Business News Round Up (18/05/2021)
Insolvency and restructuring profession rescued 297,000 UK jobs in 2019, report shows
THE insolvency and restructuring profession rescued 297,000 jobs and returned £1.82bn to creditors in insolvency cases in 2019 – the equivalent of around 800 jobs and £5m a day, according to a new report from R3, the insolvency and restructuring trade body. The report, “The value of the profession: how insolvency and restructuring supports the UK economy”, is based on responses to a survey of representatives of 71 companies from the insolvency and restructuring profession in the UK carried out by Savanta ComRes. Of the £1.82bn members of the insolvency and restructuring profession returned to creditors in 2019, £353m was from corporate insolvency and restructuring cases, and £1.47bn from personal insolvency cases. R3’s research also shows the profession rescued a total of 7,200 UK businesses in 2019, with nearly four out of ten (39%) businesses advised by R3 members still open after their insolvency procedure concluded. Further findings include the discovery that the insolvency and restructuring profession advised 60,000 businesses and 144,000 individuals in 2019, with an average of £13,300 returned to creditors upon completion of each personal insolvency procedure.
The UK unemployment rate dropped to 4.8% in the first quarter as the country prepared to reopen from lockdown
The UK unemployment rate fell to 4.8% in the first three months of the year despite strict coronavirus lockdowns as the government’s wage-subsidy scheme continued to support the labour market and the outlook for the economy brightened, official figures showed on Tuesday. Separate data showed the number of employees on payrolls increased for the fifth straight month in April, while vacancies continued to pick up. Yet the number of payrolled workers was 772,000 below pre-pandemic levels, with the young bearing the brunt of the job losses. The headline unemployment rate of 4.8% was down from 5.1% in the final quarter of 2020, when COVID-19 cases soared, causing new restrictions to be put in place in January. But it was 0.8 percentage points higher than a year earlier, the Office for National Statistics said.
Report warns that without facing seismic changes the UK’s economy could face an Italian style decline
The UK is facing a ‘decisive decade’ of change as five seismic economic shifts – the Covid aftermath, Brexit, the Net Zero transition, an older population and rapid technological change come together and wrong decisions could risks ‘Italian style’ relative decline A new report out this morning warns that economic strategy must be rebuilt in light of these shifts, and the opportunities and challenges they create, or we risk leaving the nation diminished, divided, and falling further behind its competitors. This is the challenge to be examined, and answered, in The Economy 2030 Inquiry – a ground-breaking new collaboration between the Resolution Foundation and the Centre for Economic Performance at the LSE, funded by the Nuffield Foundation. The UK’s decisive decade – the launch report for The Economy 2030 Inquiry – says that the country is on the brink of a decade of major change, with the 2020s likely to define Britain for many decades to come.
Hunter Foundation launches Scottish digital scale-up programme
Scottish entrepreneurs are being given the opportunity to learn from business leaders as part of a new online programme, Scale Up Scotland Digital. Complementing the existing in-person Scale Up Scotland programme, the new digital offering means more Scottish business leaders can benefit from the resources available, while still collaborating and accessing peer-support through the online forums. Delivered by The Hunter Foundation, the programme backs findings made in a recent report published by Oxford Economics, which indicated radical change was needed to significantly boost Scotland’s economic growth, including fostering more scale-ups. The programme will provide entrepreneurs with the chance to access learning modules on all elements of business, from value proposition, to culture, through to direct-to-consumer (DTC) strategy and business models. Each module has been created by either a successful business leader who has mastered this area of business and can not only share their expertise, but also their learnings, or an academic with a wealth of knowledge on the subject.
https://www.insider.co.uk/news/hunter-foundation-launches-scottish-digital-24125124