Almost everyone doing business across the island of Ireland ends up planning Dublin-to-Belfast travel, usually more often than they expected, and usually having underestimated the journey the first time. The distance is…
Scottish exports to countries outside the EU were worth £21 billion in 2023, broadly the same as in 2018 once inflation is taken into account, according to Export Statistics Scotland. The United…
The Scottish National Investment Bank is a publicly owned development bank that invests £1 million to £50 million in Scottish businesses and projects on commercial terms. It backs companies and projects aligned…
Pumped storage hydro stores electricity by pumping water uphill when power is plentiful and releasing it through turbines when it is needed. In June 2026, Ofgem provisionally selected three Scottish pumped storage…
The Edinburgh visitor levy came into force on 24 July 2026. It adds 5 per cent to the cost of paid overnight accommodation in the city, capped at five consecutive nights. Accommodation…
Business angel investment in Scotland is led by around 15 to 20 organised angel groups, with about 2,000 individual investors between them. In the year to March 2025, members of Angel Capital…
Scotland has two green freeports: Inverness and Cromarty Firth, and Forth. Businesses that invest in their designated tax sites can claim enhanced capital allowances, a structures and buildings allowance, employer National Insurance…
Invoice finance lets a business raise money against unpaid customer invoices, typically receiving up to 90 per cent of their value within 24 hours once a facility is in place. Asset finance…
Around three in ten Scottish businesses with 10 or more employees were using some form of artificial intelligence in December 2025, according to the Scottish Government’s Business Insights and Conditions Survey. Adoption…
Scotland’s City Region and Growth Deals are long-term investment programmes agreed between the Scottish Government, the UK Government and councils. There are 12 deals, covering every part of Scotland, and all are…
Land and Buildings Transaction Tax applies to commercial property bought or leased in Scotland. Purchases pay nothing on the first £150,000, 1 per cent from £150,001 to £250,000 and 5 per cent…
Great British Energy is a publicly owned energy investment company, set up under the Great British Energy Act 2025 and backed by up to £8.3 billion over the current UK Parliament. Its…
North Sea decommissioning is becoming one of the largest areas of spending in the UK offshore industry. The North Sea Transition Authority estimated in 2025 that removing the remaining oil and gas…
Banking hubs in Scotland are shared spaces where customers of the major banks can withdraw and deposit cash, pay in cheques and get help from their own bank, often after the last…
John Swinney returned as First Minister on 20 May 2026 at the head of a minority SNP government with a smaller Cabinet. The new Scottish Government has eight Cabinet Secretaries, down from…
Around four in ten UK businesses identified a cyber breach or attack in the past year, according to the UK Government’s latest Cyber Security Breaches Survey, with phishing the most common threat.…
Grid connection reform has replaced Britain’s first-come, first-served connections queue with a system that prioritises projects that are ready to build and needed to meet national targets. In December 2025, the National…
New rateable values for every non-domestic property in Scotland took effect on 1 April 2026, based on rental values on 1 April 2025. Non-domestic rates bills combine those values with new poundage…
Scottish income tax uses six bands, from a 19 per cent starter rate to a 48 per cent top rate, compared with three bands in the rest of the UK. For 2026-27,…
Techscaler is the Scottish Government’s programme for creating and growing technology start-ups, delivered by CodeBase under a five-year contract worth around £42.4 million. Founders get education courses, mentoring, investor connections and access…
Scotland’s two northern spaceports have moved in opposite directions. SaxaVord on Unst, Shetland, holds a Civil Aviation Authority spaceport licence, and several rocket companies have launch licences to fly from it, though…
The UK Government is investing up to £750 million in a new national supercomputer at the University of Edinburgh, due to come online in early 2027. It will be owned by UK…
The Energy Profits Levy is a 38 per cent tax on the profits of UK oil and gas producers, on top of existing North Sea taxes. It is due to end on…
The Acorn carbon capture project at St Fergus in Aberdeenshire plans to capture carbon dioxide from industry and store it under the North Sea, reusing existing oil and gas pipelines. It received…
Project Willow is a £1.5 million feasibility study, funded by the UK and Scottish governments, that sets out nine low-carbon industrial options for Grangemouth after oil refining ended there in April 2025.…
In brief: A permit to work controls high risk jobs only if the issuer, the performer and the person handing back all read the permit the same way. Where English is a…
Scotland’s productivity conversation rarely gets past the quarterly GDP headline. Scotland has closed much of its productivity gap with the UK since 2008, but output per hour still sits below the UK…
