AWARD-winning journalist Robert Peston has told small firms in East London they have a role in helping the economy out of the current economic downturn. He urged company bosses from small and medium-size businesses to accept they are the ones who create the wealth the rest of us rely on for a living

AWARD-winning journalist Robert Peston has told small firms in East London they have a role in helping the economy out of the current economic downturn.

He urged company bosses from small and medium-size businesses to accept they are the ones who create the wealth the rest of us rely on for a living.

“We need wealth creation and in particular we need small businesses to pay our way,” he told a networking event organised in Canary Wharf by the East London Business Place organisation.

“Determined entrepreneurs who know what they want for their business can actually achieve fantastic results—even when we go through difficult times.”

LONG, HARD SLOG

But Peston was realistic about the scale of the downturn changing the economy in a fundamental way.

“Spending will be far tighter for a period,” he added. “We are in for a long hard slog in 2009.”

Business Place director Gay Harrington pointed out the major projects across East London and the Thames Gateway would pull the capital out of the gloom, including at the 2012 Olympics, Crossrail and the expanding Canary Wharf business district.

East London businesses that are awake to the opportunities, he said, can do well—despite the recession.