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Deloitte, which has 23 offices across the UK including Newcastle, is among the country's leading professional services firms » 
ClimateNE & Climate Change Schools Project support the move to a low-carbon, resilient economy and help businesses avoid risk and realise commercial opportunities. Posts by Jen Atkinson, Krista McKinzey and Harriet Thew » May 6, the expected date for this year's general election, could be a defining day in the history of Teesside business.
It will mark the epiphanic moment when company owners decide whether they will be better off in David Cameron's Age of Austerity or Gordon Brown's racier Age of Aspiration.
Amid the political spin and subterfuge, it's a tough one to call.
The New Year has heralded a series of gunshots from the three main political parties keen to woo voters before the big day.
This week the Prime Minister launched a rigorous riposte to Tory accusations that he has taken the country to the brink of ruin.
But his defiant war-cry - "we can beat them, we must beat them and we will beat them" - rings hollow after the failed call by two ex-ministers to vote on his leadership.
The monumental challenge facing Labour was laid bare by a recent poll which said fewer than one in five voters regarded Labour's record since 1997 as "good" or "excellent". According to the YouGov survey, some 44% thought it had been "poor" or "terrible".
Many on Teesside will go along with this damning indictment, with the Government's limp response to the Corus crisis ringing fresh in the memory.
When it was first announced that the steel giant's Redcar plant was to be mothballed, the silence from the corridors of Whitehall was deafening.
Although Teesside received a belated ã60m boost, much of it was recycled money that was already coming to the region - and Gordon Brown's promises to influence the debate have so far failed to deliver tangible results.
Labour has much to do to win over disillusioned voters and a pre-election pledge to raise National Insurance contributions by 1% from April 2011 will do nothing to sweeten the palette.
And raising the higher rate of tax to 50% will discourage entrepreneurial activity and, at worst, jeopardise London's status as an international finance hub.
But will Teesside business be any better off under a Tory government?
With David Cameron promising to slash public spending more vigorously than the current incumbents, key infrastructure projects could be pulled or postponed, leaving skilled companies short of vital work.
The Tory leader has pledged to help small businesses access new markets and create jobs, but it's not clear how.
Much of the detail behind Conservative policy will become clear after the election, by which time business will have made its choice.
Making a leap into the unknown is a big risk but given Teesside's current perception of Labour, it would be no surprise if austerity triumphed over aspiration on polling day.
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