Business News Round Up (06/03/2026)
Scottish footfall falls 3% in February
Scotland’s retail footfall decreased by 3% year-on-year in February – down from 5.1% in January – according to the latest Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) and Sensormatic data. Shopping centre footfall fell by 2.1% in February, down from 4.9% in January, while retail park footfall decreased by 3.2% in February; down from 5.3% in January. In February, footfall in Edinburgh decreased by 2.5% year-on-year, while footfall in Glasgow was down by 3.5%. David Lonsdale, director of the SRC, said this was the weakest performance since last June, although Scotland did fare a bit better than most of the other 11 parts of the UK measured in the survey.
https://www.thebusinessdesk.com/scotland/news/2574-scottish-footfall-falls-3-in-february
North West records significant improvement in PwC’s Women in Work Index
The North West has recorded one of the strongest improvements in the UK for gender equality, according to PwC’s Women in Work Index 2026. PwC’s 2026 Index, now in its 15th year, tracks the progress of women in the workplace across the UK regions and 33 OECD countries using five indicators covering pay, participation, unemployment and full-time employment for women. The North West outperformed the regional average in three out of five key indicators, including: participation rate gap, female full‑time employment and the gender pay gap. The region ranks second across the UK in female full‑time employment, recording a rate of 63.1%, well above the regional average of 59.8%. Among the most significant gains was in the participation rate gap, which narrowed by nearly 2 percentage points (1.97%). This improvement propelled the North West up three places on this indicator.
RBS to ‘turbocharge’ accelerator support to 5,000 Scottish entrepreneurs this year
The Royal Bank of Scotland has announced a substantial increase in its Accelerator Programme to support 5,000 entrepreneurs, ahead of the opening of its new flagship Edinburgh Hub building later this year. The 2026 ambition represents a 10-fold increase over the previous year and is more than all the businesses supported in the previous ten years that the Royal Bank Accelerator Programme has been delivered. The Royal Bank of Scotland Accelerator provides entrepreneurs, from all sectors, with business coaching, support networks and access to expertise from across the Bank at no cost. Since launching its Accelerator App in March 2025, the Bank has seen over 1,500 downloads in Scotland. The Royal Bank of Scotland also currently supports 1,000 businesses through its physical Accelerator Hubs in Glasgow and Edinburgh, which offers meeting and working space to accelerator community members.
One in 7 shops has turned cashless in the past year, survey finds
High Street shops are increasingly accepting only card or phone payments, new research suggests, as traders balance security, costs and the needs of customers. 14% of shops have turned cashless over the last year, according to a survey of small businesses by the UK’s main ATM network Link. The findings highlighted retailers’ efforts to avoid payment charges and tackle security concerns, despite around half of in-store purchases still being made in cash. MPs on the Treasury Committee last year warned of a lack of data on cash acceptance and said the government should be ready to force shops and services to accept cash to protect vulnerable people. They said there was a risk of a two-tier system, potentially pushing up prices in outlets that still accepted cash and creating a poverty premium for those who best budgeted using cash.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm211jnz568o