Business News Round Up (18/02/2022)
Investment in commercial property rises 50%
Investment into Scottish commercial property rose by 50% last year to reach £2.2 billion in 2021 according to the latest Scotland Snapshot from Colliers. The figure compares with the £1.4bn recorded in 2020 and is above the 10-year average of £2 billion. Retail, which experienced a bounce back in investment saw volumes reach £530 million, a three-year high. There were particularly high levels of activity in the retail warehouse sector – driven by online shopping – which reached £300m, 75% above the 10-year average. While shopping centre investment remained almost 40% below the 10-year average it did reach a five year high of £160m – the last four years recorded volumes of below £50m. The office investment market reached £640m in 2021, up significantly on the £380m recorded in 2020 but just shy of the 10-year average of £680m. Cross-border capital accounted for around 45% of all office investment by value last year, notes Colliers.
Retail sales rebound in January as Omicron eases
UK retail sales rebounded by 1.9% in January as shoppers returned to the High Street after the Omicron disruption in December. Department stores, garden centres and other non-food shops saw strong growth with a 3.4% rise, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. However, food sales fell below their pre-pandemic level for the first time. January’s better-than expected growth followed a 4% fall in December when new pandemic restrictions were imposed. ONS director of economic statistics Darren Morgan said January’s rebound was “the biggest monthly rise since the shops reopened last spring”. He added: “It was a good month for garden centres, department and household goods stores, with particularly strong trading for furniture and lighting. “Food sales fell below their pre-pandemic level for the first time, though, as more people returned to eating out and there was also anecdotal evidence suggesting higher demand for takeaways and meal-subscription kits.” A rise in High Street footfall towards the end of the month meant that the proportion of online sales dropped to its lowest level since March 2020, the ONS said.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60427985
Scottish Enterprise forecasts £24.4m of new investment from latest unlocking ambition cohorts
Scottish Enterprise has forecast £24.4m of direct investment will be generated from entrepreneurs from its unlocking ambition programme – supporting 552 jobs. The enterprise agency forecasted the impact of its £1.3m support package for the third cohort of its flagship business growth and leadership programme unlocking ambition. The latest group of entrepreneurs, who joined the nationwide programme in September 2021 and will graduate at the end of March, has calculated that over the next three years it will: Leverage £12.2m of research and development investment and £12.2m of capital investment; Experience revenue growth of £114m – including £47.3m from exports; Create 365 new real living wage jobs AND safeguard 187 existing posts; Create £102m worth of new products and services; Support 60 days of real living wage internships for Saltire Scholars working to help the cohort expand their export sales. Its latest crop of 36 entrepreneurs represent 30 early-stage companies with plans to scale over the next few years.
https://www.insider.co.uk/news/scottish-enterprise-forecasts-124m-new-26257129
Tech roles in UK surpass pre-covid levels
Tech roles in the UK surpass pre-pandemic levels, beating 2018 record as tech receives record investment.The number of tech jobs in England and Wales reached record levels in 2021, with tech firms publishing more IT vacancies in the last year than all British businesses combined did in 2020, a new labour market report says. According to global recruitment consultancy Robert Walters and data analytics firm Vacancysoft, there were more than 12,800 new vacancies for tech professionals in 2021, a rise of 105% year-on-year, and 57.3% more compared with the previous annual high set in 2018. Technology companies accounted for 53.8% of all new IT vacancies in England and Wales, up 3.5 percentage points year-on-year and nearly 10 points higher than 2018.