The Best of Business – January 2021

We are pleased to announce…

We are proud to announce the winners of our Best of Business awards!

Head this way to discover every winning company in all award categories this year:

 

Granger Reis - Best of British Business award 

For improving the perspective of careers in the industrial and real estate sectors.

 

OenoFuture - Best of British Business award

For revolutionising the way collectors interact with this unique market.

 

Evolution - Best of British Business award

For providing security systems to multi-site, national, and international clients.

 

SpotHost -  Best of British Business award 

For best short-term rental management.

 

Iconic Digital -  Best of British Business award 

For the best digital marketing strategy

 

Global Guardians Management -  Best of British Business award 

For the best vacant property security and management

 

VCL Vintners -  Best of British Business award 

For housing the world’s rarest and most desirable casks of Scotch single malt

 

Zego -  Best of British Business award 

For offering flexible and usage-based insurance products for consumers using vehicles

 

Braviant - Best of American Business award

For providing tech-enabled credit products and services for underbanked consumers.

 

Pandata - Best of American Business award

For designing, building, and scaling AI solutions.

 

Tipolis Corp. - Best of Global Business award

For working with Prosperity Zones at the frontier of governance innovation.

 

Business Reporter warmly congratulates award winners for their outstanding contributions!

How digital technology is fuelling the Northern Powerhouse

2020 had a profuse silver lining for Manchester. With investment having increased more than threefold between 2018 and 2019, it was dubbed “the fastest-growing tech city in Europe” in November 2020 in a report by TechNation and the search engine Adzuna. This was also the first time the city had come second in the venture capital investment league table behind London.

Manchester’s feat was given a considerable boost by the successful floatation of THG Holdings, the owner of online beauty retailer The Hut, headquartered in Manchester Airport.

The increasing popularity of Manchester as an alternative UK base to London for international business is further evidenced by the fact that Swedish web-hosting company Miss Group – the winner of the 2020 Northern Tech Award, and which maintained a growth rate of 232 per cent between 2018-19 – is also based here.

As Safe Hammad, CTO and co-founder of locally based start-up Arctic Shores – a provider of behaviour-based psychometrics – puts it, “in the last ten years, Manchester [has] transformed into a thriving technology hub attracting businesses and talent alike.”

However, many in the region believe that creating a London of the North without developing the entirety of northern England would be short-sighted. What needs levelling is not just a metropolis but a whole region with a population of 14.5 million, which if it were a country would be Europe’s eighth-biggest economy.

Similarly, if realising the oft-floated idea of a “Manufacturing Institute of Technology” is to prevail, both Manchester and Sheffield –  the latter with its widely respected Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) – will be likely candidates for its venue. Emulating a US university that is primarily a generously funded research centre with some added teaching that creates 30 spin-outs every year may turn out to be an overwhelming task, and the establishment of an “MIT of the North” from scratch has been received with scepticism.

However, creating a network of institutions, possibly using the AMRC’s template, may prove more popular than a standalone vanity project. The £5 million Northern Triangle Initiative, launched by the Universities of Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds in 2017 to smooth the process that turns research into business, can serve as a core for such a network across the North.

Indeed, the importance of commercialising innovation is demonstrated by the painful absence of northern companies from lists of products that use graphene, when it was that very revolutionary material that put Manchester and the region at the forefront of international advanced material research.

Putting digital technology at the heart of northern reindustrialisation

The Northern Powerhouse, a concept dating back to 2015, goes well beyond establishing a big city in the North that can take London on. As the following examples will demonstrate, the whole North West and the other two clusters of the Northern Powerhouse (the North East and Yorkshire and Humber) have already made great strides in adopting and excelling at digital technology, especially in green energy, immersive solutions and health- and bio-tech.

There are several ongoing local business projects which stand out on not only a national but also a European level.

Hornsea, on the Humber in Yorkshire, for example, has become a flagship project for UK off-shore wind, the most successful branch of the domestic renewable energy sector. Hornsea is a brand-new project of Danish energy giant Ørsted, but there are also examples of how coal-based energy companies are reinventing themselves.

Drax power station, for example, in 2016 still relied on coal for 30 per cent of the energy it generated, but is set to burn its last coal altogether in 2021 – once it has fully converted to biomass generation, it will become one of the most ambitious decarbonisation projects in Europe, even if the sustainability of biomass is contested by some.

Another example of an incumbent steeped in legacy technology reinventing itself is Northumberland-based Tharsus, founded in 1964, which managed to stay relevant by becoming a robotics specialist in addition to its original metalwork business.

The unprecedented disruption that the pandemic caused has also provided some of the most digitally advanced northern companies with a moment to shine. KCom, the internet provider supplying Hull with ultrafast broadband, winning it the “first full-fibre city in the UK” tag, ensured a smoother switch to online schooling and remote work in the area than was possible in many other parts of the UK.

Meanwhile, Gateshead College in the North East, thanks to its collaboration with PROTO, Europe’s first dedicated centre for emerging technologies, could immediately switch to remote learning by giving access to the immersive PROTO facilities and its experts via virtual technology.

More recently, NHS England has mandated that all NHS Trusts are to use the National Pathology Exchange (NPEx) of Leeds-based X-Lab – originally set up in 2006 to connect all UK labs – for electronically transferring test requests and result in order to rectify the shortcomings of the Covid-19 test and trace system.

The examples above are the pinnacles of northern digital achievement. Alongside new national digital institutions set up in the Northern Powerhouse (National Horizons Centre, National Innovation Centre for Data), they inarguably go a long way towards levelling up the North. Unlike in other sectors, tech companies’ revenues increased by an average 9 per cent in 2020 on the previous year and employment in the sector remained stable, according to Mustard Research Agency.

But to tap into the digital potential, even non-digital businesses large and small need to do their homework. As the two-year Made Smarter North West pilot programme, which had the participation of 1,100 North western SMEs, concluded, these companies need capital and guidance to reach their full digital potential. A finding that most probably applies to the whole Northern Powerhouse.

To learn more about the individual regions of the Northern Powerhouse, read the UK Tech Reports by London Tech Week and UK Tech Cluster Group: Yorkshire and Humber, North East, NorthWest.

Post-Brexit trade deal: the gaps worth noting

Plenty of political spin has already been applied to the post-Brexit UK-EU trade and cooperation agreement. This not only glosses over much of the detail, but it can also be decidedly misleading. For example, Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, has claimed that “there will be no non-tariff barriers to trade”. This is not the case.

A “job done, let’s move on” attitude generally ignores the practical implications of what has been agreed. That said, both the EU and the UK government have published some useful explainers.

The deal, negotiated at remarkable speed, delivers zero-tariff, zero-quota goods trade between the UK and the EU. It also covers matters such as data, energy, transport, movement of people, law and justice, fisheries and UK access to EU programmes.

Much will change when when the UK’s withdrawal from the EU fully takes effect on January 1 2021. It will leave the customs union and various cooperation programmes and the free movement of goods, services, capital and people will stop. What the trade and cooperation agreement does is establish a relationship in which some of the resulting disruption to trade and the movement of people between the UK and the EU is mitigated by new terms of engagement.

Disruptions there will be, however. The deal does not, for example, remove many of the additional frictions on the movement of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Prohibitions and restrictions on the movement of processed meats will still apply from July 1 2021.

The Brexit negotiators have achieved something very significant in agreeing zero-tariff, zero-quota trade for all goods. This is unprecedented given that it includes agricultural products. However, it cannot hide the fact that the UK will no longer be part of either the EU customs territory or, more importantly, its internal market. New customs formalities and regulatory checks, for example, will need to be completed for the movement of goods between much of the UK and the EU. The exception is Northern Ireland, which remains, in effect, part of the EU customs territory and its internal market for goods.

The movement of capital, services and people between the UK and the EU will no longer be as free as it has been for much of the past 30 years. The deal contains commitments on market access for services but there will be multiple exceptions to what can be traded and how – and so restrictions. On the movement of people, holiday travel and certain short-term business trips between the UK and the EU will be visa-free, but, again, in many instances there will be new restrictions.

Areas of cooperation

The UK and the EU have agreed that there will be various areas of continued cooperation, but not in all areas and certainly not to the same extent as when the UK was an EU member state. Indeed, although the UK will continue to participate in the EU’s Horizon research programme and access its satellite surveillance and tracking services, it will no longer be involved, for example, in the Erasmus programme, which supports students and academics in exchange programmes with institutions across the EU. The UK is launching its own “Turing” programme but there are concerns that it is underestimating the challenges in getting an alternative to Erasmus participation up an running for September 2021. Students in Northern Ireland look set to get access to Erasmus via support from the Irish government.

There will be cooperation on policing and judicial matters, for example through UK engagement with Europol and Eurojust, but nothing has been agreed on foreign, security and defence policy cooperation, despite both sides flagging this as needing agreement in a political declaration accompanying the withdrawal agreement.

As the European Commission stated, the deal “sets a solid basis for a mutually beneficial and balanced partnership”. What has been agreed is essentially only a framework for a new period in relations. The actual relationship will be determined through ongoing dialogue and negotiation, further decisions and agreements, tensions and probably disputes. What’s more, after five years there may be a review and a “rebalancing” of the rights and obligations contained in the agreement.

Northern Ireland

The deal contains no changes for the arrangements already made on how to manage the Irish border after Brexit. There are though a few additional lines on road haulage on the island of Ireland and specific provisions for cross-border road passenger journeys.

As planned, therefore, Northern Ireland will be treated differently from the rest of the UK to avoid a physical hardening of the border on the island of Ireland – although some is inevitable. Wider UK-EU arrangements for services, fish, and police and judicial cooperation will help but, when the transition period ends, the disruption will be significant for many existing arrangements beyond essentially the free movement of goods.

A key reason for this special treatment is that, without it, the arrangements agreed by both sides simply would not be possible without a hardening of the border. This is a reflection of how thin the agreement is and points to the fact that even with the zero-tariff, zero-quota trade, the new UK-EU relationship is one that will involve new barriers to trade. The days of the free movement of goods, services, capital and people between the UK and the EU are in the past.

David Phinnemore, Professor of European Politics, Queen's University Belfast

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

 

 

AI + humans is the superpower your organisation needs in 2021

It’s an exciting time in the world of AI: chatbots and virtual assistants are getting smarter, complex capabilities such as natural language processing and image analysis are rapidly becoming commoditised, and AI is being embedded in mainstream software applications. Companies are using AI to humanise their brands at scale, engaging customers at personal levels, increasing internal efficiencies and reducing risk.

Yet for all the promise, many organisations are facing significant challenges scaling AI. Only 53 per cent of AI prototypes ever make it to production. This is even more troubling when you consider that 90 per cent of machine learning models, the building blocks of AI systems, don’t make it to the final prototype.

When you see troubling statistics such as these, the most cited causes are lack of skilled talent and poor data quality. But these are symptoms, not causes. For AI initiatives to truly be successful, they need to have humans squarely at their centre.

Let me explain by way of a common definition for AI. AI is the discipline concerned with making machines smarter. Specifically, AI is software that automates tasks typically thought of as human – such as “seeing”, “listening”, “understanding” and “creating”. The key here is distinguishing between tasks themselves and a human job which consists of a collection of tasks that range in complexity.

An AI system can be built to continuously scan incoming calls and tag repeated themes, but solutions today can’t quite recommend definitive actions to solve these challenges. Imagine, instead, an AI solution presenting relevant segments of customer conversations for the specialist to review. This changes the nature of the specialist’s job for the better. By automating the monotonous task of reviewing calls for repeated themes, they can spend more time exploring and testing solutions to the most pressing issues.

Using this frame of reference, we are augmenting the specialist’s capacity to solve customer pain points. This puts the focus on the specialists’ user experience and significantly increases the likelihood the solution will be adopted, and therefore have an impact on the bottom line. As an added benefit, the specialist is now free to work on more meaningful problems, increasing their satisfaction and productivity as well!

Demystify AI by cultivating your AI translators

While not a specific job title, the AI translator is a domain expert with a passion for and vested interest in bridging the gap between their functional role and the technical requirements of a solution. Many organisations will cite the importance of the data scientist, but few truly understand the AI translator who can see beyond the task that needs to be automated and into the job that needs to be augmented.

Machine learning is often synonymous with AI, and that is because it is a subfield responsible for much of the advances we are witnessing today in the field. A great way of thinking about machine learning is the act of translating a set of inputs to a desired output using historic examples. Machine learning discovers if underlying relationships exist between inputs and outputs, and then maps those relationships into a model.

The sky is the limit for mapping various input data types to outputs. You can go from images to text or text to images. For machine learning to work properly, the key is having enough examples for it to learn the patterns between the input and output data. The more complex the data, the more examples that are needed. These can be simple relationships, such as:

• The last 12 months’ sales (input) to the next 12 months sales (output)

• Customer demographics and recent browsing activity (input) to expected customer lifetime spend (output)

Or they can be more sophisticated – for example:

• Customer support call recordings (input) to a summary of key issues (output)

• Online product reviews (input) to the next 12 months’ sales (output)

• Product return images (input) to the cause of the defect (output)

You don’t need to understand how your car works to be an effective driver. Similarly, your AI translators don’t need to understand how to build an AI system from scratch. They have a deep appreciation for the business problem at hand and understand the art of mapping data requirements for effective machine learning solutions.

Build momentum with pilots, your strategy will follow

The world of data science has been evolving so rapidly, job titles barely had a chance to catch up. “Data scientist” can be a dangerous catch-all term for a broad set of skills. You can find generalists who cover the breadth of these skills or specialists in capabilities such as natural language processing, computer vision, or machine learning engineering, to name a few. And then there’s the supporting cast including AI translators, ethicists and product managers.

Unlike many engineering initiatives, AI has so many unknowns. When you do well, the insights you uncover lead to more questions than you had when you started. This can spiral to a never-ending cycle of exploration and stretch the limits of a generalist’s capabilities. This is not to mention the incredibly complex infrastructure and tooling needed to support solutions in production. This is exactly why many organisations make the mistake of setting an AI strategy too early, hiring teams and building out technology ecosystems, only to realise that they need to pivot.

Before rushing to hire a group of data scientists, start by uncovering the potential AI translators that already exist within your organisation. Help them cultivate the art of mapping inputs to outputs and partner with them to develop and prioritise a list of potential use-cases. Your translators will help you empathise with the humans whose jobs you are attempting to augment, increasing your likelihood of success, and reducing your risk of unintentional harm.

To learn more, click here.

By Cal Al-Dhubaib, Managing Partner, Pandata

Free Private Cities – there is an alternative

Dr. Titus Gebel, Founder & CEO – TipolisCorp.

According to polls in Western countries, 80 per cent of citizens are dissatisfied with how they are governed, no matter who is in charge. More and more people feel that besides casting their vote every few years, they don’t have a say in what is going on and what their tax money is spent on. Tax burden is growing, while at the same time services are perceived as insufficient – be it security, education or infrastructure. Citizens in allegedly free societies are afraid to speak out on controversial issues, the number of which is growing daily. A wrong sentence can ruin your career. As if that wasn’t enough, laws and thereby the social contract are changed constantly, albeit never from the side of the citizens. Unforeseeable changes in regulation make it difficult for business and individuals alike to plan for the long term. What is allowed today may be forbidden tomorrow. No wonder that for many, this is not really satisfying.

Can we create a different relationship between individuals and groups with the state that is safer, freer, functions better, delivers the best services and brings prosperity?

The answer is yes. Actually, government is a service like any other service. You expect something from it, especially the protection of life, liberty and property, and you are willing to pay in exchange. You are normally not pleased if services are not performed well or if the service provider gets involved in other activities that you have not mandated and then expects you to pay for it. It is even worse: in most countries the relationship of the citizen to the government resembles somebody who wants to buy a car. However, the car dealer insists that he will choose the model, the colour, the size of the motor and the price you have to pay. And you must buy. Not really an attractive deal, is it? But this exactly describes your relationships towards the “government service provider”, or the state you live in.

In contrast, imagine a system in which a private company as the government service provider offers you protection of life, liberty and property. This service is clearly defined and includes security, a legal and regulatory framework, and independent dispute resolution. You pay a contractually fixed amount per year for these services, so there is a real social contract, not a fictional one. Besides that, you take care of everything else by yourself, but you can also do as you please, limited only by the rights of others and the contractually agreed rules of coexistence.

The government service provider as the operator of the community cannot unilaterally change this “Civic Contract” with you at a later date. Disputes between you as “Contract Citizen” and the government service provider will be heard before independent arbitration tribunals, as is customary in international commercial law. Further development of the agreed regulations is carried out by judicial case law, as has worked well in common-law jurisdictions for centuries. If the operator ignores the arbitral awards or abuses his power in any other way, his customers leave and he goes bankrupt. He has his own economic risk and therefore an incentive to treat his customers well and in accordance with the contract. This model is called a Free Private City.

In today’s world, the establishment of a Free Private City requires a contractual agreement with an existing state as the host nation. But why should states agree to this? As with all barter transactions, there is only one reason: one’s own interests. States can agree to surrender some of their powers for a given territory if they expect benefits from it. The establishment of Free Private Cities in structurally weak areas not only increases the attractiveness of the surrounding region, but also creates jobs and investments there, which ultimately benefits the host nation.

Most people want to make their own choices; they neither want an enlightened elite nor journalists or celebrities to tell them how to live their life. Most people prefer privacy over mass surveillance. Most people do not want to pay for things they have not ordered. Most people do not want to be subjugated under regulations and agreements they have not given consent to. Most people want to have the right to be left alone if they do no harm to others. Free Private Cities respect these wishes.

That is why they will exist. Because eventually, people will go where they are treated best.

Titus Gebel is a German entrepreneur with a PhD in international law and an extensive worldwide network. He founded Frankfurt-listed mining company Deutsche Rohstoff AG, among others. In 2015, he retired as CEO to focus on Free Private Cities with the aim of creating an entirely new product in the “market of living together”. Titus has written a book, Free Private Cities – Making Governments Compete For You, where he states the theoretical and practical groundwork. He is founder and CEO of TIPOLIS CORP, which is currently working on implementing the first Free Private City worldwide.

 
 
 

Fine wine surges 200 per cent in the past decade

Recent vaccine news may indicate an end to the global pandemic is in sight, but that doesn’t mean investors can relax just yet. According to the Office of National Statistics, the UK economy is now 21.8 per cent smaller than it was at the end of 2019. As we head into 2021, the Bank of England has just predicted that a possible no-deal Brexit is poised to wreak even greater devastation than the entire Covid-19 pandemic.

 

Fine wine resilient to market swings

Despite ongoing intense market volatility and a very uncertain future, many investors are clinging to their stocks and hoping for the best. What you might not know is that many of the biggest names in investment are turning to a little-known investment with huge potential and very low correlation to the stock market. Top investment advisers recommend that investors diversify part of their portfolio with resilient alternative assets such as fine wine.

In March 2020, right at the start of the global pandemic, the S&P 500 plunged 25 per cent. In the same month the Liv-ex 1000, the fine wine index that tracks the prices of 1,000 top-performing bottles, slipped just 4 per cent. We see the same pattern if we jump back to the recession of 2007-2008 when the S&P 500 plunged 38.5 per cent. In contrast, the Liv-ex 1000 dipped by just 0.6 per cent.

Brexit-proof investing

This resilience makes wine investment an excellent hedge to insulate your assets against a no-deal Brexit. Although the details of the UK’s exit from the European Union remain hazy, any no-deal scenario is likely to involve significant logistical disruption and additional costs for those purchasing fine wines in the UK. This bodes well for investors already in the market who should benefit from price increases on this side of the Channel as top restaurants and UK-based collectors and drinkers struggle to access the European markets.

This is even without considering the impact on sterling. Any sudden or gradual weakening will give investors a price boost on their portfolio thanks to enhanced competitivity on the global market.

Market-beating financial returns

Fine wine’s resilience doesn’t just apply to times of intense crisis. If you had invested £100 in the fine wine market in 1952, your investment would now be worth £420,000. On the other hand, £100 invested in the stock market would now be worth a modest £100,000. Recent research shows that, thanks to this impressive track record, the majority of financial advisers would support investing in fine wine as a way to diversify certain client portfolios.

So, how is it that fine wine has managed to weather financial storms and generate such consistent market-beating returns? The answer lies in a very simple economic model. Fine wine prices are primarily dictated by supply and demand. “What makes fine wine different from these other types of asset-backed investments is that it is made to be drunk,” notes Daniel Walker, Head of Investment at the London-based wine investment company OenoFuture.

“Fine wine is an artisanal product that can only be made in miniscule quantities. Every time a rare bottle is consumed, the value of the remaining bottles gets a welcome boost. And on the flip side, demand is constantly on the rise, especially in newer markets such as Asia, Africa and Latin America where elites are developing a taste for fine wine.”

Top-performing bottle up 113.07 per cent in one year

While OenoFuture clients typically benefit from average annual returns of 10-15 per cent, some bottles enjoy remarkable rates of return. For example, the top-performing wine for 2020 is the extremely rare Henri Jayer Echezeaux Grand Cru 1995, which has record-breaking price growth of 113.07 per cent across 2020. Just a handful of these bottles still exist, making this one of the rarest wines on the planet.

Overall, it’s been a great year for Burgundy, not least because the region’s annual En Primeur or “futures” campaign took place as normal in January shortly before the global outbreak of the pandemic. Their Bordelais cousins were not so lucky with the traditional April campaign delayed and staggered across early summer instead.

OenoFuture recently compiled an industry-leading six-figure portfolio composed entirely of iconic Burgundy wines that all have a cult following on the secondary market. This portfolio featured several extremely rare wines, including a magnum of Henri Jayer Cros Parantoux 1985 and a pristine case of Romanée-Conti 2002 from legendary producer Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.

Safe and secure investing

So, what’s the catch? Surprisingly little, according to Walker. “Since it is asset-backed, fine wine is a very low risk investment. Once you invest in the market, your wines are kept in optimum conditions in a secure bonded warehouse in your name. They are fully insured at the current market rate and we have a dedicated anti-fraud department within OenoFuture who ensure the authenticity of all your bottles. In almost all cases we purchase directly from the producer to ensure impeccable provenance.”

Accessible for all investors

A question that first-time investors often ask is how much capital they need to invest. “Fine wine is an accessible market open to both new and experienced investors alike, thanks to fine wine investment companies like OenoFuture,” explains Walker. “Our investors can enter the market with initial investments that vary from as little as £10,000 to six or seven figures, making it an opportunity that many investors can benefit from.”

For those who are new to wine investment, OenoFuture offers a fully managed service, guiding you through every step of the process from entry to exiting the market.

“Investors can choose to be as involved as they want, whether that be learning more about wine through our regular events and updates or simply treating it as a hands-off ‘armchair investment’,” comments Walker. “In seasons of intense fragility, wine offers welcome stability – which is why we’re seeing record numbers of first-time and seasoned investors turning to us for help.”

OenoFuture is Europe’s leading fine wine investment company. To find out more about investing in wine, visit oenogroup.com

Brexit deal done: what’s in it and where next for the UK and EU?

To misquote Shakespeare, our Brexit negotiating revels now are ended. The tempestuous talks did not lead to a dramatic walkout, even if at times the UK government gave the impression this was a feud worthy of the Montagues against the Capulets. The negotiators ignored the background noise and succeeded in drafting a dense legal document on which the future of UK-EU relations now hangs.

How the deal came together

The UK was adamant throughout the negotiations that it be treated as a sovereign equal of the EU and have its independence respected. This was particularly important when it came to fishing rights – one of the last issues to be resolved. There were always two problems with this argument. Firstly, as explained by the Spanish foreign minister – a veteran trade negotiator – a trade agreement is designed to establish interdependence rather than being an exercise in asserting independence.

Secondly, the EU is simply a bigger beast economically speaking than the UK. This meant Brussels was confident it could weather the disruption of a no-deal separation better than the UK. By refusing to extend the transition period despite the pandemic, prime minister Boris Johnson ensured both parties faced the same time pressure. But they did not face the same level of risk if no agreement was reached. Hence the real ringmaster of the Brexit deal was Father Time, not Johnson or Angela Merkel, as UK newspapers often reported.

Nevertheless, it looks like the UK government will claim victory by arguing that it is now able to escape the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice while getting tariff and quota-free access for goods exported to the EU. In a statement immediately following the announcement of the deal, the UK government did just that:

The deal … guarantees that we are no longer in the lunar pull of the EU, we are not bound by EU rules, there is no role for the European Court of Justice and all of our key red lines about returning sovereignty have been achieved. It means that we will have full political and economic independence on 1st January 2021.

The reality though – as with everything Brexit-related since 2016 – is far more complex.

In the deal

Johnson’s negotiator David Frost liked to argue that the UK just wanted a standard free-trade deal like that between Canada and the EU. In reality, the UK was asking for extras, such as mutual recognition of conformity assessment for goods and mutual recognition of professional qualifications. The EU does not appear to have budged on those.

Brussels was also adamant that the deal required legal guarantees to prevent the UK undercutting the single market by using its new regulatory autonomy to lower environmental standards or employment rights. Johnson agreed in principle to this level playing field idea in the political declaration that accompanied the 2019 withdrawal agreement he got through parliament. Then, later in negotiations, he tried to renege on this pledge. In the end he u-turned again. The deal states that divergence from EU standards would lead to potentially restricted access to the single market.

In a press conference on the deal, Johnson reassured “fish fanatics” there would be plenty for their dinner plates, but the deal means that for the next five and a half years EU-based vessels will continue to enjoy significant access to British waters, during the transition to a final arrangement.

It’s clear that free movement of people has ended, while goods will face customs and regulatory checks. Transport chaos around the port at Dover is therefore still a distinct possibility after January 1 if exporters fail to have the proper paperwork to cross the Channel. Given they have not done this in a generation, there are bound to be difficulties. EU-based hauliers might also opt for caution and in the short–term avoid the risk of getting their lorries stuck in the UK. The UK will also leave the Erasmus higher education exchange programme, which will come as a blow to many students – although the UK now plans to launch its own “Turing” scheme to offer placements at universities around the world.

Much less clear is the future of the UK’s key export industry: financial services. Outside the single market, the City of London relies on the EU to grant permission to service EU-based clients and sell them banking, accounting, and associated legal products. This “equivalence” arrangement is reviewed on an ongoing basis, depending on the UK approach to financial regulation and data protection. That puts the sector on a much less firm footing than, say, manufacturing.

Selling the deal

The dance is over but now comes the hard sell. Credit claiming and blame avoidance will be the twin priorities for the UK government. Johnson is bound to play up the sovereignty angle by highlighting the ability to avoid the intrusion of EU law.

The blame game is where things are likely to get more interesting. This is because the deal requires a constant dialogue with the EU over things that can affect the terms of the agreement, such as government subsidies. This is the position Switzerland constantly finds itself in. The Brexit deal requires both sides to submit to a general review after four years to make sure both sides are meeting the requirements. Hard eurosceptic Conservative backbenchers, who pushed for a no deal, may see this as a concession too far.

What can Boris Johnson do to overcome internal opposition? His parliamentary majority is sufficient to overcome anything short of a major revolt. But his strongest card might be to simply shift the blame to his predecessor, Theresa May, for triggering Brexit without a plan. Meanwhile, Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted immediately after the deal was announced that “no deal that will ever make up for what Brexit takes away from us. It’s time to chart our own future as an independent, European nation.” So, while one episode in this long drama may be drawing to a close, it seems that others, relating to the very future of the UK, are far from over.

Andrew Glencross, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Aston University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

 

 
 

How to secure the best talent to build back better

Richard Milsom, Founder and Managing Partner, Granger Reis

If the demand for growth in the industrial and real estate sectors is to be fulfilled, we need to improve the perspective of careers within these industries.

The Covid-19 crisis continues to place a significant burden on the UK’s economy and public finances. As a key enabler of growth, governments and businesses are turning to infrastructure development to help stimulate the renewal of the economy.

The UK alone is prepared to invest £640 billion in roads, railways and housing over the next five years, while the equivalent global forecast is a staggering $50 trillion. Already faced with an immense skills shortage, delivering this ambitious programme will involve an entire rethink of the way the industry has traditionally gone about attracting talent.

Perhaps the biggest challenge to building capacity is changing the perception of what the infrastructure industry does. There are a number of stereotypes associated with careers in infrastructure that paint them as “low-skilled” or badly paid, when in reality the opposite is true.

When it comes to attracting talent, embracing issues such as diversity and inclusion, environmental sustainability and mental health at work has never been more important. We are increasingly seeing candidates who want to align personal motivations and values with an organisation’s true purpose and culture. Companies that do not think and act upon their diversity, wellbeing and green policies will struggle to attract the talent of the future.

Companies need to be braver. Employers should look to evaluate potential employees on competence as opposed to experience and identify people from aligned industries from which they might need skills in the future. For example, the construction industry could seek manufacturing skills to enable off-site manufacturing to be delivered to a higher standard. Furthermore, companies need to go into schools and make the future generation of talent aware of the benefits of being part of the infrastructure and industrial sectors. As we know, these sectors are not only rewarding personally and financially but they can also benefit society at large. Finally, companies must embrace technology and automation to ensure that their industries become more efficient and enable them to employ fewer people in the future.

Until organisations rethink the way they have traditionally approached attracting and retaining talent, the UK will struggle to deliver on government plans to boost the economy and build a world that is more resilient to future crises.

For more information on Granger Reis’ services, please visit www.grangerreis.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook

The new fintech credit service that’s powering rapid growth

How US fintech Braviant Holdings is helping underbanked consumers take control of their financial lives

There are around 50 million adults in the US who are underbanked. These are people who have access to mainstream checking accounts, but who cannot access other financial services such as credit from traditional providers.

Braviant is a rapidly growing fintech based in Chicago that is addressing this large but underserved market with a suite of innovative credit products. The company, founded in 2014, is headed by Stephanie Klein, who has an impressive set of awards to her name. In 2018, Stephanie was selected as a member of Crain’s 40 under 40 and named as a finalist for LendIt’s 2018 Fintech Woman of the Year award. In 2020, she was a finalist in the Outstanding Tech CEO category at the 13th annual Momentum Awards, hosted by 1871 and the Illinois Technology Association.

Braviant is emerging as a leader in providing simple, transparent personal loans. Getting a loan from a bank or a credit card company generally requires a good or excellent credit rating. But for a variety of reasons, many people have a poor credit score. They may have made a few mistakes managing their bills when they were younger, or their credit may have been impacted by an unexpected event such as a layoff, a large medical bill or a divorce. For these people, the only alternative to overdrafting their checking account is often a payday loan. This can be expensive, and borrowers usually have to repay these loans in a matter of a few short weeks, propelling them further into a cycle of debt.

Data and technology combine to enable better decisions

The credit Braviant provides is very different. There are no origination or prepayment fees, and loans can be repaid in small, affordable installments over a longer timeframe of four to 24 months. Whereas a payday loan repayment may wipe out 40 to 80 per cent of a borrower’s income, a typical instalment payment toward a Braviant personal loan requires just five to 15 per cent of a borrower’s net paycheck.

Tapping into this large underserved market has enabled Braviant to grow rapidly – it was included in the Inc 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the US and Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 list of the fastest-growing technology companies in the US in both 2019 and 2020.

The company has achieved this growth by combining cutting-edge technology with a willingness to evaluate non-traditional sources of data. Banks generally rely on FICO scores to assess creditworthiness. Braviant supplements the traditional credit data that determines a consumer’s FICO score with many other sources, including bank transaction history, to better understand a potential borrower’s true ability and willingness to repay. Because Braviant’s models are much more accurate at predicting the likelihood of default than traditional banking models, it can approve borrowers whom others would decline.

Better information delivers a fairer product

Braviant’s proprietary underwriting algorithms do a better job than a traditional credit score at weeding out customers who don’t have the ability or willingness to repay. Because of this, it can profitably serve credit-challenged consumers at lower interest rates: Braviant products can be as much as 50 to 75 per cent less expensive than payday loans or other products aimed at the underbanked. And while it is true that Braviant’s loans are not as cheap as mainstream products, returning customers can graduate to lower rates over time on Braviant’s “Path to Prime®”.

This approach is generating a big demand: Braviant has provided credit to nearly 250,000 people so far. More than 75 per cent of these are borrowing to cover an unexpected expense because they are living paycheck to paycheck. And given that a third of Americans can’t come up with $2,000 to cover an emergency expense, there is a staggering need for continued access to credit in this market.

Ethical approach fuels employee engagement

Braviant’s fair, transparent approach to lending is reflected the company’s internal culture. It is seen to be a great place to work, with friendly colleagues and an accessible leadership team.

Glassdoor.com review of Braviant

Because it is a small company, Braviant’s employees are offered broad roles with a lot of opportunity to learn and make an impact. People are encouraged to advance their careers, and some have gone from associate to director in less than three years. This approach to employee welfare and development has been recognised by several awards, including American Banker’s Best Place to Work in Fintech, Built In Chicago's Best Places to Work, and Crain's Chicago Best Places to Work.

Driving the evolution of the credit industry

Braviant is clearly operating in a market with enormous potential. It has built a sustainable and scalable business model powered by technology, data and machine learning. And in keeping with its mission to help the underbanked access more affordable credit, Braviant is now outsourcing its end-to-end digital loan origination and servicing platform to the mainstream banking industry.

Braviant is driven by a vision that involves rehabilitating the underbanked so they can graduate to prime credit. By offering small-dollar loans to people with less than perfect credit, Braviant is breaking down credit barriers for non-prime consumers. And by sharing its methodologies with mainstream banks, it is expanding the market and further driving down the cost of credit for middle America.

Ultimately these two strategies will empower more consumers to access fair credit products from reputable companies. Braviant’s commitment to helping its customers take control of their financial lives and achieve its mission of “The Path to Prime®” is what makes this rapidly growing Chicago fintech such an extraordinary company.

written by Jeremy Swinfen-Green for Braviant Holdings

The aftershock of the Covid-19 pandemic on the short-term rental market

Akash Sharda, Chief Executive and Talha Bashir, Operations Director

It goes without saying that 2020 has not been the year any of us expected. The way we live our lives, go to work, see our friends and how often we travel changed entirely, and we found ourselves in a strange new, socially distanced world.

All industries and businesses have felt the impact of Covid-19, but the travel and tourism sector took one of the biggest blows. And after the biggest downturn in travel confidence since 9/11 and the financial crash of 2008, the industry is still struggling. Nations are beginning to emerge from lockdown once more, but the constant changes in restrictions and travel corridor lists are hindering the recovery of the travel industry, and all aspects of the rental market – from hotels to short-term rentals, and accommodation in general – are continuing to be hit, particularly the short-term rental market in Scotland.

Holidays and business travel are the biggest reasons for people renting short-term, and it’s difficult to gauge when, if ever, things will return to pre-Covid normality. Lacking the confidence to travel not just for holidays but for business too, people have changed their behaviour and lifestyles. And, combined with the pandemic, the proposed changes to the regulatory system of short-lets in Scotland represent a perfect storm of restrictive conditions.

Short-term renting is a great way to maximise the income on a property – and doing this means the property should never be left empty. This is where landlords will benefit from new renting models and systems, and one of the leading examples of this is known as a blended yield model.

By being able to offer your property up on a short-, mid- and long-term basis, landlords can ensure it is achieving maximum occupancy and that there are no void periods in the calendar.

How can SpotHost help?

At SpotHost we specialise in the blended yield model by advertising the properties for mid- and long-term lets, while filling any void periods with short lets. This model is tried and tested and has proved a huge success for many of our clients.

However, one of the biggest challenges in 2021 will be to ensure landlords comply with the new set of rules. At SpotHost, we are always ahead of the market and work closely with the Short Term Accommodation Association (STAA) to ensure landlords renting their properties with us stay up-to-date with regulations and make the process of transition completely hassle-free.

We know how important a smooth negotiation of the many obstacles still to come for short lets, and we will both ensure properties will benefit from opportunities in the market and promote, as we always have, responsible hosting.

Flexible lettings through a blended-yield model, to maximise on rental income.

The electronic security industry is changing – Evolution leads the way

Richard Lambert–Founder and CEO Evolution (Electronic Security Systems) Ltd

Businesses must engage with security integrators early, or waste money and risk brand damage

Businesses are at risk of focusing on the latest security technologies, without giving proper thought to the process, policy and procedures they need to support them – such systems should be designed to meet an agreed operational requirement.

Due to the increasing pace of technological development, security consultants run the risk of being behind the curve when it comes to the latest technology and how it can be operationally deployed to support end-user requirements.

The opportunity to work closely with the end-user, wider stakeholders and commercial departments of an organisation is key to delivering operationally supportive, cost-effective and fit-for-purpose security systems that secure an organisation’s day-to-day operations. The effective way of achieving the above is through the completion of a Security Operational Requirement (SyOR) for the planned systems.

There is a real need to work from a solid knowledge platform in relation to a client’s organisational risk and operational constraints. Only then can the systems be designed to mitigate the identified and documented risk that the success of the system can be measured against.

The industry is moving away from the old-school methods of consultancy and steadily towards something more relevant and current. True consultancy is about building a roadmap to meet future demand, and creating end-to-end solutions and partnerships that endure, rather than the “fit-and-forget” projects of yesteryear.

It means having a thorough understanding of the risk involved with each individual site and the applicability of (and compliance with) all relevant codes, acts and legislation. Similarly, a robust understanding of the latest technology and how it can be applied, as well as having the right policies and procedures in place, is crucial for security to become a business enabler and not a barrier to progress.

In these uncertain times, it is also critically important to understand and know the source of the selected security products. It is no longer acceptable to source security products from countries that do not respect privacy laws, engage in espionage and leave businesses at serious risk of back-door entry to sensitive data, leaving them open to corruption of their security systems, future support difficulties and serious risk of brand damage.

The point is that you can have the best, most expensive system in the world, that delivers the highest levels of sophistication and modern thinking, but none of it is even worth the cost of the packaging if the specific business operational risks and vulnerabilities are not properly understood from the start and the products are not from a trustworthy source to guarantee security and supply for the lifetime of the system.

Businesses must engage with security integrators early or waste money and risk brand damage. For more information visit: www.evolutionsecurity.com

How does property guardianship benefit the public sector?

Stuart Woolgar, CEO, Global Guardians Management

Public sector-owned properties come in all shapes and sizes. From flats and houses to libraries and care homes, these buildings serve the local community in a variety of ways. While many of these properties provide a place for local residents to read, receive medical care or rest into their senior years, all buildings will at some point likely undergo renovation, repurposing or redevelopment to make way for new services or homes.

When a building no longer has a tenant, such as a local charity or NHS trust, it automatically becomes vulnerable and can very quickly decline into being unused and unloved. These empty properties cause stress and financial strain on their owners with escalating fees associated with the building’s security and management.

Security guards might be selected to protect the site; however, they are not wholly effective in protecting large developments and can be particularly expensive to employ. This money could be better used by the public sector body to pay for the wages of doctors and nurses, for the development of new homes or for the renovation of the buildings that service the community.

Leaving disused buildings empty and inadequately protected is another possible option, but these unprotected voids can often cause concern among the local residents, especially when the properties attract antisocial behaviour.

Properties that fall within regeneration schemes can be even more difficult to manage without expert help, given the increased social impact of decanting a block or entire housing estate. It becomes more critical that the right solution is selected to manage and secure these types of properties in order to avoid additional stress on local residents and increased issues associated with these sites.

So, what is the solution? Security by occupation.

Global Guardians offers public sector property owners peace of mind, visibility and control of their assets to reduce stress and help achieve a better result for the local community. Our security by occupation services, which are derived from BS 8584:2015 (the British Standard for Vacant Property Protection) have assisted several London and Royal borough councils, NHS trusts and G15 housing associations to lower stress, minimise costs and better serve local constituents.

If you represent a public sector body and are in the dark when it comes to your void property security and management, call Global Guardians on 0203 818 9100 or visit global-guardians.co.uk. Our team of experts are here to help.

The digital revolution: how digital marketing delivers quantifiable results for British companies

Steve Pailthorpe, founder and Chief Executive, Iconic Digital

Digital marketing is all about building and creating connections with customers and prospects alike. Using your website as your primary digital asset, it enables a business to grow by driving targeted, relevant traffic to its website. Lead-tracking software then allows marketers to nurture prospects and convert more sales leads. Digital marketing promises end-to-end transparency with the ability to track and monitor conversions, proving that a return on investment model has total scalability when managed correctly.

The world has shifted and moved almost entirely online, with a myriad of different marketing channels now available at the marketer’s disposal. Search engine optimisation, paid advertising, social media and marketing automation all drive and direct traffic through to the website. However, many British companies have yet to harness the power of artificial intelligence and marketing attribution modelling to achieve exceptional and ground-breaking results.

“Selective skills in digital marketing can take years to acquire,” says Steve Pailthorpe, Chief Executive of London-based digital marketing agency Iconic Digital. “Developing an in-house team of professionals can be an attractive proposition to larger businesses. However, it’s simply not cost-efficient to recruit, train and develop experienced people with the variety of different digital marketing disciplines which are required to produce real results.”

The world of digital marketing is evolving at an incredible pace. Marketing technology is becoming smarter, with the level of personalisation and segmentation now available to yield significant returns. The industry is moving away from the old-school methods of consultancy and switching steadily towards a new era of methodology. Marketing technology can now tell you who is on a website as well as provide metrics to track and monitor the behaviour of those individuals. Unmasking the people on your company’s website gives marketers the ability to retarget these individuals based on a prospect’s behaviour, via email and paid advertising.

Every day, across every corner of the planet, things continue to change at speed. While some principles in business remain identical, marketing technology continues to evolve at an exponential rate. Big data, artificial intelligence and social media have rocked the world we live in. Amid a global pandemic, companies are seeking innovative ways to generate sales leads, and the digital marketing strategies that focus primarily on lead generation are working well for start-ups and emerging enterprises.

“Within the marketing funnel, larger businesses typically focus on brand building,” says Pailthorpe. “But with tighter marketing budgets for the year ahead, following the global pandemic and Brexit, marketing directors are being forced to consider channels which focus more directly on lead generation. Search engine optimisation, paid advertising and marketing automation strategies typically yield more leads than market engagement channels such as social media and content marketing.”

There’s no denying that the digital marketing revolution has begun. An elite group of digital entrepreneurs has emerged in the UK. These individuals are using digital marketing to transform their business and gain continued successful results. None of these business leaders have to rely on venture capital, investors or bank loans, because their digital marketing pays dividends – and as a result this covers the cost of their marketing investment. Moreover, this generates sales leads that turn into valuable long-term customers.

Iconic Digital is a digital marketing agency headquartered in London. Over the past 10 years, it has pioneered a scientific and innovative approach to digital marketing which has guaranteed a return on investment for each of its clients.

Find out more about Iconic Digital’s digital marketing agency in London.

The value of rare and old whisky looks set to continue to rise

Scotch single malt whisky specialists VCL Vintners has amassed over £60 million in stock under management.

 

 

Investors seeking financial shelter during times of economic volatility will naturally head towards tangible assets – and the Scotch cask investment market has benefited enormously from this influx of new investors. With Covid-19 shutting down Scotland’s entire whisky production industry and retail alcohol sales up 9 per cent by mid-June, prices for pre-existing casks of single malt casks have skyrocketed. 

Rare whisky has the potential to be hugely profitable over the medium-to-long-term for patient investors seeking a secure asset. Indeed, the Knight Frank Luxury Investment Index documents growth of 564 per cent over the past decade, with Grand View Research forecasting a CAGR of 6.4 per cent for the entire whiskey industry from 2019 to 2025.

The fundamental upon which this growth is based is a perfectly inverse supply/demand imbalance for generic whisky. Specifically, the Scotch whisky industry has around 120 distilleries and at maximum capacity can produce approximately 35 million litres of single malt annually, while consumer levels globally sit at an astounding 500 million for whisky as a whole.

2019 was a record-breaking year, with Scotch whisky exports topping £4.9 billion, up 4 per cent on 2018 levels, and with single malt exports hitting £1.5 billion – another record-breaking sum. Bottle prices were no slouch either, with a single bottle of 60-year-old 1926 Macallan selling for £1.45 million.

While many new whisky brokers are now queueing up to satisfy investors’ insatiable thirst for the amber nectar, it was London-based whisky investment house VCL Vintners that first broke into the highly lucrative cask investment trade, cutting out a great deal of the brokers and middle men, and dealing directly with the parent organisations of some of the best-known distilleries in Scotland.

Originally founded in 2010 as a wine and spirit merchant, VCL has, since 2013, scoured Scotland for the world’s rarest and most desirable casks of Scotch single malt, and today houses some of the largest privately owned cask collections of ultra-exclusive Macallan, Dalmore and Bowmore, to name a few. VCL even owns casks procured by the likes of Abe Rosenberg, once a notorious prohibition-era bootlegger who became a giant of the (legal) whisky world.

“Having entered the market at the beginning of the curve, we were able to amass a collection of super-premium casks, which have, in many cases, made significant gains for those investors savvy enough to jump on board,” says Benjamin Lancaster, one of VCL’s foremost whisky experts. “Over time, we have diligently accumulated casks that have an unprecedented scarcity value. We have carefully nurtured and developed relationships with independently owned distilleries and multinational conglomerates alike, and as a result we are considered to be perhaps the go-to company for that once-in-a-lifetime cask investment acquisition.”

Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Your money maturing

There are two primary ways in which rare single malt whisky will increase in value. “Firstly, and unlike bottled whisky, liquid in the cask will go through a ‘maturation’ process, during which it will continue to take on the characteristics and complexities of the cask that it’s housed in. Through this money-making osmosis, whisky will get better with age and therefore far more valuable as time goes on,” says Sales Manager Tim Ashley. “Secondly, there is an enormous and increasing rarity and scarcity value attached to these casks the longer they are held. Over time, all casks will fulfil their ultimate destiny which is to be bottled and consumed. This leaves fewer and fewer of the highly prestigious casks held by our investors and so again the trend is that they rise rapidly in value.”

VCL is now a truly global company, with more and more overseas buyers interested in owning a profit-making piece of Scottish heritage. Its network of clients now covers Asia, Europe and the US and, owing to the direct relationship VCL has with many distillery owners, it is increasingly the go-to company for whisky brokers and wholesalers. “We have been stockpiling Scotland’s rarest whiskies for many years now,” says managing director Stuart Thom. “Nowadays, these whiskies rarely come to the market, so when we do introduce them the demand is huge and they tend to be purchased very quickly”

Broadening appeal

While the romance and pedigree of the industry will always be a draw for whisky lovers, VCL takes a more analytical approach. “We assess the viability of each distillery’s stock in much the same way that a City analyst might assess the merits of a listed company,” says Ben Lancaster. “We consider various factors including rarity, collectability and quality, and all this within the framework of 200 or so different whisky micro-economies worldwide. Generally speaking, the benefits of whisky investment are available for all to see – just open a broadsheet or investment magazine. Where our expertise is utilised best is stock-picking the best casks, from the most prestigious distilleries – but, of course, at the right price.”

This modern approach to whisky investment has attracted an ever-younger audience. No longer the preserve of aristocratic gentlemen in cardigans, VCL’s clients now include a far younger demographic of buyers. Fed up with underperforming traditional investments and with time on their side, they appreciate the rigorous analysis performed by the company and see whisky as a low-maintenance investment that can seriously improve their future wealth position.

VCL is committed to breaking these stereotypes. Chiefly among these is the ever-increasing number of both female investors and staff. Currently, there is a precise 50/50 split between male and female employees. This is in line with the industry’s hopes to broaden its appeal, best seen through the huge tourism initiative for Scotch whisky.

Fully managed service with years of expertise

VCL’s level of professionalism and expertise is unparalleled. Earlier this year it held an investment forum at the Scottish Houses of Parliament, focused on strengthening the trade relationship between Scotland and India, with Scotch whisky central to discussions. It is owing to this kind of commitment to the Scottish whisky industry, and its rightful place within the commodity investment arena, that VCL is now considered by many to be the premier cask trader in the country.

As a performance-related brokerage, VCL has a genuine and vested interest in how its clients fare financially. With affiliation to both the Wine, Spirit & Trade Association and The London International Vintners Exchange the company is well positioned to offer expert advice to clients wishing to capitalise on this rapidly growing market.     

“As is often the case, investors come to us with very specific requirements,” says Stuart Thom. “Our whisky specialists create bespoke portfolios, providing up-to-date market information. Regardless of whether you are a whisky aficionado or a complete beginner, the simplicity of our investment structure and the intimate knowledge of the market held by our account managers means that whisky investment is something that can be hugely beneficial for all.”

Safety and security are key to the market and it is underpinned by a strict set of HMRC rules and regulations. By law, all Scotch whisky casks have to remain within the boundaries of Scotland in whisky-specific bonded warehouses. For savvy investors, this means that the asset is free from both VAT and duty, as well as being fully insured to its market value. In addition, owing to the fact that whisky casks can be categorised as a “wasting chattel”, there are potentially huge benefits in relation to Capital Gains Tax.

Clients can exit the market with their profits just as easily as they can enter it. Cask brokers, distilleries, whisky collectors and funds are all viable exit strategies. VCL will soon launch VCL Auctions, creating a platform where investors can buy and sell whisky casks. “As a team, we are very much unified in our dedication to provide the best possible service and, of course, that means profits for clients,” says Thom. “We try to perfectly fuse a devotion to Scotch whisky’s history and romance alongside a keen commitment to generating profits for our clients.”

For more information on starting your whisky cask portfolio, contact the team at VCL Vintners for a no-obligation consultation

by Tim Ashley, Sales Manager, VCL Vintners

Flexible policies are the future of the insurance industry

Sten Saar, Co-founder and CEO, Zego

Compared with other financial sectors such as personal finance, the insurance industry has been extremely slow to adapt to the changing needs of customers. For the most part, customers looking to buy insurance are often limited to rigid insurance products that aren’t necessarily what they want or need, and are often difficult to understand.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the world of commercial motor insurance. Take for example the continually growing number of delivery workers playing such a crucial role during the pandemic. Many of these drivers and riders have chosen to take on delivery work in order to supplement a loss of income and may only actually be looking to work part-time, yet they face having to pay for a full month or even a full year’s worth of cover. This simply doesn’t make sense.

A similar problem is faced by fleet business owners. A private hire taxi business, for example, may have had many of its vehicles off the road for days, weeks or even months of the year – whether due to seasonal dips in activity, or continued national or local lockdowns. Yet when it comes to their insurance, fleet business owners are similarly limited to rigid annual policies which aren’t necessarily conducive to healthy shorter-term cash flows.

Zego was founded in 2016 to provide a solution to this problem. Since its inception, Zego has offered insurance products in the new mobility space that are simple, flexible and usage-based, so that people who use vehicles to earn money have the option to pay for the insurance they need, right when they need it. So far, Zego has sold more than 14 million policies and currently insures approximately half of the UK’s food delivery drivers and riders – providing protection for over 200,000 vehicles.

Furthermore, by recently incorporating driver behavioural data through its acquisition of telematics company Drivit, and by layering this information on top of not just its existing data points, such as more generic factors like age, location and vehicle type, but also data shared through its technical integrations, Zego is now pricing insurance policies far more accurately and fairly than its competitors. By doing so, Zego is on a mission to save its customers – people who use vehicles to earn a living – both time and money.

To learn more about how Zego saves people and businesses time and money, visit zego.com

Cover Image provided by Zego

US-UK trade deal: what can post-Brexit Britain hope to get?

The ability to strike new trade deals was a key promise of the Brexit campaign, even before the UK left the EU. But progress towards a deal with the US has been stuttering. There were originally high hopes that an agreement could be ready for when the Brexit transition period ended on December 31 2020. So what’s the delay and what can the UK realistically expect to get in any such deal?

Trade between the UK and US reached an all time high of more than US$140 billion in 2019, according to UN COMTRADE and has been growing steadily for the past two years. Meanwhile, there was a slow decline in UK-EU trade in 2019 – although its value is still much higher at US$560 billion.

But, as expected, UK exports and imports fell sharply in May and June 2020, with some recovery in July and August. It is clear that the 2019 growth in UK-US trade has been reversed, largely as a result of the pandemic. This makes UK-US negotiations on further trade liberalisation increasingly important.

Talks on a deal formally started in May 2020, and after several missed deadlines no arrangement has materialised so far. President-elect Joe Biden’s recent interview with the New York Times suggests there is little likelihood of the US striking a full trade deal with the UK in the short term. And when the US Trade Promotion Authority runs out in July 2021, there will no longer be an opportunity to fast track a deal through Congress.

However, recent comments from Robert Lighthizer, the current US trade representative, to the BBC have raised hopes of a mini deal, which might focus solely on bringing down tariffs.

Slow start

There are a number of reasons for the lack of progress: the US election got in the way, and the UK has been negotiating with a range of partners all at the same time. While the UK has one of the largest teams of trade negotiators, they are still new to this process, since all these arrangements were in the hands of EU trade negotiators until very recently. There are also substantial differences of opinion.

On healthcare, access to the UK market would be a good outcome for US negotiators, as representatives of the US healthcare sector are interested in expanding into the UK. However, UK negotiators have stated: “The NHS will not be on the table. The price the NHS pays for drugs will not be on the table. The services the NHS provides will not be on the table. The NHS is not, and never will be, for sale to the private sector, whether overseas or domestic.”

This being said, a U-turn is possible particularly if there is no other way to strike a deal. The NHS is so important in regards to a deal with the US that it may have to be re-examined.

UK exporters already have strong access to the US market; the US is the most important export nation for UK goods exports. On the other hand, there are more opportunities for better access to the UK market for US products. US negotiators are particularly keen for the agricultural and food sectors to be opened up. That said, the British public are becoming more informed of the potential issues with US food products being sold at lower than EU standards. And, understandably, UK farmers do not welcome increased competition.

From a UK perspective, there just doesn’t seem to be that much to gain from a trade deal in economic terms; the UK government’s own modelling estimates increases of 0.07-0.16% of GDP in the long run depending on whether the deal would lead to partial or full trade liberalisation. For the US, a deal would only start to look more economically beneficial if the UK is willing to open up the food or healthcare markets, both of which are politically very difficult. However, a deal would be highly symbolic for the UK as it tries to find its place in a post-Brexit world.

While it is unlikely we will see a full UK-US trade deal in the near future, it is possible that we will see a mini-deal emerge during the final weeks of the Trump administration. This might see the two countries agreeing lower tariffs on products such as whisky and cashmere. Alternatively, under the next US administration, Biden’s keenness to build alliances against China could also encourage a UK-US mini-deal.

Karen Jackson, Senior Lecturer in Economics, University of Westminster and Oleksandr Shepotylo, Lecturer in Economics, Aston University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

 

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