AGENCIES working with North-East businesses said firms were under no illusions that the hard times were over despite the end of Britain’s longest ever recession.

There was a cautious welcome to yesterday’s news that the UK barely crawled out of recession in the final three months of last year, official figures showed.

The marginal 0.1 per cent growth between October and December ended a record six straight quarters of decline, but fell far short of the 0.4 per cent advance expected.

And there are still concerns for a double-dip recession, with spending cuts and tax rises looming after the General Election and the largest contribution to growth coming from areas such as retail and the motor trade, which were helped by temporary factors such as the car scrappage scheme and people rushing to buy before the impending VAT rise.

Following the release of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures, IHS Global Insight economist Howard Archer said the country, was far from out of the economic woods.

This was echoed by North- East business leaders, although the symbolism of the official emergence from the downturn was welcomed.

Last night Andrew Sugden, the North East Chamber of Commerce’s (NECC) director of membership and policy, said the official confirmation that the recession had ended would be a considerable confidence boost, but he added: “The private sector is under no illusions that the hard times have ended.

“Firms will continue to fight tooth and nail to get back on a firm footing.

“We will also be keeping a close eye on the public sector where cutbacks are inevitable.

“It is important that these do not hit areas that will stifle local business communities at a time when they need to grow to provide employment.”

Yesterday’s announcement mirrored the findings of the The North-East Business Barometer, released earlier this month, which surveys a sample group of the 4,000 members of the NECC and showed that the region finally moved into positive territory in the final quarter of last year.

Alan Clarke, chief executive of regional development agency One North East, said: “Today’s announcement is very welcome and comes as a great relief to many people and businesses across the region.

“But there is no doubting the size of the task we have in rebuilding our economy after going through the worst economic downturn in living memory.

“I believe that the region is in a better placed than ever before to take advantage of the opportunities the economic recovery will present.

“The diversity of our economic base, signs of growing optimism from regional businesses and the underlying strength of sectors such as new and renewable energy means the region can look ahead with confidence after a very challenging past 18 months.”

The UK is the last of the G7 nations to technically pull out of decline.