Local businesses faced tough times in 2013 but the year ended on a positive note, writes Gill Oliver

It was all about the dough at the beginning of 2013. Unusually wet weather meant wheat yields were down, triggering a shortage of British flour.

The result was that Wantage-based flour producer Wessex Mill, which buys wheat from local farms, had to import half from other countries such as Germany and Canada to make up the shortfall.

But that was not the only headache for the county’s rural-based businesses.

Crop planting was delayed, due to heavy rainfall, piling yet more problems on to beleaguered farmers.

Meanwhile, David Cameron’s promise in February of an in-out referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union by the end of 2017 was described by some as a bold move. Others complained it created an air of uncertainty that would damage the economy.

Here in Oxfordshire, it was particularly relevant since one of the biggest employers is German-owned BMW and many of our other successful companies have strong trading and employment links with Europe.

Oxford-based South-East MEP Catherine Bearder dismissed the idea that Britain could thrive outside the European Union as “a nonsense”.

Banbury-based Norbar Torque Tools exports 75 per cent of its output and sales and marketing director Philip Brodey was in solid agreement with Ms Bearder that Britain needs to stay a full member of the EU.

He pointed out that the EU, not including the UK, accounts for 33 per cent of his firm’s sales and is vital to its future growth.

In April, Competition Minister Jo Swinson met landlords and brewers at the Talbot Inn, near Eynsham, and pledged to address the “imbalance in power” in pub contracts.

She said pub tenants found themselves locked in for decades to leases which were losing them tens of thousands of pounds a year There was positive news for business in May when superfast 4G, set to revolutionise the way business people operate while on the move, swept into Oxfordshire. The county became the latest in a stream of areas across the UK to be switched on to the new mobile phone and Internet coverage, courtesy of Everything Everywhere (EE).

With the announcement in August that a £25m investment in broadband was coming, things seemed to be looking up.

But there was more misery for small businesses when it came to light during the same month they had been left out of Government plans to make flood insurance affordable. A consultation, excluded tradespeople, such as Martin Shirley's Lakeside Guest House in Abingdon Road.

Although his street was hit by flooding in November 2012 and the road closed to traffic for three days, Mr Shirley’s property was not flooded and he’s never claimed on his insurance for flood but says because he’s in a so-called flood risk area, brokers are frightened off.

Having weathered a double-dip recession, rising rents and bigger utility bills, Oxfordshire retailers saw a planned increase in business rates as the last straw. On hearing business rates could go up by 3.2 per cent in 2014, they worried jobs and businesses were at risk.

Ian Middleton, who owns Argenteus jewellers in Oxford, pays £25,000 a year in business rates for his 204 sq ft shop in Cornmarket Street.

The rise would add an extra £800 to his bill and he warned the rise in rates could mean the “death knell” for some firms in the city.

October saw the Chancellor planning to make it easier for Chinese tourists and business people to visit the UK, fuelling hopes that Oxfordshire would reap the benefit.

A third of Bicester Village’s six million visitors each year are Chinese and typically, they come with £1,500 to spend on material goods.

And the year ended on a positive note with the news that 31 young people will be taken on by the Mini plant’s owners BMW, for apprenticeships in finance, logistics, engineering and IT in 2014. This is one of many similar schemes targeting Oxfordshire’s youngsters, the success of which is reflected in official statistics. The number of apprenticeships offered to 16-18-year-olds in the county has risen by 3.5 per cent, bucking the national trend. There’s no doubt 2013 has been a challenging year for Oxfordshire’s businesses but it seems there is more dough around and perhaps, at long last, it’s starting to rise.