Business News Round Up (11/02/2022)
SME’s call for Government support to help businesses go green
A new report reveals SME owners across the country are calling for more government funding to help businesses go green this year (87%), as over a third state their customers care about what their business is doing for the environment along with their own employees (24%). The annual 2022 business challenges report carried out by card payments specialist take payments Limited, surveyed SME business owners and decision-makers across the UK to discover the current small business landscape for the year ahead. While the report findings reveal coronavirus restrictions as the biggest concern for small business owners for the year ahead (27%), around one in four (22%) state environment and sustainability challenges as the biggest concern for their business (22%), second to coronavirus. This is due to a number of factors including worries of changing policies in relation to the environment (27%), concerns over customer demands for more sustainable products and processes (10%) as more than a fifth (18%) of business owners state they have noticed their customers caring more about sustainability over the past year, as well as pressures around sustainability and green initiatives in general (29%).
UK economy shrinks less than expected
The UK economy shrank less than expected in December as activity to combat the Omicron variant helped offset the virus’s impact on services, official figures showed. Output fell 0.2% from November to December in the largest contraction since January 2021, the Office for National Statistics said. The drop was smaller than the 0.6% average decline forecast by economists in a Reuters poll. Services output fell 0.5%, driven by a 3.2% drop in wholesale and retail trade, where footfall was affected by the spread of the Omicron variant. Accommodation and food services output dropped 9.2% as people cancelled trips and stayed away from pubs and restaurants. The effect of Covid-19 on services was partly offset by growth in coronavirus testing and vaccinations, which together added 0.7 percentage point to gross domestic product. Manufacturing output rose 0.2% and construction increased 2%. The economy expanded by 1% in the fourth quarter of 2021, but GDP remained 0.4% lower than the final quarter of 2019. That performance contrasts with the US, France and Canada which have all outstripped their pre-pandemic level.
Retailers cancel contracts with ‘unethical’ suppliers
Almost one in five (17 %) retailers in Scotland has cancelled contracts over the last year with suppliers who fail to meet stringent ethical and sustainable standards, according to new research. Across the UK, six contracts are cancelled per retailer, with an average value of £306,000 per contract. Cumulatively, £7.1bn worth of contracts have been cancelled across the industry over the last 12 months. The most common reasons for cancelling contracts with suppliers were use of unsustainable materials (39%); unfair working hours (37%); lack of membership to trade body that monitors ethical and sustainable standards (32%). The research shows how the pandemic and an increasing focus on Environment, Sustainability and Governance (ESG) are shifting business priorities and confirming changing attitudes following the COP26 summit in Glasgow. In a study of more than 300 retail decision makers, 51% in Scotland say sustainability is more important now than it was two years ago and 49% say the same about ethical standards.
Openreach to recruit 540 North West staff in coming year
Telecoms giant Openreach said it will create and fill around 540 jobs in the North West this year, including more than 400 apprenticeships. The recruitment drive is linked to the roll-out and delivery of its multibillion-pound UK broadband network which is on track to reach 25 million UK homes and businesses by December 2026. In total, Openreach will create 4,000 jobs nationwide in the biggest recruitment exercise in its history. And it said it is committed to creating a more diverse workforce. Last year it attracted 600 women into trainee engineering roles – more than double the previous year. Openreach also plans to retrain more than 3,000 of its existing engineers during the next year, changing their focus from fixing older, copper-based technologies to installing and maintaining faster, more reliable fibre connections. More than 3,950 Openreach people already live and work in the North West. Openreach’s full fibre broadband rollout has already reached more than 830,000 local homes and businesses. Just last month, a further 196,000 were added to the build programme.