Business News Round Up (18/08/2026)
Glasgow office take-up hits strongest first half since 2018
Glasgow’s office market recorded its strongest first half since 2018, according to CBRE‘s latest UK office market figures, with year-to-date take-up reaching 309,600 sq ft, up 18% on the same period last year. The momentum built through the second quarter, when take-up rose 58% year-on-year to 169,100 sq ft, Glasgow’s strongest quarterly total in more than a year. The uplift was underpinned by the Home Office’s letting of 80,600 sq ft of refurbished space at 200 Broomielaw, one of the largest lettings recorded across the UK’s regional office markets in Q2. The public sector accounted for the largest share of Glasgow take-up over the past 12 months, at 28%, followed by business services at 17%. Supply in the city remains tight. Availability fell 3% over the quarter to 2.0m sq ft, 19% below the five-year average, with Grade A space making up just 18% of what’s available.
Job vacancies at five-year low as smaller firms scale back recruitment
The number of job vacancies has fallen to its lowest level in more than five years as smaller businesses cut back on recruitment, the latest official figures indicate. Vacancy numbers dipped slightly over the May-to-July period to 707,000, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which said small firms were citing labour and operating costs as reasons for scaling back hiring. The ONS said the labour market was “little changed overall”, with the unemployment rate remaining at 4.9%. Growth in regular earnings – which excludes bonuses – picked up slightly, although private sector wages grew at their slowest rate for nearly six years. Regular earnings grew at an overall annual pace of 3.5% in the three months to June, the ONS said. Pay growth for the public sector was 6.1%, due to the timing of the latest NHS pay awards, while in the private sector it dipped to 2.8%.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn9nwx090v9o
Take-up of big box industrial space softens in the North West while Grade A rents grow
Take-up of big box industrial space has softened across the North West, according to the latest Savills Big Shed Briefing. It says take-up reached 1.28 million sq-ft in the first half of the year, a drop of 15.5% on the same period in 2025 and 35% below the long-term pre-Covid average. Availability of space grew by 9.4% to 8.28 million sq-ft, resulting in a vacancy rate of 8.46% and equivalent to approximately 20 months’ supply. The increase is largely down to second-hand units entering the market, with 1.77 million sq-ft of second-hand space becoming available. The majority of available space is new Grade A stock but is mostly between 100,000 and 300,000 sq-ft, meaning occupiers seeking larger premises have fewer options and must rely on the second-hand market. There is clear demand from occupiers for top-tier buildings, whether from new speculative developments like Atlantic Park in Liverpool, or refurbished space.
DataVita secures £300m funding to expand in Scotland’s AI Growth Zone
DataVita has secured a £300m debt facility to expand and build two data centres in the North Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone. The facility, unlocked by a £202m financial guarantee from the National Wealth Fund, has been raised with participation from a syndicate of lenders including ING (advisor and coordinator), ABN AMRO, Santander (agent), the Scottish National Investment Bank and Siemens Financial Services through Siemens Bank. The National Wealth Fund’s guarantee is provided against the £252.5m of lending delivered by ING, ABN AMRO and Santander equating to 80% of this tranche. The remaining portion provided by SNIB and Siemens Financial Services is uncovered. The investment will expand DataVita’s existing DV1 data centre and fund the construction of a new data centre, DV3. The capacity of both is contracted to AI cloud firm CoreWeave, the infrastructure provider to many of the world’s leading AI labs, under a 15-year lease agreement.