Internet Access Continues To Rise

The latest quarterly release about Internet access in the UK suggests that at the first quarter of 2013 86% of the UK population or 43.5m adults, had used the Internet. While the majority of the population have at some time used the Internet there are still some 7.1m adults or 14% of the population who have never used the Internet on the Q4 2012 though the number decreased by 4% or 325,000 people. The demographics of the survey suggest that the elderly and the disabled are less likely to have used the Internet.

Men are more likely to have used the Internet than women with 88% of men being users and 84% of women. Londoners are more likely than any other region to be Internet users with 90% of people in London using the Internet. The region with the lowest percentage of users was Northern Ireland still with 79%.

Disabled people are less likely to use the Internet. According to the definition used in the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 32% of disabled people or 3.7m disabled people have never used the Internet. This accounts for over 50% of non-users (53%).

The ONS survey covers people aged 16 and over. The number of Internet users continues to increase with an extra 2.4m added since the survey began.

Business Start-Ups Up In 2011

The number of business start-ups increased by 11.2% between 2010 and 2011 according to a recent statistical bulletin on business demography from the ONS. The increase of 26,000 brought the total number of business births to 261,000. The number of businesses that ceased trading fell by 20,000 to 230,000 or 7.9% during the same period.

Regionally, the highest number of start-ups was seen in London with a start-up rate of 14.6% or 61,000. The North East with 11.2% and the North West with 11.1% also figured among the regions at the top of the table. The highest rate for businesses ceasing to trade was in the North West with 10.7% or 25,000, then London with 10.4%.

The information and communication category saw the highest rate of increase in start-ups with an increase of 14.8% followed by professional, scientific and technical with 14.3% and business administration and support services with 14.1%. Business administration and support services also saw the biggest numbers cease trading with a rate of 11.9% follwed by finance and insurance at 11.5%. The highest numbers were in professional, scientific and technical with 39,000, construction at 35,000 and business administration and support services with 25,000.

The UK 5-year survival rate for businesses starting in 2006 to 2011 was 45%. The highest 5-year survival rate was seen in N.Ireland with 50.5%, the lowest was in London with 41.8%. The industry group with the highest survival rate was health with 60% and education with 52.8%. Hotels and catering was lowest with 35.7% lasting 5 years.

Internet Usage Continues To Spread

The percentage of people using the Internet continues to increase quarter in quarter. the figures from the ONS for Q1 2012 however suggest that 8.12m or 16.1% of adults have still never used the Internet but that is 1% down on Q4 2011 and 7% down on Q1 2011. As many as 42.16m or 83.7% of adults have now used the Internet at some time and that includes 86.1% of men and 81.3% of women. Over 3m non-users are from the over 75 age group (41.2% of non-users). Non-users are also from the disabled and lower income groups. Those most likely to have used the Internet include those earning over £500/week with nearly 99% and those over £1000/week at nearly 100%. The South East is the region with the biggest rate of users at 86.9%, then London with 86.5%. N.Ireland recorded the lowest percentage of Internet use with 75.1%. All regions have nevertheless shown an increase in Internet use over the year from Q1 2011 to Q1 2012.

Business Survey Estimates Fall In Number Of Jobs

The Business Register and Employment Survey estimates that for September 2010 there were 26.8m employees, down 134,000 on 2009. Tha largest fall among the countries of the UK was in Scotland at 73,000.

The region with the most employees was London with 4.1m (15.3% of UK employees) next came the South East with 3.7m (13.8%). London also had the highest proportion of full-time employees at 74.1%. Other regions had less than 70%. The regions with the lowest number of employees were Northern Ireland with 705,000 (2.6%) and the North East with 999,000 (3.7%) with over a third part-time.

In the UK as a whole, there were 18.1m full-time and 8.7m part-time employees. The health sector continued to have the largest number of employees with 3.6m. The industry with the lowest number of employees was agriculture, forestry and fishing with 214,000 (0.8%). Construction employment decreased the most down 118,000 employees. Mining, quarrying and utilities had the largest proportion of full-time workers at 93.3%. The retail sector had the largest proportion of part-time workers at 57.2%. Business administration and support services grew by 62,000.

An Increase In The Number Of UK Businesses

The estimated number of private sector business in the UK at the start of 2010 increased by 48,000 to 4.5m according to statistics from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. They employed an estimated 22.5m people and had a combined annual turnover of £3,200bn. SMEs accounted for 99.9% of all enterprises, 59.1% of private sector employment and 48.6% of turnover. Two thirds, 64.2%, of private sector businesses were sole proprietorships, 27.6% were companies and 8.2% were partnerships.

The largest sector in terms of numbers of enterprises was construction with 899,000 businesses, professional, scientific and technical came next with 602,000. There were 146,000 enterprises in agriculture, forestry and fishing, 498,000 in wholesale, retail trade, repair and 291,000 in human health and social work activities.

The South East had the most private sector enterprises with 732,000, followed by London with 706,000. The East of England came third with 474,000. The North East had the least number of enterprises with 122,000. Next bottom was the East Midlands with 306,000. Scotland had 288,000, Wales 192,000 and N. Ireland 121,000.

Decrease In Trade Union Membership In 2010

Trade union membership fell slightly in 2010 compared with 2009. Membership density fell 0.8% to 26.6% and membership fell by 179,000 or 2.7% to 6.5m. During this time employment actually increased by almost 0.5% between 2009 and 2010. Density in the private sector fell by 0.9% and by 0.3% in the public sector acording to statistics from the Labout Force Survey and published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the ONS.

The professional occupations reported the largest percentage of union density with 43.7%. Sales occupations were lowest with 12.9%. Females are now more likely to be union members than males whether by age, public sector, workplace size, job or other individual characteristics.

Geographically, density rose in Scotland by 0.5% to 32.3% but the other nations recorded falls of 0.9% in England and Wales and 4.2% in N.Ireland. The trend over the last 10 years shows that trade union density has fallen by about 3% in England, Scotland and N.Ireland and by about 5% in Wales. The North East recorded the largest fall in trade union density of 7.4% over the last 10 years. The East of England recorded the smallest fall of 1%. The last 10 years has also seen an increase in union density in the professional and administrative services, wholesale, retail trade and motor repair sectors but fell in the other sectors. Water supply, electricity and gas recorded the biggest falls of over 15% each.

Trade union presence reached 46.1% in 2010, a fall of 0.5% on 2009 and 2.8% over the last 10 years (2010). Collective agreements affected the pay and conditions of over 30% of employees from 36.4% in 2000. They covered 16.8% of private sector employees and 64.5% of public sector employees. The public sector accounted for 62.4% of union members, professional, associated professional and technical occupations accounted for 45.5% of all trade union members.

Business Research And Development

Total research and development expenditure in cash terms in business in 2009 totalled £15.6bn, that is a fall of 2.5% on 2008. The ONS sub-divides business R & D into civil and defence spending. Civil R & D expenditure decreased by 1.4% to £13.7bn and defence expenditure decreased by 10.2% to £1.9bn. In real terms total expenditure decreased by 4.1% to £15.6bn within which civil expenditure decreased by 3% to £13.7bn.

The product group with the highest R & D performance was pharmaceuticals at £4.4bn or 28.4% of all spending. Other significant product groups included aerospace (£1.5bn), computers (£1.5bn), motor vehicles and parts (£1.1bn) and telecommunications (£1.1bn). The region with the highest performance in terms of expenditure was the East of England (24.9%), the South East (23%) and the North West (13.1%) and the lowest in England was the North East (2%) and in the UK N. Ireland (1.9%). In terms of employment, the South East was highest employing the most people in R & D with 35,000, the East of England employed 30,000. The North East, Wales and N. Ireland employed the least at 4,000 each.

House Prices Higher Than August Last Year

House prices in the UK were 8.3% up on August last year and 0.7% up on last month according to the DCLG. The average price of a house in the UK in August was £213,116. Prices in creased in England, Wales and Scotland but fell in N.Ireland. First time buyers were paying 8.2% more than last year and former owners were paying 8.3% more. New property prices were 8.6% more and pre-owned property was 8.3% higher than August last year.

House Prices Up 10.1% On Last Year

The House Price Index (HPI) from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) for April 2010 went up by 10.1% between April 2009 and April 2010 and 0.4% on March. The average house price was £207,516 in April 2010 and the all dwellings index was 174.4.

Annual average house prices in England went up 10.9%, in Scotland 2.2% and in Wales 11.3% but N.Ireland house prices fell by 8.9%. First time buyers paid 12.2% more than a year ago. Average prices for former owner/occupiers were 9.3% higher. New properties were 7.6% more than last year and pre-owned houses were up 10.3%.

House prices rose in all regions of the UK except Yorkshire and Humber where prices fell 0.5%. East Midlands saw the biggest increase with a rise in prices of 2.7%. Over the year to April all regions have seen an increase in house prices. The largest increases were in London where there were price rises of 16.8%.

The average price for a house in England in April was £214,863, in Scotland £162,392, in Wales £151,079 and in N.Ireland £163,201. The English region with the highest average house price was London. The North East was the lowest with £139,595. The regions with an average house price above the national average were the East of England, London, the South East and the South West.

Decrease In Regional Trade Q3 2009

The value of UK exports for the year to September 2009 was down £22,183 or 9% to £223,800m compared to the year to September last year. The value of exports from England, Wales and N.Ireland fell by 8.4%, 8.3% and 8.4% respectively. Only Scotland saw an increase, of 3.4%, in Q3 2009. Within England the South East had the largest total value of exports with £37,849m and the smallest total was in the North East with exports of £9,423m. The number of UK exporters fell by 5.5% to 48,454. The largest decrease was in London with 7.5% to 8,154. No regions reported an increase in the number of exporters.

Imports also decreased for the year to September by £33,450m to £306,791m, or 9.8%. Imports fell in England, Wales and N.Ireland by 10.3%, 7.2% and 1.9% respectively and again only Scotland saw an increase, of 5.1%, in Q3 2009. The South East had the largest value of imports with £66,320m and the smallest total was in the North East with imports of £7,073m. The North East also saw the biggest percentage change with 24.9%. The East Midlands saw the smallest change with £15,489m. The number of importers decreased by 8.6% to 70,630 for Q3 2009. The largest percentage decrease was in London with 10.9% to 13,458. No regions reported an increase in the number of importers (HMRC - Regional Trade Statistics).