From McDonalds to supermarkets: The slow-motion car crash of Britain’s labour shortages September 6, 2021 World trade in toys is a highly cyclical business. Every year, just as everyone is putting their Halloween masks away, Chinese exports of toys drop back, and by March the following year they will typically be nearly 60 per cent lower. For the last four years, October’s peak has been getting progressively lower. Since the [...]
Night-time businesses slam 10pm curfew as ‘devastating’ September 22, 2020 Businesses in the UK’s night-time economy have slammed the Prime Minister’s announcement of a 10pm curfew on venues for up to six months as “devastating”, and warned that it will lead to wide-scale business collapse and unemployment. Boris Johnson today announced a 10pm curfew on all hospitality and leisure venues in England in a bid [...]
Hospitality redundancies: How many restaurant and pub jobs have been lost during the pandemic? February 27, 2021 How many restaurant and pub jobs have been lost during the pandemic?
Commercial landlords call for insolvency rules overhaul amid ‘abuse’ of CVAs January 5, 2021 The British Property Federation (BPF) – the industry group representing landlords – has called for an overhaul of UK insolvency rules, claiming the Covid-19 pandemic has prompted “abuse” of restructuring proceedings. In a letter to corporate responsibility minister Lord Callanan, the BPF said the flexibility of the UK’s insolvency framework had led to the abuse [...]
How smart buildings can power the green revolution November 25, 2020 The Prime Minister’s decision to base last week’s so-called “reset” around a 10-point plan for a green industrial revolution tells us a lot about where he thinks the country needs to go over the next decade. Indeed, it hints at what kind of country we are after Brexit: not one that looks back complacently to [...]
BOXPARK chief: Government must allow hospitality businesses to recover October 11, 2020 The past few months have been some of the most difficult for the hospitality industry – and now, just as many of us are getting back on our feet, we have been hit by new restrictions that could last for up to six months. Six months is an extremely long time for an industry that [...]
Actively inactive: Identifying tension in the UK labour market October 16, 2020 The Covid-19 crisis and resulting responses to curb the spread of infections has caused tension to form in pockets of the UK labour market. Given how important it is to tackle economic inactivity if we are to speed the UK’s recovery, it is vital that these new labour market dynamics are recognised, and that steps [...]
A quarter of hospitality firms could go bust by the end of the year without more government support September 23, 2020 New data from the pub industry released today showed that almost a quarter of hospitality businesses think they will go bust by the end of the year without new government support. Yesterday Boris Johnson unveiled sweeping new measures to curb a rise in coronavirus cases, including a 10pm curfew on all hospitality firms. The move, [...]
UK GDP soars in second quarter as Covid unlocking turbo-charges economy : CityAM August 12, 2021 The burst in consumer spending triggered by the gradual lifting of Covid prevention measures in April and May boosted the UK economy in the second quarter, according to fresh official data released today. Figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal the UK economy grew 4.8 per cent in the second quarter of this year, [...]
Belarus joins invasion of Ukraine as troops cross border while 40 mile long Russian convoy nears Kyiv March 1, 2022 Mad March begins in Moscow: ICC to open war crime probe while Shell pulls $3bn out of Russia and Ukraine applies for EU membership.