A senior economic adviser at one of the world's leading banks, has put agriculture and manufacturing at the top of the list of 'things to get you through the recession.'

And luckily, Lincolnshire has both – in abundance.

Pete Cochrane, senior economic adviser at the Royal Bank of Scotland lived in Lincoln in the early noughties when he bought up houses to sell on.

And although he is now based in Edinburgh he is familiar with the strengths Lincolnshire has.

Along with agriculture he believes that the county's manufacturing background will have the opportunity to make a difference to Lincolnshire's fortunes.

"The thing you do get around Lincoln and Lincolnshire is a lot of manufacturing and engineering," he said.

"It's traditionally been quite heavy on manufacturing and those are the ones the Government will look to, to generate exports.

"There is Siemens but you also have all the units in places like Whisby Road.

"There are lots of little units with guys maybe doing smaller specialist parts for trains – high skilled stuff which can be exported.

"Once we do get into some kind of shape the Government will realise they have to put an industrial policy together and that should be of benefit for these businesses to get more grants."

For the full interview with Mr Cochrane, see Thursday's Echo.