Here are the business stories making the headlines across the country this morning.
UK drops out of top ten manufacturing nations for first time
The UK has fallen out of the world’s top ten leading nations for manufacturing for the first time amid a “redrawing of the contours” of the global economy.
In the most recent rankings, for 2022, Britain dropped to 12th place. That was down from eighth the year before, according to an analysis by Make UK.
The industry body’s report said that the UK had fallen behind Mexico and Russia, which had climbed to seventh and eighth, respectively, in the ranking of manufacturing economies.
Mexico has benefited from a rise in investment from China, while Russia has increased its defence production to 6 per cent of GDP. China was in first place, with the United States second.
Labour must speed up wind power expansion or miss targets, says renewables industry
Labour’s clean energy targets may already be in jeopardy just weeks after the party came to power with the promise to quadruple Britain’s offshore wind power, according to senior industry executives.
The offshore wind industry has said there will not be enough time to develop the projects needed to create a net zero electricity system by the end of the decade unless ministers increase the ambition and funding of the government’s upcoming “make or break” subsidy auctions.
A delay to Labour’s planned renewable energy rollout – which calls for a doubling of onshore wind, tripling of solar power and quadrupling of offshore wind capacity – would also risk derailing Britain’s legally binding climate ambition to be net zero overall by 2050.
“It’s crunch time,” said Damien Zachlod, managing director of the UK arm of the German energy company EnBW. “How close we get to the government’s 2030 offshore wind target depends on whatever happens in the next 18 to 24 months.”
Boardrooms ‘gearing up for growth’
Optimism among senior executives at some of Britain’s biggest businesses has increased after Labour’s landslide general election victory this month.
Risk appetite is up, fears about uncertainty have retreated sharply and revenue growth predictions are rising, according to Deloitte’s latest survey of chief financial officers.
The closely watched survey, which questions dozens of finance chiefs, including those at FTSE 350 companies, found that a net 23 per cent of respondents were more positive about the outlook for their businesses now than they had been back in the spring.
The consensus among business leaders is that the election result will have a “mildly positive effect” on their plans for investment, dealmaking and hiring in the next 12 months.
Kemi Badenoch announces bid to become Tory leader
Kemi Badenoch has promised to "renew" the Conservative Party as she becomes the sixth person to launch a bid to become the next Tory leader.
The shadow housing secretary said she would return her party to "first principles" including a focus on sovereignty and a revived confidence in capitalism.
The 44-year-old hoping to take over from ex-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak regularly tops polls among Conservative Party members.
She joins Dame Priti Patel, Mel Stride, Robert Jenrick, Tom Tugendhat and James Cleverly in the race to replace Mr Sunak. Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman has said she will not be running.