Harnessing people power for a prosperous year ahead

Helen Hayward, partner at Burnetts Solicitors, Carlisle

This is not a difficult one for me. I am a glass-half-full type of person. That doesn’t mean I don’t see the struggle and the hardship but I look forward into 2024 for this wonderful county of Cumbria, and for Burnetts, and I see great things ahead. I will tell you exactly why - it is all about the people. 

We have the best people in this county – people who really care, people who are warm, entertaining and funny, and people who have amazing talent. I see this every day at work in our offices. I see it in our clients and the other professionals and businesses we work with. I see it in the cafes and the shops.

All we need now is the confidence to step forward and to value what we bring as individuals and as a county. We don’t know how great we are. In particular, our women don’t know how great they are! Our purpose at Burnetts – which we will continue to champion in 2024 – is “To Empower People to Thrive” – our people, our clients’ people, and the people in the communities we work in.

So go forward into 2024 and let your people know how brilliant they are. We don’t have to look over our shoulder to the east or further south to see how to thrive and prosper – we can start our own revolution right here in our offices and our businesses - of continuing to be amazing, and knowing that we are!

Lord Inglewood

What happens in our county depends both on what happens here, and increasingly what goes on elsewhere.

The last few years have been chaotic, and business needs certainty and clarity founded in reality not fantasy. That has not been obvious recently.

This year will almost certainly bring a general election, and my hope is that all parties will campaign on programmes that have a realistic chance of actually working in the world we live in, and are not simply ‘red meat’ thrown to their most extremist supporters.

They must be capable of professional implementation at both national and local level, and the next government must sharpen up our administration to deal with the real and serious problems in front of us.

All this is not to say there are not real opportunities, but business needs a stable framework.