Business News Round Up (12/11/2020)
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One in four firms cut office space as home-working increases
More than quarter of Scottish firms say they are permanently cutting office space in response to increased home-working, a survey by the Fraser of Allander Institute suggests. But only a tenth of them say that home-working has helped productivity. Half say it has worsened it, and more than half say it has made it more difficult to collaborate, to innovate and to manage staff. The findings are from the long-running, quarterly Scottish Business Monitor, surveying around 500 firms. It found 70% of tourism and hospitality firms surveyed expected to cut staffing in the next few months, and 20% of all firms.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-54907237
Retail and wholesale supply chains ‘won’t return to normal until March’
Retailers and wholesalers do not expect their supply chains to return to normal until at least March 2021, according to new research. Barclays Corporate Banking commissioned YouGov to survey 508 decision-makers at retail and wholesale businesses during August and September, finding that before the pandemic, the average supply chain took five weeks from start to end, but this has since doubled to 10 weeks. A further 61% were concerned that more spikes and lockdowns will cause further shortages, making the switch to e-commerce a top priority for 39% of retailers in Scotland. Despite this, many retailers across the UK have been able to trade on, thanks to a surge in sales. More than half of all retailers (55%) saw an increase in demand, which for almost three quarters (73%) caused temporary product shortages. Among those which saw the biggest increase in orders were DIY and garden (74%), food and drink (63%) and sports and leisure (62%) businesses.
https://www.insider.co.uk/news/retail-wholesale-supply-chains-wont-22997449
Scotland’s financial services exports equivalent to half of those of whole of France
Financial services exports from Scotland accounted for 8.2% of Britain’s total financial services exports last year, according to a new report from TheCityUK. The £9.2 billion worth of exports relates to financial and related professional services and the total was up 7.7% from 2018. Some 37% of Scottish financial services exports went to the EU and the remaining 63% went to the rest of the world. All regions and nations in Britain saw growth in financial and related professional services exports in 2019, the study showed, with the industry’s exports rising overall by 8.2% year-on-year, contributing a total of £126.5 billion to the UK economy.
COVID-19 report reveals massive hit to the North’s health and economy
The North of England’s economy has been hit harder than the rest of the country during the COVID-19 pandemic with inequalities between the North and the rest of the country exacerbated, according to a report launched today. The Northern Health Science Alliance, NIHR Applied Research Collaborations , and the NIHR School of Public Health Research report COVID-19 and the Northern Powerhouse: Tackling Health Inequalities for UK Health and Productivity found that the pandemic hit the North harder and more deeply and that mitigating measures must be put in place to stop inequalities rising further and faster. The report conservatively estimates the economic cost of the increased mortality in the North during the pandemic at £6.86 billion and the reductions in mental health in the region due to the pandemic at around £5 billion a year.
https://aboutmanchester.co.uk/covid-19-report-reveals-massive-hit-to-the-norths-health-and-economy/