We featured the early results for GDP from the Office of National Statistics for Quarter 2 in 2013 recently. These are now firm and the results are detailed below. The slight air of optimism about UK Ltd continues to be felt, we would argue.
UK gross domestic product (GDP) in volume terms was estimated to have increased by 0.7% between Q1 2013 and Q2 2013, unrevised from the Second Estimate of GDP published 23 August 2013. Between Q4 2012 and Q1 2013, GDP in volume terms increased by 0.4%, revised up from the previously estimated 0.3% increase.
We were also delighted to read a recent article in the national press, where Nottingham, our home city, was cited by the Governor of the Bank of England as a ‘bell-weather’ for the UK economy. With data showing that nine out of ten jobs in the city are currently in the service sector, a move back to ‘creative manufacturing’, in all it’s diversity, is a great echo to the high Victorian energy of the city.
Katie Allen, writing in The Guardian, described Mark Carney’s view of Nottingham as a city where growth was rising, but that the quality of that growth and innovation was also significant. Gone are bicycles and cigarettes, but they are replaced by significant entities in bio-science, engineering and the arts/creative sector.
Examples in our city include the creation of new Creative Quarter Community Interest Company, as well as the delivery of a new BioCity development to foster the city’s lead in the sciences.
With the development of the Creative Quarter, it is great to see social business as a key plank in the city’s developing enterprise structure.
If, as a social business looking to make an inward investment, or to explore the context of Nottingham a start-up or social business development setting – you can find the city’s Growth Plan online here.
The team at SEEM, with our expertise in social business start-up and skills in delivering social finance would be happy to help you shape your project too. Contact us here…
Interesting web resources:
Mapping the Moment – a map based examination of the ‘cultural industries’ in Nottingham between 1857 – 1867
Knitting Together – an examination of the East Midlands knitting industry, 1600 to 1970. (Much changes in the economic landscape for our city and its hinterland, but much remains the same. New technologies, mergers, enterprise rise and fall…)
