A COLCHESTER business leader has welcomed news the UK is out of the recession.

The Office for National Statistics said the economy grew 0.1 per cent between October and December, after 18 months in decline.

Ewan Dodds, chairman of Colchester Business Group and lead partner for business in Colchester 2020, welcomed the announcement as offering a confidence boost for local firms.

He said: “It’s so marginal I think it makes little difference, but it will give confidence to think we’re over the worst. But there are still very tough times ahead.”

He said Colchester had fared better than most places and cited the high proportion of small businesses in the borough as one reason why.

He added: “If you look at the unemployment figures in Colchester, I think we’ve done better than a lot of the other towns like us.”

He also praised the work of business groups and Colchester Council in helping ailing companies.

A report recently published by Colchester Council showed the percentage of Colchester’s population claiming Job Seeker’s Allowance rose steadily from 1.5 per cent in June 2008 to 3.2 per cent in March last year.

Throughout the recession, Colchester’s figure has been below the figure nationally and regionally.

Between June 2008 and May 2009, Colchester house prices fell by 9.3 per cent, largely due to the high number of flats for sale, where prices plummeted, against a UK average of 2.8 per cent.

The number of vacant shop units in the town centre rose from 54 in 2004 to 82 in 2009.

Business bosses in Clacton hope the end of the recession will pave the way for a revival in the tourist season.

There were only a few big-name casualties of the economic crisis and the resort was cheered by reports of a buoyant tourist season as people turned their backs on foreign holidays.

Pierre Oxley, chamber of trade and tourism chairman, said: “I hope we will see things picking up in the economy the closer we get to Easter.

“What we’ve seen in this recession, is businesses would rather keep staff and cut back the hours they do, so when things pick up, that labour is still there.”