Whilst the British economy is now officially out of recession, according to the CBI, it will take years to recover. They also warn that it will take until 2012 to get back to where it was before the financial crisis.

The current crisis has been Britain's worst recession since the 1930s and lasted for an unprecedented six consecutive quarters. Director-general of the CBI, Richard Lambert said the country is now 10pc poorer than it would have been if the recession had never happened.

Recession Facts and Figures:-

• Unemployment rose by over 800,000 from April 2008 rising to 2.49 million in the 3 months to October 2009.
• The recession has cost 6% of the nation's economic output so far.
• At the worst point of the recession in the first three months of 2009, output fell 2.5% which is the fastest rate in more than 50 years.
• National income is around 10% below the level it would have reached if the financial crisis didn't happen.
• The recession saw a 12-month slump for manufacturers. Output was down almost 14% year on year at the worst point which is the lowest it has been since the decline between 1979 and 1980.
• The Bank of England slashed interest rates to just 0.5% in March last year to combat the recession which is the lowest since the Bank was founded in 1694.
• Borrowing could reach a record £170-180 billion in the current financial year which is 12.6% of the country's entire output.

Electrastar's Managing Director, Rob Dixon said that "Electrastar re-assessed its business plans as the recession started and has managed to counter any direct affect on the business by forward contingency planning. The business is still out there it's just that companies have had to work harder to get the sale. We have had more efficient use of our in house resources and systems. This coupled with forward planning has enabled us to focus entirely on streamlining the Electrastar machine to drive forward through this rocky period"

The countries recovery has lagged behind other major economies. Gordon Brown promised that Britain would lead the world out of recession. However, we were one of the first in and are now the last out.