Business News Round Up (13/09/2022)
UK trade deficit widens while exports to EU hit record high
The UK trade gap widened to a near all-time high in the three months to July as a result of surging energy imports following the war in Ukraine and weak export performance, according to new data on Monday. The war also resulted in exports to the EU rising to the highest level on record, as the UK increased its gas flows from other countries to the bloc after Russia cut energy supplies to Europe. Data from the Office for National Statistics showed that trade in goods and services’ deficit, excluding precious metals, widened by £1.2bn to £27bn in the three months to July compared with the previous quarter, a near-record since comparable data was first collected in 1997. William Bain, head of trade policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, a business association, said the overall trade picture was “concerning”. He added that the data “demonstrate the case for the UK government to refresh its export strategy to prioritise export-led growth as a greater proportion of UK economic growth”. The widening was caused by the surging value of imports, reflecting rising energy prices because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a weak export market.
https://www.ft.com/content/47fe0d2a-6e87-4f30-8212-3b37f7f099e4
New initiative launched to support Scottish scale-ups
A new business event aimed at supporting the best scale-up companies in Scotland has been launched in Edinburgh today. Invest2Scale aims to help revenue-generating Scottish companies by providing them with direct access to investors and venture capital firms. A selected group of 10 to 12 company founders will be invited to participate in a showcase event on 2 November at Edinburgh’s Dovecot Studios. The audience will be made up of senior figures from the UK and global investment community and the event will feature networking sessions, industry discussions and other scale-up focused activities. Invest2Scale has been conceived by law firm MBM Commercial, accountants Chiene + Tait, recruitment firm Eden Scott and Angel Capital Scotland (formerly Linc Scotland). The companies are also in discussion with a number of key sponsors and will announce further details of these in the next few weeks. Stuart Hendry, senior partner at MBM Commercial, said: “Invest2Scale addresses a gap in the market by targeting revenue-generating companies with significant scalability. “It does this in person as there is major value in bringing company founders and investors together in the same venue as opposed to attempting this interaction through online facility – this event is designed to enable strong businesses to progress to a higher level and to lay the foundations in creating the next Scottish unicorn.”
https://www.insider.co.uk/news/new-initiative-launched-support-scottish-27968662
UK financial services spread beyond London
The report from TheCityUK – the trade body representing the financial and related professional services industry – showed that more than two-thirds of the 2.2 million jobs in the sector were now to be found in towns and cities outside the capital. According to data in the report, Enabling Growth Across the UK 2022, there was a 12.5 per cent increase in employment numbers over the decade to 2020.All regions and nations across the UK saw the value of their financial and related professional services’ output grow by between 15 and 49 per cent, the report said. The largest growth in economic output outside of London was seen in Wales (up 46 per cent), the East of England (45 per cent) and Northern Ireland (37 per cent). The North West, Northern Ireland and the East of England showed the greatest percentage increases in local employment outside the capital, recording rises of 26 per cent, 19 per cent and 16 per cent respectively. And although London firmly remained the UK’s largest financial centre in 2020, almost half the industry’s £238 billion economic contribution came from outside the capital, notably from cities such as Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, and Manchester, each of which now has more than 30,000 financial and related professional services jobs.
New data skills academy to address ‘worrying’ shortage of qualified tech workers
A new data skills academy will help address the ‘worrying’ shortage of qualified tech workers in Scotland. The Data Lab – Scotland’s national innovation centre for data and AI – is expanding the content and reach of its industry-leading MSc programmes to include more specific employability skills training for students. As part of a drive to increase the talent pipeline for tech firms, the centre’s new ‘Data Lab Academy’ will help create a larger “industry-ready national tech workforce” from within Scotland’s own universities, said Heather Thomson, head of skills at The Data Lab. The launch of The Data Lab Academy comes after alarming new analysis by The UK’s Digital Economy Council in June revealed more than one tenth (13.2 per cent) of all job vacancies in Scotland is now in the tech sector, with demand for data analysts rising by more than 500 per cent since 2019. Since its launch in 2015, more than 800 students have completed The Data Lab’s MSc programme, equipping them with the most-relevant skills demanded by business and industry. Crucially, students have been able to secure an 8–12-week, paid work placement at the end of their studies aimed at sharpening their commercial skills and offering potential employers the ability to recruit additional support on vital data and AI projects.