Business News Round Up (09/01/2020)
High street shops suffer ‘worst year on record’
Retailers in the UK have experienced their worst year on record as overall sales fell, according to the latest British Retail Consortium Retail Monitor. The data revealed that total sales over the year fell by 0.1% compared with 1.2% growth in 2018 – marking the first annual sales decline since 1995.
https://dailybusinessgroup.co.uk/2020/01/high-street-shops-suffer-worst-year-on-record/
North West named the most entrepreneurial region outside London by government Start Up Loans programme
New research shows that government backed programme for entrepreneurs, Start Up Loans, provided more funding for the North West than any other region in the UK, outside London. Start Up Loans supported 8,366 new businesses in the North West, providing £65 million of funding in total. The North West outperformed the South East region, which received £52 million in funding, and is second only to the capital in both the number of start-ups supported, and the total lent.
FinTech Scotland hails surge in financial tech firms setting up north of the Border
FinTech Scotland, a joint initiative by financial services firms, the University of Edinburgh, Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise, has celebrated its second anniversary by announcing that the number of fintech businesses as increased 60% in the past 12 months. FinTech Scotland revealed that the number of innovative fintech SMEs had grown from 72 to 199 over the past year, supported by the growth in new start-ups such as Visible Capital, SecureTheFile, Open Banking Research, Contract2Pay, Digital Future Capital, Guiide amongst many others.
Cheshire East retains title of most sustainable North West economy
Cheshire East has retained its position as the most sustainable place based economy in the North West according to the Sustainable Growth Index by business and financial adviser Grant Thornton. The index ranks 324 English local authority areas against six socioeconomic measure to provide a view of strengths and areas of opportunity.