Here are the business stories making the headlines locally and across the country this morning.
Aberdeen beach: Last-minute plea to ditch amphitheatre for new £80m leisure centre
Multi-million-pound plans for a second wave of work at Aberdeen beach have been put on hold amid fears a replacement leisure centre might never be built.
Work on the first £62 million phase of the seafront revamp is expected to begin next week.
But as construction of the futuristic playpark, events field, amphitheatre, bike lanes and improvements to Broadhill gets under way, concern has been raised that flagship pieces of the Aberdeen beach revitalisation might never come to fruition.
A total of £150m has been put aside for the Aberdeen city centre and beach masterplan refresh.
Read the full story here.
Overtime, recruitment and even SANDWICH spending crackdown as NHS Grampian faces financial chaos
NHS Grampian will slash staff overtime, cut agency workers and even slice sandwich spending as bosses battle to save £35 million.
The drastic proposals were made as the health board faces a staggering £82.5m overspend for the year.
Finance chief Alex Stephen presented an update to the NHS Grampian board this morning, describing how debt has mounted since Covid.
The report outlined a number of cost cutting measures that were later agreed in a bid to help NHS Grampian balance its books.
National debt forecast to treble over next 50 years
UK national debt is on course to treble over the next half a century due to several pressures, according to the government’s official forecaster.
Those pressures include an ageing population, climate change, and rising geopolitical tensions, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said in a report.
The OBR said without extra tax revenues or a return to post-war productivity levels, the public finances were not sustainable over the long term, and "something has got to give".
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones said: “The OBR has laid bare the shocking state that our public finances were left in by the previous government."
Fever-Tree commits to London listing as shares hit eight-year low
The boss of Fever-Tree remains committed to keeping the premium tonic maker listed in London, even as its share price languishes and the biggest slice of revenue now comes from the United States.
Tim Warrillow, who launched the high-end mixer brand 20 years ago with Charles Rolls, said that there were no plans to join the exodus of companies from the FTSE to Wall Street.
He said: “We’ve had a number of approaches about that, but we’re British and very proud to be. We’re very happy where we are.”
The commitment to its home market came as the mixers group said that a dismal start to the British summer had taken the shine off sales. Announcing first-half results, the company lowered expectations for annual revenue growth to 4-5 per cent, from a previously guided 10 per cent in March.