Business News Round Up (01/07/2022)
British businesses backed by £7.4 billion government support to export around the world
British businesses have been helped to export to 61 countries around the world over the past year with £7.4 billion of government support – providing a significant boost to jobs and the UK economy. The finance provided by UK Export Finance (UKEF) in 2021-22 supported 72,000 UK jobs and added a gross value of £4.3 billion to the economy, meaning more money in people’s pockets and continued job security for British workers. Of those supported by UKEF, 83 per cent were located outside of London and a record 81 per cent were small and medium-sized enterprises, according to the organisation’s annual results published today. The £7.4 billion – the highest level for 14 years – brings the total support over the last five years to £33.4 billion. It helped businesses to recover following the pandemic and is now supporting exporters facing challenges with global supply chains worsened by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. UKEF has stepped up its support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The number of SMEs that benefited from a UKEF support scheme increased by 25% compared to the previous year, with over 560 insurance and guarantee schemes issued. In a new annual record, 81% of the companies UKEF supported directly with a scheme were SMEs. These milestones were underpinned by the ‘game-changing’ General Export Facility – a product designed specifically to give SME exporters more flexibility in accessing trade finance, unlocking almost £250 million of working capital loans.
Region shines in national ranking of fastest growing private firms
Sixteen North West companies feature in this year’s Sunday Times 100 UK fastest growing private companies, the biggest concentration of firms outside London. The regional firms are headed by Everything Genetic, a healthcare services provider, which is ranked fifth in the overall listing of 100 companies published today (July 1) online at sundaytimes.co.uk/100 and in a supplement in the print edition this Sunday. The new annual rankings identifies and celebrates Britain’s 100 leading entrepreneurial businesses and showcases the people behind the UK’s most dynamic private companies. Cheshire-based biotech company Everything Genetic made sales of £35m last year, a staggering 218% a year increase over the past three years. The innovative medical technology business was initially focused on identifying genetic predispositions to cancer, but since 2020 it has manufactured one million PCR tests and 10 million rapid tests, largely for people travelling overseas. James Price, founder and chief executive, announced in March the company had struck a deal with Tesco to supply 1,400 supermarkets with lateral flow tests for sale to the general public. Price also said that the company was going through the approval process to supply COVID testing kits to Australia, America, and countries in the Middle East.
UK’s leading workplace expert urges business leaders to measure employee wellbeing to help improve the health of the economy
Business leaders have been urged to measure employee wellbeing to help improve the happiness of our workforces, the productivity of our organisations and the overall health of the national economy. The advice from Professor Sir Cary Cooper – one of the UK’s leading organisational psychologists – is published in a new report by the National Forum for Health and Wellbeing at Work and Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS). It comes amidst the increasing prominence of wellbeing within policy, business, and academic agendas. According to data from the Health and Safety Executive, more than 800,000 workers suffered from work related stress and anxiety in 2020/21 and more than half reported that this was exacerbated by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. However, this is not the only issue that has impacted the wellbeing of our workforce. Experts from the National Forum for Health and Wellbeing highlight three additional trends that amplify the need for employers to demonstrate that they care about wellbeing. This includes the priority generation Z and millennials place on wellbeing compared to previous generations; the permanence of hybrid working models; and the increased focus from investors on environmental, social and governance indexes, which increasingly includes health and wellbeing considerations.
5G investment could deliver £7bn a year to UK economy
Making the UK an attractive place for investment in future 5G technology is essential if the country is to harness its full economic benefit, and not doing so could cost the economy up to £7bn a year, with towns and smaller cities set to miss out most in the current regulatory and policy environment, according to research commissioned by Vodafone UK. The Vodafone digital ambition 2030 report shows that the benefits of full 5G – developing high-capacity, standalone infrastructure rather than building on top of existing 4G equipment – are enormous, especially for industrial uses such as smart factories, and public services such as hospitals, which will require ultra-reliable and ultra-low-latency communications. However, the report stresses that all this depends on significant investment across all parts of the country, warning that the difference between an attractive and an unattractive investment environment will be worth £7bn a year to the UK economy by 2030 – most of which will be seen outside London and other major cities. The biggest cities previously saw the fastest 4G roll-out and are now well positioned to attract investment in 5G, but smaller cities and medium-sized towns are at risk of missing out if the changes are not made quickly. The report identifies 58 local authority areas that would see a high or very high benefit from a good investment environment for 5G – and would fall further behind if investment continues to be limited to major cities. These are in every region of the UK except London, and include County Durham, Swansea, Midlothian, north-east Somerset, Pendle, and Sheffield.
https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252522205/5G-investment-could-deliver-7bn-a-year-to-UK-economy