AS 2024 gets under way, two influential businesspeople express their hopes for the future

H&H CEO Richard Rankin

As interest rates stabilise and the economy begins to turn itself around, I hope that after so much uncertainty, 2024 will be a year of growing confidence.

There have been many reasons to be pessimistic of late, however, with some positivity we can create an upturn on the horizon. I am looking forward to a positive year when we will kickstart significant investment throughout the H&H Group.

I hope that everyone within our businesses and in the rural business communities we serve will feel the same sense of growing buoyancy.

Mental health and money are major issues for many, and I hope that in 2024 these can be addressed with more weight and resources behind them and that those people who need help will be aware of how much support there is available for them and take advantage of it.

I also sincerely hope that our two unitary authorities here in Cumbria will work and focus together on the needs of the people across the county as a whole, rather than separately.

News and Star: Dianne Richardson in West Cumbria

Dianne Richardson, chief executive, BECBC

I’m entering 2024 with a growing family, both at home and at work. We’ve welcomed our 11th grandchild (yes, a football team!) and I’m looking forward to watching them all grow.

As BECBC continues to grow, we have just welcomed a new patron as well as our third employee to take our team, including contractors and volunteers, to over 30 people.

That puts us in a strong position to support members as we look forward to Great British Nuclear issuing the UK roadmap toward 24GW of Nuclear Energy by 2050 as a part of the government’s energy targets.

With Community Power Company shifting focus to a project in Teesside which will prove the case for privately-funded nuclear power and less national government intervention I’m hopeful that 2024 will be the year we move from talking to action on nuclear energy. It is vital that we ensure UK’s future energy security and affordability.

Alongside that, I’d love to see more exciting innovation in the energy sector, core to the very fabric of BECBC members like ECO and Co-Lab Engineering. I hope we can see more kindness and collaboration in a world that has recently felt more polarised and violent.