Business News Round Up (02/07/2026)
London attracts almost £7bn in equity investment
The British Business Bank’s annual Small Business Equity Tracker reveals that London attracted the highest level of equity investment in the UK during 2025, with announced deals totalling £6,982m. The North West (£1,230m) and East of England (£1,022) ranked second and third, respectively. Although the number of announced deals fell by 18% to 957, London remains the largest equity investment hub in the UK. Investment value also dipped slightly from the previous year, falling by 9%. In 2025 London made up nearly half of UK equity deals. London’s more resilient investment value is indicative of investors concentrating capital into fewer, larger transactions, also a broader trend across the UK. The top 10 UK fundraisings accounted for 23% of all investment, the highest level since 2020. For example, in the North West and South West deal numbers decreased while investment value increased significantly owing to significant single deals in the regions.
Scotland sees huge rise in equity investment as London dominance wanes
Scotland recorded a 74% rise in equity investment value in 2025, defying a wider UK trend that saw overall equity funding into smaller businesses fall slightly (by 4%), according to new research from the British Business Bank. Published today, the Bank’s annual Small Business Equity Tracker shows that Scotland attracted significantly higher levels of investment despite a decline in overall deal numbers, as a smaller number of larger transactions drove growth. London’s traditional dominance declined again in 2025, with its share of equity investment falling from 60% to 57%. Against this backdrop, Scotland was among the strongest-performing nations and regions of the UK, alongside the South West and North West of England. Overall, the number of equity deals in Scotland fell in 2025, reflecting tighter funding conditions seen across the wider UK market. However, the increase in investment value highlights continued investor confidence in Scotland’s strongest sectors and innovation clusters.
https://www.digit.fyi/scotland-equity-investment
Centre for Cities report reveals Greater Manchester as leading big UK city for growth and productivity
The Big Cities Outlook report by Centre for Cities has highlighted how Greater Manchester is among the best performing cities in the UK for growth and productivity. It sets out how the government can achieve its objectives of raising living standards ‘everywhere, felt by everyone’, focused on the UK’s largest cities and surrounding city-regions outside the capital: Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, and Sheffield. These cities are centres for the UK’s most productive industries and home to the greatest concentrations of skilled workers, while representing 15% of the UK economy, and 16% of its population. Over the last decade, Manchester and the city-region have recorded a 19.7% increase in job growth, significantly above the UK average of 13.9%. Growth has also been supported by a strong commercial property sector, with a pipeline of high-quality office space continuing to help attract and support business growth.
Glasgow among UK’s worst offenders for late company accounts filings
Nearly 100,000 UK companies have missed the legal deadline to file their annual accounts, with Glasgow ranking among the country’s worst areas for late submissions, new analysis has found. Research by Zmartly, based on more than five million active companies listed at Companies House, found 98,151 businesses are overdue on filing their annual accounts – around one in every 51 companies. Glasgow was the fifth worst-performing postcode area in the UK, with 2.38% of companies filing their accounts late. Only Cardiff (3.01%), North London (2.52%), the City of London (2.52%) and Central London (2.47%) recorded higher rates. Manchester followed Glasgow on 2.33%. The analysis also highlighted a “first-year cliff” for new businesses. Companies aged between 18 and 24 months had a late filing rate of 11.73%, meaning almost one in eight missed the deadline. By comparison, only 1.46% of firms trading for more than a decade filed late.