Business Insights And Impact On The UK Economy

11th August 2023

In June 2023, nearly three in five (58%) trading businesses reported that they were able to get the materials, goods or services they needed from within the UK without experiencing any issues, broadly stable with May 2023. A further 6% of businesses were able to obtain what they needed but had to find alternative solutions to do so, but 2% reported that they were unable to get what they needed, though this is the lowest proportion since the question was introduced in June 2020.

In June 2023, 7% of businesses with 10 or more employees experienced global supply chain disruption, down 3 percentage points from May 2023; of those businesses, 30% reported a shortage of materials as the main reason for the disruption.
In late July 2023, 21% of businesses reported that they were using, or intending to use, increased homeworking as a permanent business model, this has remained broadly stable since late March 2023; reduced overheads were reported as the main reason for using this model, at 51%, followed closely by improved staff well-being (47%).

Fewer than 1 in 10 (9%) businesses were affected by industrial action in June 2023; of these, 22% reported that their business was unable to operate fully as a consequence.

In late July 2023, 75% of businesses reported that they had not assessed the risks of any of the specified climate change effects (water scarcity, coastal erosion, increased flooding and temperature increases); of those that had assessed the risks, 28% had not taken any action, 18% did not expect to be impacted, while 18% reported they had been unable to take action either because of costs, or the lack of information or guidance.

The percentage of businesses that reported they were trading in late-July 2023 was 94%, with 85% fully trading and 9% partially trading (for example, trading with reduced hours or staff numbers). Meanwhile, 4% of businesses reported "temporarily paused trading" and 2% "permanently ceased trading" as their business's trading status.

Read the full report HERE