IN BRIEF
Business outlook slumps Optimism among Scottish businesses has collapsed in the past quarter, sending them to the bottom of the latest UK confidence table. Three months ago, Scotland topped the UK Business Confidence Monitor with a +17.6 rating, but slow economic growth and falling demand has pushed that figure down to -14.1. The sharp fall is matched by a downward revision in growth expectations from Scottish businesses, to just 4.9 per cent for next year.
Unemployment rise in store Unemployment is likely to rise next year as Scotland faces a ‘lost decade’ of growth, according to a new report by economic forecasters. The Ernst & Young Scottish ITEM Club study predicted a modest decline in total employment during 2012 followed by slow jobs growth until at least 2015. It said that Scotland is not expected to return to peak employment until the early 2020s as the country, along with much of the developed world, endures a ‘grinding’ recovery.
Green boost for oil and gas Oil and gas firms expect to create new jobs and expand into renewable energy in the next three to five years, a report revealed. The Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets report, ‘Oil & Gas: Rising Fortunes’, suggested that three quarters of firms expect to create new jobs in the next two years, with more than a quarter of firms aiming to recruit over 500 staff. The report said the job creation was driven by consistent growth in the sector. More than a quarter of companies have already generated new income from renewables and this is expected to reach more than half by 2017.
Charles Middleton
“Individuals can feel powerless to create change in the face of such challenges, and as the Archbishop says, it isn’t always easy to say what we should do differently and it is time we tried to be more specific. I believe strongly that a key change that everyone can make is thinking about how banks use their money and where they choose to put their savings,” said Middleton. “By switching to ethical banking, savers can make a conscious choice on putting their money to positive use in our society whilst still receiving a good return. Tey can vote with their feet on the prevailing greed and inequality that we see, and together we can make things happen.”
Te shift to ethical investment is gaining support within governments: “Banks are very much on the back foot,” said Richard
Burrett, co-chairman of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative. He said European banks must do more to support renewable energy projects if a target set by the European Union is to be met: “If we’re going to meet the EU’s targets for 2020 we need to be putting billions of euros of capital into the clean energy space and green technologies.” Te EU aims to get 20 per cent of its energy
requirement from renewable sources by 2020, a goal that member states must each contribute to. Te UK proposed a cut of as much as 55 per cent in the price for solar power in October, while both France and Italy have scaled back their so-called feed-in tariffs for solar energy producers this year. Triodos and the Co- Operative Group, the UK’s largest mutual lender, “are great examples of what can be done,” he added.
Record and Mail merger The Daily Record and Sunday Mail are to merge with Scottish and Universal Newspapers, publishers of 20 local titles including the Ayrshire Post and the Stirling Observer. The move brings Trinity Mirror’s papers north of the border into one division, called Media Scotland, which will also embrace the Business Insider magazine, an events business and 36 websites. Media Scotland’s editor-in-chief Allan Rennie told The Scotsman that the traditionally Labour supporting papers’ political reporting would be “more balanced”.
Pension fund offer to firms Businesses have been offered a share of £100m of public sector investment in exchange for a “reasonable return” for a local authority pension fund. Strathclyde Pension Fund, administered by Glasgow City Council, said the businesses must give a commitment to create jobs and pay Glasgow’s Living Wage, currently set at £7.20 an hour.
Business centre loan scheme The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations and Unity Trust Bank have set up a £50m loan scheme to build third-sector business centres across Scotland. The scheme will help SCVO members create an asset base and generate savings from shared back office services.
12 December 2011
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