First Minister and Scottish Chambers of Commerce issue joint call for investment to support growth
A joint call for investment has been issued to the Chancellor on the eve of the UK Budget from Scottish Government and Scottish Chambers of Commerce.
Speaking to business leaders at a reception with the Scottish Chambers of Commerce yesterday (Tuesday 29 October), First Minister John Swinney said: “My Government is committed to growing the economy to generate the wealth to invest in our public services and eradicate child poverty.
“We want to use that investment to create a partnership between government and business that will make the most of Scotland’s many economic opportunities.
“It takes political willpower to adapt and evolve our economies and grow thriving societies in all four nations – something the Chancellor can signal by including steps to advance the Acorn carbon capture and storage project in the UK Budget, which would provide new opportunities for workers in the oil and gas sector in Grangemouth and in other parts of Scotland.
“The Office for Budget Responsibility highlighted recently the potential for public investment to deliver permanent improvements in the economy. It is welcome that my calls for the Chancellor to amend her fiscal rules have been heard, with indications last week that there will be scope for greater investment.
“The Chancellor has the chance to choose to deliver a UK Budget that invests in our public services and supports the entrepreneurial spirit displayed in Scotland’s business sector.
“With these new rules in place the Chancellor must use the fiscal headroom they create to deliver a Budget that immediately and significantly enhances Scotland’s resource and capital funding, enabling us to invest more in our public services and take forward the vital infrastructure projects that support economic growth, net zero, and action to tackle child poverty.”
Scottish Chambers of Commerce Chief Executive Dr Liz Cameron CBE said: “Our budget focus is on growth, investment and competitiveness. That means investing in skills, technology and infrastructure, and equipping the workforce for tomorrow’s challenges.
“The Chancellor’s actions and the message they send will directly impact business confidence and investment at a time when we need to create positive momentum. We hope that our calls to support business have been listened to and not ignored.”
Chancellor confirms the NHS will receive funding needed to deliver extra 40,000 elective appointments per week
Chancellor and Health Secretary confirm funding plans to increase elective appointments ahead of the Budget tomorrow.
New funding and reform puts the NHS on course to reduce waiting lists.
Additional capital investment will further support reduced waiting times, with £1.5bn for new surgical hubs and scanners, alongside £70 million for new radiotherapy machines.
Funding to support the delivery of an extra two million NHS operations, scans and appointments a year to significantly cut waiting lists across England has been announced by the Chancellor and Health Secretary today. This comes following over a decade of neglect and underinvestment of the NHS.
Ahead of her Budget on Wednesday, the Chancellor has confirmed that the NHS will receive the funding needed to deliver an extra 40,000 elective appointments per week, delivering on one of the Government’s First Steps in office to reduce waiting times in the NHS. This includes an additional £1.8bn the government has invested in elective activity this year since the July Statement.
This will be supported by a significant uplift of capital investment, with new capacity including surgical hubs and scanners, meaning thousands of additional procedures and millions of diagnostic tests across the country, alongside funding for new radiotherapy machines to improve cancer treatment.
In his recent independent investigation into the NHS in England, Lord Darzi highlighted that the NHS is in “critical condition”. Patients across England are waiting too long, with the waiting list at over 7.6 million in August. In the same month, over 280,000 had been waiting for an operation, scan or appointment for over a year.
Today’s announcement is an integral step in reducing the waiting list and puts the NHS on course to meet the commitment that 92% of people wait less than 18 weeks to start treatment in the NHS.
The Chancellor’s budget tomorrow will set out how this government will fix the foundations to deliver change, by fixing the NHS and rebuilding Britain, while ensuring working people don’t face higher taxes in their payslips.
It will focus on “investment, investment, investment” in order to get the economy moving again and demonstrate how this government will take the long-term decisions needed to grow the economy and restore the country’s public services.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said: “Our NHS is the lifeblood of Britain. It exemplifies public services at their best, there for us when we need it and free at the point of use, for everyone in this country.
“That’s why I am putting an end to the neglect and underinvestment it has seen for over a decade now.
“We will be known as the government that took the NHS from its worst crisis in its history, got it back on its feet again and made it fit for the bright future ahead of it.”
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said: “Our NHS is broken, but it’s not beaten, and this Budget is the moment we start to fix it.
“The Chancellor is backing the NHS with new investment to cut waiting lists, which stand at an unacceptable 7.6 million today. Alongside extra funding, we’re sending crack teams of top surgeons to hospitals across the country, to reform how they run their surgeries, treat more patients, and make the money go further.”
Building an NHS fit for the future is one of this Government’s five priority missions; but it is clear that alongside sustainable investment, the NHS will need significant reform across the board to be truly transformed.
The Chancellor has therefore confirmed an ambitious reform programme across health and social care in England, including reforming the delivery of elective activity and patient pathways. Billions of pounds are set to be invested in technology and digital innovations across the NHS to boost productivity and unlock significant savings for the NHS in the long-term.
The funding comes after the Government last week launched ‘Change NHS: help build a health service fit for the future’, a national conversation to help develop the 10 Year Health Plan, which will set out our long-term vision for health and the path to delivering the three shifts to reform and transform health: hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention.
Starting this week, the NHS will help people back to health and back to work by sending teams of top clinicians to hospitals across the country to help roll out reforms to cut waiting lists in hospitals – which will start with those in areas of the highest economic inactivity.
Prime Minister will say government’s first Budget will fix the foundations to deliver on the promise of change.
Keir Starmer will reject austerity, chaos and decline in favour of economic stability, investment and reform.
He will pledge ‘better days are ahead’ with an economic plan that will rebuild Britain and deliver sustainable, long-term investment to put more money in people’s pockets and deliver stronger public services.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer will today (Monday 28 October) pledge that his government’s first Budget will put Britain on a new path, one that chooses long-term growth to put more money in working people’s pockets and rebuild public services instead of a return to austerity.
Setting out the defining and central purpose of the government’s agenda to protect working people from the dire inheritance, he will say: “It is working people who pay the price when their government fails to deliver economic stability.
“They’ve had enough of slow growth, stagnant living standards and crumbling public services. They know that austerity is no solution. And they’ve seen the chaos when politicians let borrowing get out of control.
“We choose a different path: honest, responsible, long-term decisions in the interests of working people. It’s stability that means we can invest, and reform that will maximise that investment.
“Stability, investment, reform. That’s how we fix the NHS, rebuild Britain and protect working people’s payslips. Delivering on the mandate of change.”
The Prime Minister will say that the country faces unprecedented challenges after the last government covered up the state of the public finances and crumbling public services:
“We have to be realistic about where we are as a country. This is not 1997, when the economy was decent but public services were on their knees. And it’s not 2010, where public services were strong, but the public finances were weak. These are unprecedented circumstances.
“And that’s before we even get to the long-term challenges ignored for fourteen years. An economy riddled with weakness on productivity and investment. A state that needs urgent modernisation to face down the challenge of a volatile world.
“But I won’t offer it as an excuse. I expect to be judged on my ability to deal with this. Politics is always a choice. It’s time to choose a clear path, and embrace the harsh light of fiscal reality so we can come together behind a credible, long-term plan.
“It’s time we ran towards the tough decisions, because ignoring them set us on the path of decline. It’s time we ignored the populist chorus of easy answers… we’re never going back to that.”
Setting out his economic plan to drive growth across the country, the Prime Minister will say fixing the foundations through stability and investment brings benefits to everyone:
“If people want to criticise the path we choose, that’s their prerogative. But let them then spell out a different direction. If they think the state has grown too big, let them tell working people which public services they would cut.
“If they don’t see our long-term investment in infrastructure as necessary, let them explain to working people how they would grow the economy for them.
“This is an economic plan that will change the long-term trajectory on British growth for the better.
“We are tackling the biggest challenges in our economy. Higher investment – we’re dealing with it. Planning – we’re reforming it. The labour market – we’re getting people back to work, but also making work pay. On competition, we’re stripping out the needless regulation that holds back growth and private investment. And all of this built on that foundation, economic stability.
“This is what fixing the foundations and delivering change means. Everyone in this country will benefit from this. Everyone can wake up on Thursday and understand that a new future is being built, a better future.”
Warning from the self-catering sector that a punishing regulatory framework will simply cost jobs and do nothing to resolve Edinburgh’s housing crisis
A new independent analysis shows short-term lets make a substantial economic impact in Edinburgh while only making up a tiny percentage of the total number of properties in the city.
BiGGAR Economics, a respected Edinburgh-based consultancy, calculated that the city’s short-term let sector generated £154m in GVA and supported 5,580 jobs in 2023, with guests spending more on local goods and services than the average visitor, particularly in hospitality, tourism and retail sectors.
Jointly commissioned by Justice for Scotland’s Self-Catering and STL Solutions, BiGGAR’s report lays out the economic and fiscal impacts of STLs in Edinburgh, its wider sectoral impact supporting business and tourism activity, and also assesses its effect on housing supply.
The report concludes that the share of secondary lets – properties entirety rented out entirely to guests rather than owner occupied – account for just 0.8% of dwellings in Edinburgh. Moreover, the number of long-term empty properties continues to rise, including in the period after licencing was introduced, with the city remaining a hotspot for empty housing.
The study comes as Edinburgh Council consult on their licensing scheme and the Scottish Parliament’s Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee will shortly take oral evidence from stakeholders on the Scottish Government’s STL implementation update report.
The key headlines include:
The self-catering sector is estimated to generate £154m GVA and supports 5,580 jobs.
A decrease in just 0.5% in the number of secondary let properties would have massive ramifications for the local economy, losing £57m in economic activity.
Empty properties far exceed the number of short-term lets in the city, with secondary lets making up just 0.8% of dwellings in Edinburgh compared to 4% for empty homes.
While it focuses on Edinburgh, the report will undoubtedly be of interest to other local authorities monitoring the impact of their short-term let regulations.
The findings have been shared with Edinburgh Council and the Scottish Government. The self-catering industry is committed to evidence-based policymaking, ensuring that robust and reliable data underpins public policy affecting the self-catering industry and wider tourism sector.
The industry continues to argue that the Scottish Government’s short-term let regulations have produced unintended consequences for the sector while failing to meet its underlying policy objectives, and Edinburgh’s approach in particular has been beset by three legal setbacks, most recently with the Council’s u-turn on issuing three-month suspensions on licensing applications.
Graeme Blackett, Director of BiGGAR Economics, said:“This independent research has found that the economic impacts of short-term lets will tend to be greater than residential use.
“This is a result of guest spending in the local economy, for example in the hospitality sector. The guest spending supports jobs in the Edinburgh economy, as well as sustaining a greater range of hospitality and other local businesses than would otherwise be the case, contributing to the quality of life for residents.
“The short-term lets sector is contributing at least £154 million to the Edinburgh economy each year. Our research also found that short-term let properties account for only 1.5% of Edinburgh’s housing stock, with secondary lets at only 0.8%, too low a proportion to have a meaningful impact on the local housing market.”
Fiona Campbell, CEO of the ASSC, said: “This major research study verifies that secondary lets are a huge economic driver for the capital, supporting over 5,500 jobs, and providing a much-needed boost to other local tourism and hospitality businesses.
“It outlines a proper holistic assessment of Edinburgh’s unique housing market, showing that secondary lets only account for 0.8% of housing stock. For us, the message is clear: you can’t solve a housing crisis by producing a crisis in Scottish tourism by decimating local businesses.
“Instead, we’ve got to build our way out and tackle the increasing problem of empty homes. We sincerely hope that this independent study can help refocus the policy agenda and inform the ongoing regulatory discussions.”
Iain Muirhead, Co-Founder of STL Solutions, said:“Short-term lets play a crucial role not only in supporting Edinburgh’s thriving tourism industry, which benefits all residents, but also in accommodating hundreds of visitors each year who come for economically important purposes such as work, festivals, and the education sector.
“We hope that local councillors will take this report into consideration when shaping local policies, especially planning regulations, to ensure a balanced approach is achieved. As the report indicates, overly restrictive measures could lead to the emergence of a black market, undermining the objectives of a well-regulated licensing scheme.”
Ralph Averbuch, Spokesman for JfSCC, said: “This report clearly demonstrates that full time Scottish Self-Catering operators have never been the issue. Yet we have been hounded as if killing off this vital part of Scotland’s tourism offering would be a magic cure for decades of government missteps.
“Politicians of all colours felt we were useful scapegoats but this economic analysis pinpoints that the problem is population growth and insufficient affordable house building. This problem will never be resolved by attacking a group which makes up less than 1% of Edinburgh housing.
“What’s needed is bold government action on housebuilding. Politicians have pretended that a crackdown on Scotland’s self-caterers is bold. It’s not. It’s been a master class in misdirection.”
Budget speculation, the economy returns to growth, the impact of cuts, and the disability employment gap
Three weeks still to go, and speculation about what will be in the Budget on 30th October continues (writes Fraser of Allander Institute’s MAIRI SPOWAGE, SANJAM SURI and EMMA CONGREVE).
Will the Chancellor change her fiscal rules? It looks likely that there will be some movement on this, whether in the definition of debt or something more fundamental, however much that could undermine their commitments in the manifesto.
Will there be increases in Capital Gains Tax? The speculation on this has reached fever pitch, with some stories suggested rates from 33% to 39% are being considered. (Interestingly, when we look at the ready reckoners from the HMRC, changes of this magnitude in some forms of CGT actually may result in less revenue when behavioural effects are taken into account). There certainly seems to be expectations out there in the economy that the rate may change, with lots of signs that disposals have increased hugely in anticipation.
Will there be increases to employer national insurance contributions? There has been much discussion about this, given the commitment of the UK Government not to “raise taxes on working people”, and due to the fact that the PM would not rule this out this week. A 1 percentage point rise in employers NICS would raise almost £9bn according to the ready reckoner (although we think that doesn’t include the additional costs to departments).
We’ll be going into the detail of some of these issues in the run up to the Budget, so there will be plenty for you all to chew over as we wait… and wait… for the Budget.
UK Economy Returns to growth in August
Data released this morning showed that the UK economy posted its first monthly GDP increase since May 2024. ONS reported this morning that monthly real GDP grew 0.2% in August 2024. There were no revisions made to the “no growth” months of June and July. While monthly numbers were in line with consensus forecasts, they show an economy that has slowed down from the beginning of 2024.
The good news is that growth in August came from all key sectors- with services rising by 0.1%, and production and construction rising by 0.5% and 0.4% respectively. Crucially- August was also the first time all three sectors positively contributed to growth since March 2024.
A more granular breakdown of service sector growth indicates that the biggest positive contribution came from the professional, scientific, and technical activities subsector- where monthly change in output was +1.6% from the previous month. Despite overall growth in services sector- seven subsectors saw decline in economic activity- with arts, entertainment, and recreation falling 2.5% over July 2024.
The production sector grew by 0.5% in August after hefty decline of 0.7% in July. Despite a rebound in August, the production output is essentially flat since the end of May 2024. The biggest contributor to production sector came from 1.1% rise in manufacturing activity- driven by transport equipment manufacturing However, mining and quarrying output declined 4.0% over July 2024- continuing their downward trend since end of December 2023.
What is the impact of cuts in spending?
When the Scottish Government presented their Fiscal Statement to parliament in early September, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance said that impact assessments had been done to understand the impact that the announced cuts could have on different groups.
These assessments were not published at the time, but finally were published last week. We welcome the publication of these, and although there are lots of criticisms that could be made of the assessments, it is good to see this transparency. One area of weakness is assuming that if funding was maintained at previous levels, there will be minimal impact, which assumes that previous levels was the correct level… so why was the budget being increased in the first place?
One of the main things to note though is the lack of analysis of cumulative impact on groups. A number of “minimal impacts” could still add up to something significant if they are affecting the same group.
Final report of the parliamentary Inquiry into the disability employment gap published
In 2016, the Scottish Government published A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People, which outlined how the government intended to shape policy – especially labour market policy – for disabled people living in Scotland.
One of the key goals this report outlined was reducing the gap in the employment rate between disabled and non-disabled adults. In 2016, 80.4% of non-disabled working aged adults were employed in Scotland, compared to 42.8% of disabled working aged adults, making for an employment gap of 37.5 percentage points. The government’s goal was to cut this gap in half by 2038.
In 2023, the Economy and Fair Work Committee in Scottish Parliament launched an inquiry into how this policy goal was going. In fact, in 2023, it seemed like it was going quite well.
The gap was down to 30.3 percentage points, which was actually ahead of schedule: if progress were linear, the disability employment gap would drop by about 0.85 percentage points each year, meaning that it would be 31.5 percentage points in 2023.
Two of our economists at the FAI, Allison Catalano and Christy McFadyen, contributed to this inquiry through a fellowship with the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe). Their work, which we published back in January, found that the majority of the change in disability employment is due to a rise in disability prevalence, rather than any specific policy.
Their report also highlighted some significant data issues: people with different types of disability have vastly different capacities for employment, vastly different support needs within employment, and vastly different rates of employment. Yet, in Scottish data and policymaking, disabled people are often treated as a singular entity, meaning that it is not possible to understand where policy interventions might be most effective.
The final inquiry publication highlights our work and a variety of other issues which will need to be addressed in order to improve work access for disabled people, all of which can be found here. They have produced 44 recommendations to improve employment prospects for disabled people.
Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes will collaborate with financial institutions to ensure Scotland becomes a global centre for green and sustainable finance and investment.
A new report from the Scottish Taskforce for Green and Sustainable Financial Services makes 31 recommendations on how the public and private sectors can encourage and fund green investments and tackle the climate emergency.
It stresses the Scottish finance industry is particularly well placed to reap “profound benefits” from becoming a global hub and identifies four areas for action – policy, promotion, investment and skills.
Suggested initiatives include:
work to ensure Edinburgh and Glasgow sustain and improve their rankings in the Global Green Finance Index
new initiatives to attract more financial institutions to build their sustainable businesses in Scotland
collaboration across sectors and academia to improve the skills of Scotland’s workforce in sustainable finance
Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes, who addressed the Ethical Finance Global Summit in Edinburgh yesterday , welcomed the findings.Ms Forbes said: “This report is a decisive action plan as we progress towards making Scotland the natural home for green and sustainable finance.
“The financial services sector is key to delivering the benefits of the transition to net zero and we will use this route map to work together and ensure that Scotland – one of the world’s oldest financial centres – is able to maximise the opportunities ahead of us.
“This report, complementing our Green Industrial Strategy and the action we are taking such as developing a series of investment opportunities and launching an online investment portal in 2025, will make Scotland more attractive for investment.”
Taskforce Chair David Pitt-Watson said: “Climate may be the greatest challenge facing humankind. Addressing it will require a huge investment and the services of the finance industry.
“Finance is a jewel in Scotland’s industrial crown. So not only should there be many opportunities for green investment in Scotland, from wind to housing, there is also a huge opportunity for its financial services industry to serve the world.
“The Taskforce has already stimulated a considerable amount of action. And there is so much more to do. This report is a strategy for Scottish finance to play its proper role in addressing the climate challenge.”
Chief Executive of Scottish Financial Enterprise (SFE) Sandy Begbie said: “The work of the taskforce is a great example of collaboration between government and industry to enhance Scotland’s reputation as a global green and sustainable finance centre.
“There are significant recommendations in the report and I am pleased that today marks the start of a formal partnership between the Global Ethical Finance Initiative (GEFI) and SFE to take them forward. GEFI will leverage its considerable global footprint while SFE will use its leadership position here in Scotland and our key relationships in London.”
Scotland’s onshore GDP grew by 0.3% in July 2024 according to statistics announced by the Chief Statistician yesterday. This follows no growth in June 2024 (revised up from -0.3%).
In the three months to July, GDP is estimated to have grown by 0.3% compared to the previous three month period. This indicates a slight decrease in growth relative to the increase of 0.6% in 2024 Quarter 2 (April to June).
The two industries which made the biggest contribution to overall GDP growth in July were Manufacturing and Information and Communications Services, both of which contributed 0.1 percentage points of growth to headline GDP.
A focused strategy has been launched to place Scotland at the forefront of the net zero economy, with targeted actions to secure growth and investment.
Delivered as part of the Programme for Government, the Green Industrial Strategy sets out five priority areas where efforts and resources will be concentrated.
These are:
maximising Scotland’s wind economy
growing the hydrogen sector
developing the carbon capture, utilisation and storage sector
supporting green economy professional and financial services
attracting clean energy intensive industries such as datacentres
A range of specific actions include hosting a Global Offshore Wind Investment Forum next Spring, working with the sector to develop hubs of hydrogen production and demand and working with public and private partners to drive investment in key projects.
Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes and Acting Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy Gillian Martin unveiled the Strategy during a visit to Flowcopter, a company developing drones which can be used in the offshore wind sector.
Ms Forbes said: “The global transition to net zero provides opportunities across every part of our economy through a strengthened partnership between the public and private sectors.
“This Green Industrial Strategy spells out where we believe the greatest opportunities lie, and where we will focus our attention and resources.
“It provides certainty for businesses – both at home and abroad – by demonstrating where and how we will work to reduce barriers to investment and, where appropriate, share risk and reward.”
Ms Martin said: “Scotland’s energy sector will play a crucial role in growing the economy and delivering on our net zero targets.
“We have already committed up to £500 million over five years to develop the offshore wind supply chain.
“This will build further on Scotland’s strengths to generate growth in well paid jobs and exports, to enable us to deliver on our Programme for Government priorities of high quality public services, eradicating child poverty and protecting the planet.”
Managing Director of Flowcopter Peter McCurry said: “The rapidly growing green energy sector represents a real opportunity for Flowcopter to not only scale-up our business, but create even more high-tech jobs as part of a Scottish supply chain.
“Flowcopter has successfully developed an uncrewed cargo drone for remote logistics. Through this, we came to recognise the huge potential to drastically reduce operations and maintenance costs for the offshore wind industry.”
The Chancellor ‘ushered in a new era of business partnership’ yesterday (29 August) as she met business groups together for the first time as Chancellor.
Rachel Reeves told senior business leaders that just as they had worked together in opposition to write their plans for government, they will work together now to deliver them.
In her first meeting with the BCC, CBI, FSB, Make UK and IoD as Chancellor, she said that businesses will be at the heart of delivering the government’s growth mission, as it takes action to fix the foundations of the economy to rebuild Britain and make every part of the country better off.
Ahead of October’s Budget, Reeves promised to ‘co-design’ policy with business on shared priorities to boost growth, pointing to the same approach being taken for designing the National Wealth Fund.
She pledged to establish a new British Infrastructure Council to advise government on how to support more investment into UK infrastructure projects, and work closely with business to bring down barriers to growth and investment.
Reeves told senior business representatives the Treasury’s door was always open to valuable business insights on the opportunities and challenges they face.
She added that the Business Secretary is committed to the new Industrial Strategy Council having a strong business voice and is also consulting with business on the details on Plan to Make Work Pay.
Business representatives also gave their views on what a successful partnership with government could look like and areas to prioritise to help their members grow and invest.
Speaking after the meeting, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said: “Under this new government’s leadership, I will lead the most pro-growth, pro-business Treasury in our history – with a laser focus on making working people better off.
“That can only happen by working in partnership with businesses: big, medium and small. I want to continue the strong partnership we built with business in opposition now we are in government to deliver on our shared goal of fixing the foundations of our economy, so we can rebuild Britain and make every part of the country better off.”
Stephen Phipson CBE, CEO of Make UK, the manufacturers’ organisation said: “The Chancellor promised that she would engage properly with business and today was more evidence that the promise is being honoured.
“It was very welcome to have the Chancellor highlight further progress in delivering an Industrial Strategy with assurances that the governing Council would have a strong business voice.
“In order to build confidence for businesses to increase investment, it is critical we keep this momentum going and see more detail on the delivery as well as vision. UK Manufacturers are fully behind the government’s growth agenda and look forward to working in partnership with government to achieve it.”
Shevaun Haviland, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce said: “Today’s meeting was a valuable opportunity to reaffirm our commitment, on behalf of the businesses across our Chamber network, to work in partnership with Government.
“We outlined our priorities for the Autumn Budget, recognising the public finance challenge. Boosting economic growth and investment is crucial, while maintaining a fiscal environment that protects the UK’s business competitiveness.
“We welcome the Chancellor’s pledge to work with us on plans for an industrial strategy and to boost infrastructure investment.
“We look forward to more discussions with the Chancellor and the Treasury team ahead of her statement on October 30th”
Tina McKenzie MBE, Federation of Small Businesses Policy Chair, said:“Today’s meeting was a crucial partnership moment, and I was pleased to raise issues and growth ideas from FSB members up and down the country, in every local community.
“You don’t get growth, jobs or wealth creation without UK small businesses; this was a core feature of our discussions in Opposition.
“Now as the Chancellor and her team turn to the Budget, the diversity of UK businesses – 99% of which are the small, micro or self-employed that we represent – needs reflecting in Government policy-making just as much.”
CBI CEO Rain Newton-Smith said:“Businesses are the engine of growth and will be central to achieving the government’s mission to boost the UK economy. It’s why the CBI welcomes the Chancellor’s promise to co-design policy with the business community.
“Together, we can find shared solutions to shared problems – to increase productivity and business investment – in turn, improving living standards.
“The CBI is proud to work in close partnership with the Treasury, providing a cross-economy voice to help remove the roadblocks holding back investment and sustainable growth.”
Jonathan Geldart, Director General of the Institute of Directors, said:“For the government to successfully deliver its growth mission, it will be crucial that it works in partnership with business.
“Therefore, we look forward to building on the productive relationship that we have developed with the Chancellor, to ensure that the priorities and challenges of businesses and entrepreneurs are understood and acted upon.
“Specifically, as we approach her first Budget in the autumn, we are calling on the Chancellor to take time to get policy design right for the long-term, to deliver the stable tax and policy framework needed to support business confidence and investment.”
The latest Scottish GDP stats were published yesterday here for the month of June and here for Q2 of 2024.
Responding to the latest figures, Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said: “Scotland is critical in the UK Government’s mission for economic growth, as the Chancellor underlines today in Glasgow where she’ll meet with key members of the business community to turbocharge Scotland’s regeneration.
“Rebuilding is at the root of everything we do but the £22billion black hole in spending left by the previous government – the worst economic inheritance of any incoming government since the Second World War – means that tough decisions are ahead to achieve stability.
“We are making work pay, ensuring the national minimum wage is a true living wage. And with the end of exploitative zero-hours contracts, workers will have increased job security.
“Backed by £8.3bn of UK Government investment, Scottish-based GB Energy will bring jobs and opportunity for all parts of the UK and trade talks have resumed globally to forge stronger links with our international business partners.”
Scotland’s onshore GDP is estimated to have fallen by 0.3% in June. This follows growth of 0.2% in May.
In the three months to June (Quarter 2), GDP is estimated to have grown by 0.6% compared to the previous three month period (Quarter 1). This is a slight increase on the Quarter 1 growth rate of 0.5%.
