There was some relief this morning as official figures show the UK economy grew by 0.3% in the first quarter of the year.

Whilst this does not show amazing growth, given the austerity measures having to be employed by the government to reduce our national debt, it is a wonder that there is any growth at all. The small move in the right direction will give businesses and families some encouragement at least, and hopefully the economy will continue this trend as we move into some better weather during Spring and Summer.

The very fact that the economy is moving forwards means more businesses are likely to take it as a sign of encouragement to expand, employ more people and continue to grow. Confidence is gradually returning to the house building sector which will drive the economy forwards due to the number of other industries this sector affects, if we can get back to anything like pre-recession levels of building.

Perhaps most revealing of this mornings figures is that the services sector, which accounts for three quarters of the total UK economy grew by 0.6% in the quarter, with restaurants and hotels showing strong growth in particular. This is very encouraging as these two areas of the ecomony are key as they are largely driven by choice and not necessity, showing that a growing number of people have surplus income available to spend in these areas.

The deficit is down by a third and there have been nearly 1.3 Million new jobs created by the private sector in the last year, so whilst there is a long way to go, this news this morning is bound to give some courage to the country going forward.