Insider Scotland’s news panel highlights a broad sweep of economic and commercial stories. Retail figures from the Scottish Retail Consortium’s KPMG Scottish Retail Sales show total sales rose 1.9% in October compared with October 2024, when they had fallen 0.7%. Consumer-focused items include mobile phone launches that helped September sales recover and a Pizza Hut pre-pack administration that will save 64 sites and secure 1,277 jobs. Cultural and tourism stories range from Irn-Bru’s seasonal campaign to the World Golf Awards naming the new course at Trump international, Aberdeenshire, as the world’s best.
Energy and infrastructure stories feature heavily. SSE said it will invest £33 billion in UK electricity networks and expects around 80% of its fully funded strategy to be in regulated UK networks to 2030. Offshore wind was described as a ‘once-in-a-generation opportunity’ with potential to create thousands of jobs, and ScottishPower Renewables’ repowering of Hagshaw Hill is expected to deliver five times more energy than before. SSEN Transmission plans to create 600 ‘earn as you learn’ roles in Scotland by 2030. Financial and public-sector developments include Scotland being described as ‘on track’ to issue its first-ever bonds next year by finance officials, and unemployment in Scotland falling slightly in the last quarter according to ONS-linked reporting.
Technology and corporate items round out the roundup. The UK-backed, Europe-linked project to boost adoption of Artificial Intelligence in Edinburgh was noted, alongside local tech education moves such as codebase relaunching full CodeClan courses. Corporate market moves included Diageo shares rising sharply after an executive appointment, with early trading gains of 6.8% to 1,845 pence. Other regional economy items covered seafood’s £1 billion annual contribution to the UK economy, bank and developer finance for major housing and student accommodation projects, and sector-specific concerns such as job cuts at stv and debate over visitor levies in tourism hubs.
