their way out of difficulty. And I think even just something like quarter per cent rise might just put too much pressure on that.”
Richard Peak, managing director of Helmsley Group, said: “I think the market is just a bit too weak to accept a rise at the moment. I’d like to see what’s going on with inflation and the energy uncertainty at the moment. But next time we’re sitting I suspect I’m going to be voting for a rate rise.”
Sarah Edwards, Finance Director at Autohorn Fleet Services Limited: “I don’t think that where we are as a country at the moment is stable enough to go either way really. I think, would the markets absorb a rate wise? I don’t think so, but equally we’re clearly not stable enough to decrease them.”
