FOR those of us who work in the dark arts of policy, September is normally seen as the beginning of our year. Rather like school, we all look at September fresh faced after a summer dealing with silly press releases from Government departments where the press offices scratch around in the basement to find something, anything to put out.

My favourite of recent years was a full-page release on how the Home Office planned to deal with an escaped lion (which hadn’t actually escaped).

This summer has been different, with Boris Johnson taking charge, keen to make a big splash with policy announcements. Many may not progress further than the front page of the newspapers depending on what happens next.

So, at the start of the new term, it’s a good time to look forward at what we might expect from our politics in the Autumn.

Locally, in terms of business, it’s an optimistic outlook. Hopefully, due diligence will successfully be completed on the British Steel purchase safeguarding jobs on Teesside and development of the airport will continue. Of course, the political parties will be gearing up for next year’s Tees Valley mayoral election so expect to see the rhetoric ramped up.

The new regimes in four of our councils will have bedded in and we can expect to see some changes as we go into the Autumn.

Away from the political spotlight the region continues to work hard on education, skills and strategies for our energy sector and productivity in our supply chains.

Nationally, it will have escaped no-one’s attention that the picture is murkier. A Government with a working majority of one, and a Parliament divided. I’m not even going to mention the “B” word as the only prediction to make is that it’s too unpredictable, which is terrible for business.

We have had policy announcements and Government looking to turn on the funding taps. However, whatever Government is in charge, we are due a Comprehensive Spending Review which looks closely at all Government expenditure over a three year period. There are some who doubt this can happen in the current political climate, however, if it does, this will be a good time to make the case for Northern Powerhouse investment.

We may have a general election, but with a four way split in the polls only a fool would predict the result.

Whatever happens, many of the policies which have got out over the Summer will disappear into the January mist – much like the lion.