The future of the construction industry is digital September 4, 2020 The double-whammy of a pandemic and a recession has made 2020 one of the most challenging and disrupted years in living memory. But the bright spot, in an otherwise battered economy, is construction, which forms a major part of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s ”Build Back Better” campaign. Britain’s construction industry grew at the fastest rate in almost [...]
DEBATE: Is there a future for tech hubs post-Covid? September 3, 2020 Is there a future for tech hubs after Covid-19? Gavin Poole, chief executive of Here East, says YES. For centuries, the success of London’s business landscape has been steeped in the clusters of industry across the city. Companies and entrepreneurs exist side by side, driven by a shared mission and passion, and an exchange of [...]
Why digital infrastructure could emerge stronger from Covid-19 August 28, 2020 | City Talk The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the need to modernise digital infrastructure networks. We expect that this will create new investment opportunities. Surging online activity Whether we like it or not, the Covid-19 pandemic has cemented our addiction to fast and reliable internet access. While speaking to colleagues remotely, food shopping online or monitoring our ‘smart [...]
A no-deal Brexit could cause the UK’s digital sector to shrink August 28, 2020 The EU’s trade negotiator Michel Barnier recently said that a post-Brexit deal seemed unlikely. This supports our view at Securys that the Brexit transition period will close without an adequacy agreement, bringing an end to the unrestricted flow of data between the UK and the European Economic Area (EEA). Buried in a weekend article came [...]
The UK must close its digital skills gap — or face an unemployment crisis August 18, 2020 With the economy plunging a catastrophic 20 per cent between April and June, the magnitude of challenges facing UK industries is becoming clearer. A wave of unemployment is likely, and when the furlough scheme officially ends there is no knowing how many people employers will let go. Even with additional taxpayer bailouts, there are large [...]
How tax is transforming in the digital age January 17, 2020 | City Talk Driven by a desire for more revenue, greater efficiency and improved compliance in an atmosphere of shrinking resources, tax authorities are increasingly relying on digital tax data gathering and analysis — using digital platforms to facilitate real-time or near real-time collection and assessment of taxpayer data. This move toward tax “digitalisation” is allowing tax authorities [...]
Confidence tricks: How advertising can predict a recession November 25, 2019 “There’s going to be a recession,” someone says at a dinner table or boardroom meeting, certain of the fact. “You can see it coming.” In advertising, we’re at the coal-face of confidence — the barometer and engine room of recession and recovery. What we look for are three measures of confidence which correlate with historic [...]
The internet can help left-behind constituencies step into the future November 21, 2019 It can sometimes be easy to forget that the internet plays a vital part of everyday life. It makes a substantial economic contribution to the UK, creating approximately 400,000 jobs, 80,000 businesses, and £45bn in gross value added to the UK’s GDP. Most importantly, the internet improves people’s lives with products and services that make [...]
The Lovie Awards show Europe’s creativity is a force for good October 28, 2019 My entire career has been fuelled by a love for the European creative industry. And now, at a time when our digital lives feel chaotic, when business often feels overly challenging, when political issues invade our every waking moment, that fuel is more essential than ever. This is precisely why Nicolas Roope and I founded [...]
With Boris onside, we can boost connectivity across the country August 2, 2019 The successful economies of the future will be those that effectively seize the potential of digital technology. It is particularly important that we in the UK take heed of this message, as businesses face ongoing uncertainty in the approach to the government’s Halloween Brexit deadline. So what progress is being made to realise this potential? [...]