A major Cumbrian group of companies has revealed it has had to make around 15 people redundant as the UK slumps into a recession.

The UK entered a recession yesterday - defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction - as the economy shrank 20.4 per cent compared with the first three months of the year.

Richard Rankin, chief executive of the H&H Group of companies, which is headquartered in Carlisle, said it had had to make around 15 people redundant across its estate agency division and printing and graphic design business H&H Reeds.

The company also operates auction sites across the north, including at Carlisle’s Borderway auction mart, as well as operating an insurance division.

“At the Reeds printing business and graphic design, people are just spending less money,” said Richard.

“The print arm of Reeds is very, very quiet. It has picked up from where it was two or three months ago, but it’s lower than where it would normally be. People aren’t spending money on future marketing. We had to make some redundancies across the estate agency and across Reeds, there is no escaping it.”

He said businesses of all types would have to get lean and prepare for the future.

“We have to really look hard internally and get our house in order,” he said.

However, Rob Johnston, chief executive of Cumbria Chamber of Commerce, said he believed there was the potential for a “significant recovery” in quarter three of the year.

He said Cumbria’s tourism sector and some of its retailers were doing better than initially hoped.

However, the big concerns were what would happen when the furlough scheme came to an end in October and the potential resurgence of coronavirus cases in the autumn.

“The sooner we get to some level of normality and, crucially, the sooner we get the track and trace system up and running reliably and people are confident about getting into spaces again in large volumes, businesses can get some confidence as a result - that’s the biggest single impact on what will happen,” he said.

Carlisle MP John Stevenson said: “The important thing is now the recovery.

“Places like Cumbria and Carlisle are not immune to the downturn but I believe Carlisle is a resilient city which has quite a few strengths. One is the infrastructure and in the local economy we have substantial food manufacturers who are big employers which have continued to function during the downturn.”

He said developments such as the city’s potential investment from the Government’s Towns and Future High Streets funds, as well as big infrastructure projects like the Southern Link Road were also causes for optimism.

“There are tough times ahead, but there are reasons to be optimistic and the most important thing is to ensure we are confident about our future,” he said.