A time for optimism - and don 't we deserve it!

For many of us the Easter message is about new beginnings, the resurrection of Christ and the earnest hope for a better future.

With the beautiful spring weather that we enjoyed over this Bank Holiday weekend, our trees beginning to bud and flowers beginning to bloom, nature itself represents a tangible feeling of newness and positivity that we all need right now.

Walking the dog in the park over the weekend, it was great to see families out together running, cycling and playing games, not forgetting the fact that at last we can have a limited number of friends and family in our back gardens.

The announcement by the Prime Minister on Monday that we are all clear to go to the next stage of the road map was welcome news particularly for our hospitality industry.

From April 12 our pubs and restaurants will at last be able to open for outdoor table service. Our local pub which has an outside table facility is already fully booked with a waiting list in the unlikely event of cancellations.

For us in the West Midlands, which has a strong events industry, the fact that zoos, theme parks, drive-in cinemas and drive-in performance events will be able to open is welcome news. The recent announcement that the CBSO intends to host socially distanced live concerts from 19 May is a significant step towards the re-establishment of live performance.

All of this provides a message of hope for the future. These steps may be cautious but the threat of a third lockdown is serious enough that most people understand the need for caution.

At the Chamber, we will continue to press the case for government support for those sectors, who are likely to be the last out of lockdown. All being well, May 17 will see the re-opening of indoor hospitality, a sector which has suffered greatly during lockdown.

It will, however, take some time for this and other sectors to get back on their feet, which is why we will continue to press the government for targeted extensions for business rate relief, the removal of the need to pay National Insurance contributions for those staff furloughed as part of the government 's Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and a further round of optional VAT deferral.

For the wider business community, the Chamber 's latest quarterly business report published last month did highlight some cautious optimism amongst our regional business community, with both profitability and turnover projections the best we 've seen over the last 12 months with a slight pick-up in export demand.

Nationally, a YouGov survey commissioned by Mills & Reeve and published last month also demonstrated a consensus of optimism amongst business owners despite the many challenges faced over the last 12 months with many more challenges surely to come.

At the Chamber, we have a new beginning of our own with the appointment of Henrietta Brealey as our new chief executive. Those who have worked with Henrietta know that she is an outstanding individual and the person best placed to lead the Chamber as we help our members through these difficult times.

At the Chamber 's successful Growth Through People Conference we heard about the importance of the development of our young people. What better example could there be, particularly in our city region which has the youngest and most diverse population in Europe, to have the youngest chief executive in our 208-year history.

So, cause for optimism all round and after the 12 months we 've all been through, don 't we just deserve it.

Steve Allen is president of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce and Birmingham office head of Mills & Reeve LLP

This column was first published in Thursday 's Birmingham Post