Business News Round Up (16/10/2025)
Late payment continues to squeeze Scotland’s SMEs with over half of invoices paid late in last 12 months
Late payments continue to be a strain on the Scottish small business community, according to new research by Edinburgh-headquartered FreeAgent. Analysis of invoices sent by the cloud accounting software company’s small business customers between September 2024 and August 2025 has revealed the shocking late payment statistics for Scotland’s SME sector, with almost two-thirds (61.3%) of invoices paid late. Motherwell and Glasgow are the cities worst affected by the late payments crisis in Scotland, with the former seeing 69.3% of invoices sent during the past year paid late, and the latter experiencing a 67.4% overdue invoice rate. While Dumfries is the city least affected by late payment, its SME community still experiences a staggering rate of 52.3% of invoices not being paid on time. Nationally, Scotland, alongside Wales, both have the lowest proportion of overdue invoices (61.3%) compared to England (62.8%) and Northern Ireland (72.8%).
UK to be second-fastest G7 economy, says IMF
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been given an upbeat assessment of the UK by the International Monetary Fund which expects the UK to have the second-fastest growth among advanced economies next year. The rates of growth remain modest at 1.3% for this year and next, but those forecasts would see the UK outperform all the other G7 economies apart from the US in 2025, slipping back to third fastest in 2026. However, it also says the UK will have the highest annual average inflation in the G7 economies in 2025 and 2026, at 3.4% and 2.5% respectively because of high energy and utility bills. UK inflation is forecast to average 3.4% this year and 2.5% in 2026 but the IMF says this will be “temporary” and fall to 2% by the end of next year.
GM Business Growth Hub launches International Scale Up Programme
Applications for Greater Manchester businesses to join a new fully funded scale-up programme have now opened. ‘International Scale Up’ has been launched by GM Business Growth Hub, specifically for businesses looking to expand their activity overseas. The programme is delivered in partnership with the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the Department for Business and Trade as part of the city-region’s Enhanced Trade Partnership. Starting next month, specialists from all four organisations led by the Hub will guide ambitious businesses through an accelerated programme designed to help them sell more of their products and services overseas. Founders will learn from industry experts on how to scale their team, enter new markets and sharpen their strategy. The programme is open to businesses in any sector or size, as long as they have a scalable product or service ready for international markets.
https://businesscloud.co.uk/news/gm-business-growth-hub-launches-international-scale-up-programme
UK spinouts look to US as scale-up funding stalls
University spinouts are facing a funding bottleneck, with only a handful of emerging companies across critical sectors like AI, quantum, and biotech raising enough to scale, according to the latest figures from Beauhurst. The analytics firm’s latest Equity Investment into Spinouts report, published alongside UK investor Parkwalk, found that although hundreds of spinouts have raised £5m, only 57 have gone on to raise up to £30m. The number of firms reaching the £100 million milestone is even fewer still, and only three have managed to raise more than £500 million over the last five years. According to the report, the dwindling number of spinouts achieving top-tier funding is reflective of the challenge in moving from early-stage rounds to the larger raises required for expansion, a roadblock that requires deeper pools of patient capital and more government support to overcome.
https://www.digit.fyi/uk-spinouts-look-to-us-as-scale-up-funding-stalls/