WITH ongoing negotiations for Brexit, more reports on potential impacts are produced.

The economists are busy modelling potential scenarios based on ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ Brexit outcomes.

Either way, the outcome is likely to be a period of reduced economic growth and as the recent Centre for Cities report indicates, any impact for the UK will not be uniform.

The local impact will depend upon the type of activity in the area and how connected it currently is with Europe.

So rural locations serving local and UK needs will be less disadvantaged.

Those areas with a stronger ‘knowledge economy’ will suffer the most, in the short-term at least. However, they are also likely to recover more quickly too.

The key to this is their ability to respond to the changing market situation and realign their business with the changing environment.

As an industrial area Warrington is likely to feel the slow-down of Brexit and needs to minimise this impact by moving quickly.

New markets, new customers, new products, different suppliers, investment in efficiency gains and greater global awareness. With the clock ticking then it’s not too early to start the repositioning process.

LAWRENCE Bellamy is deputy provost at the University of Chester's Padgate campus and writes a regular column for our business page