Business News Round Up (26/09/2023)
Energy UK calls for measures to boost renewables investment
Energy UK has published a report which looks at how the UK can attract the investment needed to maintain its role in clean energy, and ensure a secure, homegrown energy supply in future. Accelerating Action, the final report in the trade group’s Clean Growth Gap series, looks at different measures the UK can take to ensure it doesn’t lose out to other countries on the economic opportunities available. Energy UK said the report is timely after recent events like the Prime Minister’s speech on Net Zero and the last Contracts for Difference (CfD) auction results. With an estimated 70% of the funding required for the Net Zero transformation likely to come from the private sector, the report highlights seven actions the UK should take to attract this investment. It advises to change investment incentives in the tax system, so they match the specific characteristics and requirements of low-carbon projects. It also recommends amending the current Electricity Generation Levy to address the disadvantage clean energy projects receive in comparison to oil and gas and the barrier it provides to new projects. The report also wants the Government to ensure the CfD scheme reflects economic realities to avoid any repeat of the last auction round. The importance of a stable and predictable environment for investors and how proposed reforms, indecision and ill-advised rhetoric can adversely affect this, also needs to be better understood, said Energy UK.
https://renews.biz/88421/energy-uk-calls-for-measures-to-boost-renewables-investment/
Northern leaders respond to HS2 uncertainty
Amidst continued speculation surrounding plans to scrap the Birmingham to Manchester leg of the new high speed rail project (HS2), leaders across the North of England have voiced their concern to the government in a bid to ensure the project is completed. HS2 has been a flagship project within the governments levelling up agenda with the new high speed rail having the capacity to transform the economic geography of the country by better connecting cities throughout the Midlands and North West to London. Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, and Leader of Manchester City Council, Cllr Bev Craig, have written to the Prime Minister to express concern about the future of HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail. They wrote: “For over a decade, we have worked closely with successive Governments on this project, to galvanise support and maximise the once in a generation opportunity of investment into northern infrastructure it offers. At this stage, any change to the current plan for HS2 would have massive ramifications not just for our city-region but the North and Midlands too. Our purpose in writing, first and foremost, is to ask you for the courtesy of a meeting before any final decision is taken. We believe we are owed that at the very least. If you were to agree to that, we would convey to you in the strongest possible terms that HS2 should not be scrapped. We believe the North of England needs new North-South and East-West rail infrastructure and should not be forced to choose between them in the same way that London hasn’t been forced such a choice.”
https://bdaily.co.uk/articles/2023/09/25/northern-leaders-respond-to-hs2-uncertainty
British Business Bank supports £12.4bn of finance for SMEs
In some welcome news for UK businesses seeking sources of finance, the British Business Bank has exceeded its target for the amount of financing it has used to support SMEs. The stock of finance supported through the British Business Bank’s core programmes totalled £12.4bn at the end of March 2023, according to the Bank’s annual report released today. The sum exceeded the Bank’s £10.7bn target, supporting more than 90,000 businesses and helping to create a more diverse finance market for smaller businesses. Of the total financing, 99% was provided outside the ‘Big Five’ banks. Identifying the regional imbalances in access to finance for SMEs, the Bank met its target for deployment of finance across the UK’s nations and regions, deploying £1.27bn of finance outside of London. Its regional funds – the Northern Powerhouse, Midlands Engine and Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Investment Funds – invested an additional £152m. This comes ahead of the launch of its new Nations and Regions Investment Funds, which will deliver a £1.6bn commitment of new funding across Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the South West, North of England and Midlands. Of a similar vein, the Bank’s Regional Angels programme made £55m of new commitments, helping to reduce regional imbalances in access to seed and early-stage equity finance for small businesses across the UK.
AI tools could add £400bn to the UK economy by 2030
AI tools and automation could contribute £400bn to the UK economy by the start of the next decade. That is the prediction of the UK tech vendor trade body techUK in a new report, which says this will come primarily from boosts to productivity. However, AI success depends on regulatory clarity from the government, the report warns. TechUK’s report, entitled Making AI Work for Britain, says that as a result of the transformative power of AI, the workplace of tomorrow will be very different to that of today, arguing there is a need to prepare for the “challenges and opportunities of the AI-powered era”. The authors set nine steps to achieve that goal and ensure the country is ready. The UK is already a leader in AI with many of the top labs having a base or office in the country including Google’s DeepMind, Anthropic and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. The country is also trying to cement its position as a leader in legislation through the upcoming Bletchley AI Safety Summit in November.