confidence continues to fall across all sectors

Business sentiment across all key sectors (and Scotland) has continued to subside – although not as dramatically as was seen between March and April of last year.

Our data reveals that over the past year, positivity has fallen significantly from record highs to levels not seen since the first lockdown – and what we are seeing for the first time is the sectors aligning around a smaller spread of figures than we usually see; it’s clear the pain of the rising cost of doing business, recession, interest rate rises, energy prices and inflation is being felt across all industries, from construction to services.

According to our research, Scottish business owners’ top five concerns were:

1. Inflation

2. Energy costs

3. Interest rates

4. Tax / VAT

5. Materials supply

Energy costs were seen– by some distance – as the largest inhibitor of growth for the UK’s SMEs; full list: