Leader: Ikea’s plan is a vote of confidence
Published 9 Sep 2010 08:30
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ALL the promising economic forecasts in the world are totally useless without tangible proof that good things are beginning to happen.
Potentially morale-boosting statistics that say unemployment is falling, or fewer mortgaged homes are being repossessed, will inevitably sound rather hollow to someone who has just lost their job or house, never mind that the experts tell us the Reading area is emerging from the recession in finer fettle than most.
One man’s first green shoots of recovery may well be another’s faint hope, but anyone searching for encouraging signs will find plenty to see.
We have been eagerly awaiting the impending arrival of Ikea for some years now and, while the Swedish-owned company is shrewdly conducting a comprehensive consultation before showing its full hand, it can be confident that the store’s future customers will give it their overwhelming approval.
In turn, that will ensure those people from other parts of the land who profess never to have heard of Reading will be getting out their road maps and giving the likes of Bristol and Milton Keynes a miss.
However, it is not so much that Ikea is coming to town and preparing to breathe new life into what is frankly, a fairly scruffy corner of Calcot that matters.
It is the message it sends out to other British and international companies - that the Reading area is the place to be.
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