Lloyd’s of London’s recent report highlights the most favourable underwriting conditions in over a decade, signalling a significant upturn in the insurance market. Profits have surged from £3.9bn in the first half of 2023 to £4.9bn in the same period of 2024, reflecting robust market growth. This positive trend has been mirrored in London’s job market, with insurance vacancies increasing by 6.6% this year.
The UK pharmaceuticals sector is recovering from its post-pandemic slowdown, with a focus on addressing the backlog of drug approvals by the MHRA. As approvals accelerate, pharmaceutical manufacturing is ramping up, contributing to an 8.8% increase in engineering vacancies in 2024 compared to last year.
The countdown to the October 30 budget starts now. 3 months into power, and the priorities of this Government are becoming clear. The question is how to pay for these policies the Government want to implement. For context, the inflation busting public sector pay rises have already added 10BN to the budget, and there are likely to be more to follow. Without productivity linked reform, the danger is that this just results in inflationary pressure, at a time when the Government would be wanting interest rates to fall.
Historically, IT has been the disruptor. From Retail to Transportation, the integration of technology has meant that monopolistic incumbents have lost market share to new upstarts, who have carved out their own share of the market. As an example, imagine that 20 years ago, Black Cab drivers could expect to earn £100,000+ per annum. With Uber, the profession has been permanently changed.
In the decade to 2020, the Greater Manchester economy grew by 39% from £53.89 billion to £78.7 billion and it has been one of the major UK city-regions driving job growth nationwide. With that, Manchester is the largest regional financial, professional, and business services hub outside of London, employing more than 280,000 people. With that in mind, the city has made a strategic gambit to attract international businesses, as part of a north-shoring strategy, where as a result, Spinningfield now has companies located there across Banking, Consulting, Insurance, Law and Technology, employing over 20,000 people overall.
