THERE is a saying that the building trade is the first to suffer during a recession and the last to benefit when recovery kicks in.

You could add to that - and the North-East building trade is the last in the country to feel the benefit from any upturn.

Further evidence of a two track economic recovery emerged this week with reports of staff shortages and rocketing pay rates for construction workers in London.

A dearth of skilled people in certain trades, particularly in bricklaying, has led to an influx of overseas workers. It has also tempted tradesmen to travel south from the North-East, following the money like latter day incarnations of Auf Wiedersehen Pet’s Neville, Dennis and Oz.

The more serious point is that the sudden upturn in house building and major construction projects in London and the South-East has exposed the need for more apprenticeships in vital workplace skills.

The drain of workers from our region to the south also puts in jeopardy our chances of joining the recovery as talent gets lured away and projects in this region face delays.

Throughout 2014 we have campaigned consistently for our region’s construction industry and called for it to be given a much fairer share of infrastructure spending. The big money continues to gravitate to the south, and even the HS3 project, hailed by George Osborne as a boost to the north, stops short of our region.

Construction is a key sector which supports an estimated 50,000 jobs across the North-East and North Yorkshire.

It would be tragic if – as the beleaguered building sector starts to feel – its recovery is stifled by short-sightedness and a lack of investment.

IN today’s centre pages we highlight the key business stories year that we have reported this year.

From an exclusive interview with Mark Carney, the Governor of the Ban k of England, features on some of our best companies and most inspirational business figures, to being first with news about some of the region’s key employers, we have tried to give you the best possible coverage.

But we know that we can do things even better, so please get in touch if there are areas where you think we can improve. Are there any unsung success stories out there of parts of our region that we have neglected? Email me andy.richardson@nne.co.uk so we can look back on a year of even better stories at the end of 2015.

Follow me on Twitter @bizecho