See the big picture
As the economic and political landscape begins to stabilise after a long period of uncertainty, I expect to see confidence returning, with more businesses investing in people, technology and sustainability to help build their resilience and fuel their growth plans.
Head of UK Corporate and Barclaycard Payments
Given the uncertainty of the past few years, it is perhaps unsurprising that many of our corporate clients have put investment and growth plans on hold to some extent while they waited for the macroeconomic landscape to stabilise. As a result, many of our clients are now in a relatively strong liquidity position, and I’m hearing lots to suggest that there is more optimism and appetite for growth. In fact, in the survey we ran last year in collaboration with The Times to ‘take the temperature of UK businesses’, more than half of respondents said they have growth plan in place for 2025.
Of course, businesses will still need to manage a variety of challenges in the year ahead, including higher costs, increased regulatory expectations, and difficulties recruiting the right talent with the right skills. However, hopefully a more stable economic and political outlook and a better foundation for growth will provide business leaders with greater confidence, allowing them to seize the opportunities that present themselves over the next year.
Investing in talent
Based on our conversations with clients across the nation, it’s clear that recruiting and retaining people – and dealing with the ongoing skills shortage – continue to be major challenges. Businesses must also manage wage inflation and rising costs, especially with increases to employer NICs and the minimum wage announced in the 2024 Autumn Budget expected to take effect in April 2025.
To drive productivity and growth, I believe UK businesses will need to focus in particular on how they attract, develop and retain talent throughout 2025 and beyond. We’ve already seen several great examples of companies implementing initiatives to support their people strategies, including through learning and development programmes and innovative workplace models. More and more businesses are also engaging in strategic partnerships with their local communities and education providers to address key skills areas and attract local talent.
Embracing innovation
Over the past 18 months or so, we’ve heard increasing reports from clients about how embracing emerging technologies and leveraging automation has helped them to differentiate themselves and improve their competitiveness. By remaining curious and open to new ideas, businesses are more likely to benefit from how new tech tools – such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analytics – could help to drive efficiencies, reduce costs, address skills gaps and improve productivity.
Indeed, strategic investment in technology could help enhance operational performance and empower teams to be more effective and engaged. However, we’ve heard from clients that successful adoption requires a clear strategy, the right partners, and a focus on measurable outcomes that align with long-term goals.
Adapting through sustainability
Driven by increased regulatory requirements, changing stakeholder expectations, and growing awareness, I expect businesses to put more focus on their sustainability journeys over the coming year. Strategies that help to meet decarbonisation targets, secure energy supplies, and pivot businesses towards becoming more sustainable appear to be becoming increasingly key to success.
Businesses will most likely need to balance their growth plans with their sustainability goals with their growth plans, focusing on where they can make the greatest impact. Encouragingly, many of our clients across the UK have demonstrated how well-defined sustainability initiatives can help to drive long-term cost savings through energy efficiency, recycling and process optimisation.
With mounting pressure on larger businesses to reduce Scope 3 emissions, I believe we’ll see more businesses of all sizes across the supply chain implementing more sustainable practices, so as not to miss out on potential business opportunities.
Seeing the big picture
Our focus is on helping our clients see the big picture. We look beyond the numbers so that we can provide useful insights, ideas and opportunities across the various industries and UK regions we serve. With our dedicated regional and sector specialists and the power of the wider Barclays network, we can act on those insights together to help you achieve your goals.
Whatever your industry or location, our lending experts are here to help support your growth ambitions. Our lending solutions are crated with the needs of your businesses in mind: whether you want funding for growth, acquisition finance, property finance or a financial buffer in case of unexpected events.
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Our industry and regional heads share their thoughts on what challenges and opportunities they think businesses can expect to face in the coming year.
