Even though he was on the other end of the phone, you knew he was shaking his head.

“Where do they get these figures?” he demanded. “More than £3 billion lost and more than six million people not turning up for work? I know these figures are estimates, but how do they even reach those estimates?”

John Clayton is chief executive for Essex Chambers of Commerce. As far as he is concerned, the county did not grind to a halt when the snows fell on Monday.

Of the 90,000 VAT-registered companies in Essex – and many smaller firms which are not – many had staff who could not get into work but few were so badly hit that it affected business.

“We got the snow, but London got the snow and the chaos,” said Mr Clayton. “It was particularly difficult for commuters. While some may argue why should that be of concern to Essex, we should remember that those tens of thousands who travel by train and road to their jobs in the capital may have their economic output registered in London, but they do bring their salaries home – and that is so important to Essex’s economy.”

So, if they don’t get into work, they don’t get paid and Essex pays the price?

“Many people who do not go into work for a couple of days because the weather prevents them, would still be docked those days from their annual leave,” he said. “But that is changing. Even if more people did stay at home, I don’t think it would have such an adverse affect on the economy because more and more people are now able to work from home.

“Wireless broadband enabling internet access, laptops, mobile phones – most homes have these, and, in most cases, they are all you need to work from home.”

He also believes there is a growing “swings and roundabouts” attitude in many businesses which is helping the UK economy.

“Most people are honest and will make up lost hours,” he said, “and most bosses appreciate staff who are flexible and will work over their hours, providing, of course, they get that time back. That’s swings and roundabouts – and it works very well when the weather prevents people from getting to work.”

The Essex economy is nearly 27 per cent of the east of England’s multi-billion pound economy. Six counties make up this region – Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire – and Essex’s population is larger than Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk’s combined.

It is a strong economy, which is why Mr Clayton is confident the snows on Monday and Tuesday will hardly have affected it.

“I doubt there was even a blip,” he insisted.

“If there was, businesses and their staff will take up the slack.”

One of the county’s biggest businesses is Stansted Airport. While the amount of snow which fell caused few problems per se, the knock-on effect of that snow, plus low temperatures – they never rose about freezing on Monday and Tuesday – did.

“The priority was to make the planes safe,” said Mr Clayton. “There was snow, and, later, ice on the wings. Before those planes took off, the snow and ice had to be removed.

“We have heard about birds being pulled into the fuselage, but ice in the engine doesn’t bear thinking about.”

So, it wasn’t only the runway which had to be cleared and led to delays.

Frustration? Yes, said Mr Clayton, plenty. But did the Essex economy take a hit? Not really.

LET IT SNOW: WHY WE FARED BETTER THAN IN 1991
FEBRUARY 1991

More than six inches (15cms) of snow fell in north Essex in less than six hours, although London escaped much of the heavy snowfalls. Strong winds created drifts across the A12, and the A120 was impassable.

The snow, which continued on and off for more than a week, also settled on rail tracks, jamming new electronic signalling equipment. This prompted the then British Rail to introduce the “wrong kind of snow” into the delayed-train vocabulary.

Trains on the Norwich to Liverpool Street line were cancelled for 24 hours. It took more than a week before all trains from north Essex were running to timetable.

All workers, and not just commuters, found it difficult to get into work, and businesses throughout Essex suffered.

This was not confined to retail and construction.

Corporate businesses lost millions of pounds because it was far more difficult to work from home – few people had home computers, few outside research centres and the military had heard of the internet (it did not go mainstream until the late 1990s), e-mail did not exist and mobile phones were brick-sized and the exception.

Worldwide electronic communication was still more than a decade away.

FEBRUARY 2009

More than 2.5 inches (six cms) of snow fell in north Essex over a period of 18 hours. In London, four inches (10.2 cms) fell.

This caused traffic, rail and plane chaos.

Stansted Airport and train operator National Express only returned to timetable yesterday.

As with 1991, people from all industries found it difficult to reach work on Monday and Tuesday.

It has been estimated that these two days extra “holiday” have cost the UK £3 billion in lost production, but this is not taking into account the many people who worked from home.

Unlike 1991, today’s workforce have laptops, mobile phones, e-mail, broadband connection and internet access at home.

This means businesses have not lost the revenue they did in 1991.