Business News Round Up (27/06/2025)
ICAS: Short-term planning won’t solve Scotland’s long-term challenges
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) has urged the Scottish Government to adopt a longer-term approach to financial planning in response to its latest spending figures and future strategy. This call for a more sustainable and transparent fiscal framework comes as the Scottish Government announced it had invested over £52 billion in public services during the 2024-25 period. The Scottish Government’s 2024-25 Provisional Outturn highlighted significant investments, including over £19.5 billion in health and social care and more than £5.9 billion in social security, which supports over 1.4 million people. A key element of this was the Scottish Child Payment, benefiting 326,225 children as of March 2025. The government also noted that the Scottish economy grew by 1.2% in 2024, slightly ahead of the UK’s 1.1% growth. A remaining £557 million, representing 1% of the total budget, has been carried over to the 2025-26 financial year.
Greater Manchester Chamber survey shows economic performance remains volatile
The results of Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce’s latest Quarterly Economic Survey (QES) highlight the impact global uncertainty and rising costs are having on businesses. The QES shows the Greater Manchester economy, like the UK economy, continues to be volatile as businesses deal with issues such as US tariffs and increases in Employer National Insurance contributions. While the service sector continues to perform better than the manufacturing sector, there are concerns growth is being driven more by increases in public spending than business investment. The results were revealed to business leaders at the Q2 Economic Review by Subrahmaniam Krishnan-Harihara, the Chamber’s Deputy Director of Research. Subrahmaniam explained that the GM Index™ (a composite economic indicator created from QES data) was down 2.5 points to 16 (in the previous quarter the Index had fallen nine points to 18.5).
Hospitality employers ‘need policies to support fair work practices’
The Fraser of Allander Institute and the Poverty Alliance, as part of Serving the Future, published a policy briefing which says policy changes are needed to support the hospitality industry and to improve pay and conditions for workers. The briefing says that struggling hospitality workers would benefit from increased fair work practices in the industry. But many employers are hindered by “factors beyond their control” in the implementation of fair work. These include gaps in transport and childcare provision, which create barriers to work for their staff, along with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK’s withdrawal from the EU and the more recent cost-of-living crisis. Hospitality workers face higher than average risks of experiencing in-work poverty. A third of workers spoken to were on zero-hour contracts, or had no contract at all, while the workers’ median hourly pay rate was under the low pay threshold of £11.58.
56% of large EU firms yet to scale a major AI investment
European companies must strengthen the capabilities needed to scale AI faster if they are to address the growing productivity gap and enhance the region’s overall competitiveness, according to a new report released by Accenture. The study highlights the average European worker now produces only 76% as much as their US counterparts, a significant decline from being on par 30 years ago, with persistent underinvestment in technology identified as a major cause. Despite the recent Draghi report into European competitiveness pointing to AI as a potential solution to Europe’s productivity problems, Accenture’s research found that European companies are yet to take full advantage of the AI opportunity. 56% of the 800 large European companies surveyed have yet to scale a major AI investment. Yet if all large (€1 billion+) European companies enhanced their AI capabilities to match those of leading industries, almost €200 billion could be added to annual business revenues.
https://www.digit.fyi/ai-business-investment