Alistair Houghton meets PAULA CAIN, chief executive of Halton Chamber of Commerce
NO MATTER what the doubters may say, Paula Cain believes Halton has plenty to shout about.
Cain is chief executive of Halton Chamber of Commerce, which aims to be the voice of business in the borough.
She joined Halton Chamber in June, after 19 years at its Knowsley counterpart.
Cain is keen to talk up Halton’s assets, including The Heath science park – where we met – and the Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus, as well as subjects ranging from Widnes Vikings rugby team and the importance of Runcorn station.
It’s clear that Cain wants to be an ambassador for Halton.
“Halton has traditionally been steeped in big players in the chemicals sector,” she said.
“But, equally, there’s a lot of expertise in transport, in science and innovation, and in energy.
“There’s such a wealth of expertise in Halton. We should be shouting out loud about the incredible people we have, and what’s being done here.
“I think it has suffered over the years from an image problem. Widnes does have a bit of stigma around its environmental issues, for example, and that puts pressure on local authorities in particular.
“It’s not a sleepy area by any stretch of the imagination. But it’s addressed those issues and problems.
“It’s got a fantastic location, because Halton has access to so many other areas.
“We’ve got some terrific businesses here. There are some terrific and innovative minds, and creative minds. There is a real can-do attitude about the business community and its people.”
Halton has, says Cain, not benefited from European funding as much as other parts of Merseyside.
But that, she says, has made the borough more self-reliant. The Heath – developed by its management team without any public sector grants – is an example of that spirit.
“In many aspects, Halton has been the poor relation of other boroughs,” she said.
“But, rather than being a negative, it’s become a positive, because what it’s forced people to do is attack things from a commercial perspective. There hasn’t been the same reliance on government funding.”
Cain, who grew up in Kirkby, started her career working in the personnel department at the Lewis’s department store chain.
“That was going to be my career,” she said. “I was very interested in personnel management.
“But then they centralised it all in Manchester. At that time I didn’t want to commute, so I started looking for something else.”
Cain spotted a job at the Kirkby Initiatives Agency, helping local entrepreneurs to develop their business ideas.
“The director must have seen that despite the fact I didn’t have all the necessary experience, I had something to offer,” she said. She spent six years in her home town helping people to start and grow their businesses, and advising them on issues from cashflow management to access to finance.
While working in Kirkby, she met automotive engineer John Higham – who, unbeknownst to her, was on the look-out for a manager for the young Knowsley Chamber.
“At that time, I didn’t know much about chambers,” she said. “ But I joined in September, 1990, and I spent 19 very happy years there.
“As chief executive I worked with a lot of inspirational people and met some fantastic businesses.”
Cain left Knowsley last November.
“I’d had a terrific time there,” she said. “But there comes a time in anybody’s career when you take stock and decide what to do next. I was ready for a fresh challenge, but I also wanted a break.”
After a few months off, Cain spotted an advert for the Halton role.
“Chambers are definitely in my blood,” she said, “so I wanted to get back into chamber activities in a new area, with new challenges.
“With the business climate as it is, it’s important for the chamber to raise its profile, to take the lead in the business community and position itself in the right way –not just from a business perspective, but for the whole community.”
Cain has led a restructuring at the chamber to ensure members are more involved in how it is run.
The chamber will now have four “special interest groups” – covering business start-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises, property, and the chamber’s core services.
There will also be a Global Business Forum to bring leaders of large businesses together with council officials. The forum, and the four interest groups, will report to the chamber’s board.
Halton is a small chamber, with just 340 members, meaning it can only offer limited services itself. But Cain is keen for her organisation to work with its members to offer services it could not offer on its own, such as mentoring.
She said: “There are so many opportunities to engage with some big players, because I know they have a desire to put something back into the communities they operate in. One way to do that is to share knowledge.”
The chamber runs workshops to help businesses win contracts with local authorities. It works closely with Halton Council, which has pledged to do what it can – within the legal restrictions placed on all local councils – to help local firms secure contracts with it.
That includes holding sessions with the chamber to discuss real-life contracts and their criteria.
Cain lives in Wirral, in a house she says is being “rebuilt from the inside out”.
Outside work, she enjoys playing badminton and reading thrillers – “particularly gory ones”, she smiled. The gory truth about the Government’s public sector cuts has yet to be revealed, leaving businesses that work with the public sector fearful about what the future might hold.
“There is concern because none of us knows what the public sector will look like after the cuts,” said Cain.
“Then we’ve had statements from the Government about the private sector stepping into the breach. How is that going to work?
“I don’t know whether anybody in the private sector feels certain about taking up the slack.”
Cain says the key for Halton will be ensuring that businesses and public sector bodies work together.
She said: “In many respects, we just have to continue to focus on what we do well, individually and collectively.
“But it’s the collective bit that’s going to be key for Halton. There’s a lot of truth in the saying that there’s strength in numbers.
“It’s even more important now that businesses do engage and seek help and support through the chamber and through each other.
“The downturn isn’t over yet, and we’re probably going to see more dips as we work through the impact of the public sector cuts.
“While the private sector has already been through the worst of it and those that have come through are probably stronger as a result, we’re probably getting to a bit of a plateau. I don’t think we understand yet how these cuts will hit the business community.”
As Cain is keen to point out, there has been some massive private sector investment in Halton in recent years – particularly at the Mersey Multimodal Gateway site, in Widnes.
Stobart Ports managing director Steve O’Connor has led the multi- million pound development of a combined rail, road and sea freight handling facility that has created thousands of new jobs.
And, to Cain’s relief, one major piece of public sector investment has also escaped the cuts – the £600m Mersey Gateway project for a new toll bridge between Runcorn and Widnes.
“There’s no doubt there needs to be a new crossing,” said Cain.
“The existing Silver Jubilee Bridge is iconic. It’s a location that’s associated with Halton, and with the sub-region.
“But it’s got to the point where it’s too busy, and it needs work doing to it. That second crossing is vital.”
