Business News Round Up (02/04/2024)
£270 million budget hangover hits Scottish hospitality
The Scottish Government’s failure to offer any meaningful support to businesses in its Budget, alongside a lack of action in Westminster, means that the financial investment needed to deliver growth in the industry is at risk. Increases to the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage will see Scottish hospitality’s wage bill increase by £254m. As a sector reliant on its workforce, employment costs make up over half of operating costs. Increases to Intermediate and Higher Property Rate represent a further £17m in business rates. The tax on property heavily penalises community-based businesses, like hospitality. After a collective failure to act in Holyrood and Westminster, UKHospitality is calling on both governments to rebalance the costs that hospitality businesses pay and reduce its financial burden so they can make the investments needed to grow, create communities in which people want to live, work, and invest.
UK firms move more head office roles outside London amid soaring costs
UK companies are increasingly moving head office jobs outside of London, according to new data, amid rising living and housing costs in the capital. Figures from analytics firm Vacancysoft showed that London-based job advertisements in executive management, human resources and marketing made up 41 per cent of all open roles last year, dropping from nearly 50 per cent immediately before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. The North of England and Midlands have gained a bigger share of the total during this period, with Manchester positioning itself as an alternative to London. Recent years have seen more businesses expand outside London in response to inflation raising salaries and remote working trends leading to smaller offices and less reliance on commuting. London saw a 50 per cent drop in traditional head office job listings last year, the most of any region, according to Vacancysoft.
Salmon Scotland labels Brexit red tape as cause of diminished European opportunities
When the United Kingdom left the European Union in January 2020, increased red tape and higher costs ensued for the nation’s seafood sector, especially in Scotland’s salmon-farming industry, which has missed out on £100 million ($126.2 million, €117 million) in annual exports, according to estimates from industry trade body Salmon Scotland. In 2019, the Scottish salmon sector exported more than 53,000 metric tons (MT) to the E.U.; that figure fell to 44,000 MT in 2023. While Salmon Scotland notes export values to the bloc have fallen just 3% since 2019, reaching £356 million ($449.4 million, €416.4 million) in 2023 because strong demand has driven up prices, it calculated that if the sector had just maintained its volumes at 2019 levels, sales would have been above £430 million ($542.8 million, €503 million) last year.
UK tech start ups rank third globally despite $0.5bn drop in investment
The report, based on Tracxn’s extensive database, provides insights into the UK Tech space, and reveals that, while the UK is currently the sixth largest economy globally, its tech startup ecosystem ranks third in terms of funding raised in Q1 2024, after the US and China.This is despite the fact that UK tech startups saw a YoY fall of 18% of funds raised to $2.5bn in Q1 2024, from $3.06 billion raised in the same period in 2023. The figure also represented a 19% quarterly drop from the $3.09 billion raised in Q4 2023.Late-stage investments were the most affected in Q1 2024. Companies in this space secured late-stage funding worth $1.2 billion in Q1 2024 to date, a decline of 33% compared with the $1.8 billion raised in Q4 2023 and an 8% decrease from the $1.3 billion raised in the same period in Q1 2023.