Looking at manufacturing prospects for the next three months, Mr Bridge said: "For industry there is no question of a price rise at the moment.

None at all. Competition is too strong: just one per cent on our price and the customer will probably go elsewhere.

"Yet in areas like business rates, local authorities feel able to charge an above-inflation increase of over four per cent, knowing their victims can do nothing about it but pay.

"It is time they were brought into the real world of international competition."

Mr Bridge, chief executive of Rotherham engineering business AESSEAL, said the above-inflation increases being demanded by some official bodies, rising raw material costs and continuing concerns over energy supplies were clouds on an otherwise calm horizon.

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There was no evidence of widespread recession in the region's manufacturing industry, although some firms might be affected by the decline in the housing market.

Mr Bridge, chief executive of Rotherham engineering business AESSEAL, predicted that the region would remain strong because of manufacturing.

He said: "Clearly, we have some companies now beginning to suffer from the vicious downturn in the housing market but those with predominantly export business look like doing even better than in the first quarter.

"One local firm, which exports 80 per cent of its output, had a record sales month in February, another in March and for the first time will have a third consecutive record month in April. That may be exceptional, but it is by no means an isolated example of sales success."

Although the weakness of the dollar isn't helping exporters, it is being partially cancelled out by the strength of the euro, he said.

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