Commenting on the retail sales figures for May 2016, published on 16 June by the ONS, David Kern, BCC Chief Economist, said: “Along with stronger employment figures, the latest rise in retail sales confirm the findings of our own quarterly economic survey, which showed that UK growth was continuing, albeit at a slower pace. “However, these […]
CBI President Paul Drechsler called on the Government to keep supporting businesses in the West Midlands to grow and create prosperity, in a speech to its CBI Annual Dinner on 15 June. He said that promoting regional growth and helping firms connect to regional and local decision makers will be vital to help kick-start the […]
More than 20 businesses have won funding for projects that investigate use of satellite technology to improve farming systems. More than a dozen business projects have won a share of £3m to explore and develop new ways to improve food production using satellite technologies. The ‘Satellites to improve agri-food systems’ competition was jointly funded by […]
Following on from a million pound ground investigation contract awarded last week, a further contract, worth over two million pounds, was awarded on 15 June. The contract, to progress the A9 Dualling programme, has been awarded to Soil Engineering Geoservices Ltd. Ground Investigation work on the over 13 mile Killiecrankie to Glen Garry section of […]
The Project Initiation Routemap is a strategic tool that allows sponsors and clients to address the problems that commonly emerge at the beginning of major projects, setting themselves up to succeed. It forms part of the government’s National Infrastructure Delivery Plan, which sets out how the government will deliver key projects and programmes over the next […]
Unemployment has dropped to its lowest rate since 2005 while the employment rate has stayed at a record high of 74.2%. Official figures from the Office for National Statistics released on 15 June show the unemployment rate now stands at 5.0% and there are nearly 31.6 million people in work. There are nearly half-a-million more people […]
Unemployment fell in Scotland by 11,000 over the last quarter, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures on 15 June.Labour Market Statistics for February to April 2016 show that:• Scotland continues to outperform the rest of the UK on female employment rates;• Scotland has the second highest employment rate out of the four UK […]
A family run engineering business in Tredegar is the first to benefit from the Welsh Government’s new SME Repayable Fund for an expansion project that will create ten new jobs – nearly doubling staff numbers. M&J Europe Ltd – one of the UK’s largest independent manufacturers of conveyor, transmission and timing belts – is investing […]
An overview of Scottish Agriculture was published on 14 June by Scotland’s Chief Statistician. The 160-page “Economic Report on Scottish Agriculture” brings together a wide range of information from the Government’s agriculture analysts, and serves as an excellent reference for information on Scottish agriculture. The report covers the 2015 calendar year, which was affected by poor […]
The Scottish Government has exceeded its 30,000 affordable homes target by more than 10 %, according to official statistics released for the first time on 14 June. Over the last Parliamentary term, 33,490 affordable homes were delivered: • 22,523 were for social rent – 2,523 more than the five year target. These include 5,992 council […]
