IBISWorld presents a collection of fast facts for the different sectors of the UK economy.

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According to Defra, total income from farming is estimated to have been £4,119 million in 2020, a fall of £768 million or 15.7% from 2019. Agriculture’s contribution to the UK economy was £9,435 million in 2020, a 6.7% decrease from 2019.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), agriculture output recorded a 0.1% increase in July 2021.
According to Defra’s latest annual report released in June 2021, the total organic land area in the UK has grown slightly for the second consecutive year, increasing by 0.8% in 2020, with a total of 489,000 hectares of land farmed organically.
On 30 June 2021, the environment secretary confirmed that farmers will be able to earn up to £70 per hectare for actions to improve the health of their soil. As part of an update on the Agricultural Transition Plan, the government also announced that livestock farmers will be eligible for a free vet-led annual health and welfare review.
According to The National Pig Association, more than 70,000 pigs could be destroyed instead of being sold for meat due to worker shortages.
According to the National Farmers Union, some tomato and cucumber growers have been forced to shut down production, as they cannot afford to heat greenhouses due to soaring wholesale gas prices.

According to data from the ONS, mining and quarrying output increased by 21.9% in July 2021, contributing the most to the production sector’s growth. This was mainly attributed to the reopening of an oil field production site, which was previously temporarily closed for planned maintenance. However, output in the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas remained low, at 19.1%, below its July 2020 level.
The UK Oil and Gas Authority is managing a £1 million competition aimed at decarbonising offshore oil and gas production. The competition is designed to advance the widespread electrification of offshore installations on the UK Continental Shelf, which are powered by gas or diesel, as reported by World Oil.
Amid the recent energy crisis, UK Onshore Oil and Gas has urged the government to reconsider shale gas, with gas beneath Northern England and the Midlands able to meet the UK’s gas demand for 50 years. Previously, in 2019, Boris Johnson announced a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in England, with drilling already blocked in the rest of the United Kingdom, due to warnings that it was not possible to predict the magnitude of earthquakes the drilling might trigger.
Environmental group Greenpeace has lost its case against the UK government over a North Sea oil field permit, with the government welcoming the decision.
On 28 September 2021, brent crude oil prices rose above US$80 a barrel for the first time in three years amid the energy crisis in Europe, surging demand and tight supplies. Oil prices have continued to rise since then, reaching over US$84 per barrel on 11 October 2021. Natural gas prices have also surged, with UK prices breaching £3 a therm for the first time at the start of October 2021, tripling in the past two months.
West Cumbria Mining is seeking approval to open the UK’s first deep coalmine in 30 years, planning to mine 2.7 million tonnes of coking coal a year. However, it has been reported by The Guardian that the firm’s case for opening the mine rests on the assumption that the UK and EU governments will breach their legally binding climate targets by using the coal to supply steelmaking over the coming decades.
The Financial Times reports that energy analysts warn UK’s 2035 zero carbon electricity goal is unlikely to be met without continuing role for natural gas, with the fossil fuel being the UK’s single biggest source of electricity generation accounting for nearly 40% of output.

According to manufacturing association Make UK, the UK manufacturing sector is expected to grow by 7.8% in 2021. This represents an upgrade on previous forecasts, which estimated growth of 3.9%.
According to the ONS, the manufacturing sector remained broadly flat in July 2021. As a result, manufacturing output remained 2.3% below pre-pandemic levels recorded in February 2020.
The IHS Markit/CIPS UK Manufacturing PMI decreased slightly to 57.1 in September 2021, from 60.3 in the previous month. This signalled the 16^th consecutive month of expansion, though the rate of expansion eased for the fourth month in a row. This loss of momentum was attributed to slower new order volumes and rising material and labour shortages.
According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, UK car production was 60% lower in August 2021 than in August 2019. This decline has been attributed to a global shortage of microchips. Year-to-date UK car production was 32% lower for the first seven months through July 2021 than during the same period in 2019. Nevertheless, UK car production was 13.8% higher in the first eight months of 2021 than it was for the same period in 2020, in which manufacturing output was affected by the initial COVID-19 lockdown period.
In the ONS Business Insights and Impact on the UK Economy survey conducted between 6 September and 19 September 2021, 32.9% of firms in the manufacturing sector reported that their revenue was lower than would normally be expected for the time of the year. Approximately 8.2% of firms surveyed in the sector between 20 September and 3 October 2021 stated that they had either temporarily or permanently ceased trading.
According to provisional estimates published by the ONS, 134,700 employees in the manufacturing sector remained on furlough at the end of August 2021. This was down on the previous month and is significantly below the peak of 911,000 employees furloughed on 17 April 2020.
Soaring gas prices has presented a threat to energy intensive firms, with some firms forced to curtail production during times of the day when energy prices peak. The Energy Intensive Users Group has called for immediate government support for firms facing higher costs.

Ofgem has announced plans to support the rollout of electric vehicle charging facilities by making it cheaper for charging stations to connect to the electricity grid. This was announced as part of the regulator’s electric vehicles strategy, which also includes proposals for drivers to be able to release power back to the electricity grid during periods of peak demand.
According to data published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, renewables accounted for 39.6% of electricity generation in the first six months of 2021. This is down on the same period in 2020, owing to less favourable weather conditions.
Wholesale gas prices have increased by 250% since January, and more than 70% since August alone. With consumers somewhat protected from soaring wholesale prices by the energy price cap, energy suppliers have been left with a shortfall of approximately £700 per year between the price that they can charge and the cost of buying energy on the wholesale market. As a result, nine energy suppliers collapsed in September 2021 alone, displacing more than 1.7 million customers.
Despite calls from suppliers to bring forward the next price cap review, Ofgem has ruled out changing the price cap, which was increased by 12% in October 2021, until April 2022. However, Ofgem has confirmed that it expects a significant increase in the price cap at the next review.
The UK government has committed to decarbonising the UK’s electricity system by 2035. This brings forward the government’s previous commitment to a fully decarbonised power system by 2050.

Sustainability remains a top priority for UK supermarkets. Tesco has announced that EO Charging has won the contract to power Tesco’s fleet of electric vans. The supermarket plans to roll out the fully electric fleet by the end of 2028, after releasing 30 this year with plans for a further 150 by next year. At the same time, rival Asda opened the largest refilling station across the United Kingdom. The refill zone is part of the supermarket’s strategy to remove three billion pieces of single-use plastic from its business by 2025.
Amazon has launched its first 4-star store outside the US in a shopping centre near London, marking another stage in its experimentation with physical retail formats. The 3,500 square foot store at Bluewater in suburban Kent opens on Wednesday. Like its US counterparts, it sells a range of books, toys, homewares and Amazon devices curated largely based on reviews left on the Amazon website.
The global freight crisis continues to dent its profit margins with the likes of online women’s clothing retailer Boohoo warned margins will fall short of previous forecasts due to a combination of investment and higher freight and wage expenses. Rivals ASOS and H&M have warned of similar scenarios.
Concerns have been raised about the UK’s economic recovery post-pandemic, as retail sales fell for the fourth consecutive month in August 2021. According to the ONS Retail Sales index, the volume of monthly sales in August fell 0.9%, and 0.3% in value terms, over August, although this may be the result of seasonality and individuals opting to eat out and travel abroad during the warmer months. Non-food stores reported a fall of 1% fall driven by lacklustre demand for department stores, which have recorded five consecutive months of falls, as well as dispensing chemists, toy retailers and outdoor equipment retailers.
The decline in sales is not equal among all retail operators. According to the Local Data Company, a net total of 804 locally run convenience stores, barbers, bakeries, cafes and fast-food joints opened in the first half of 2021, compared with the net 5,251 chain stores, hospitality and leisure establishments that closed down during the period. The spur in independent businesses may be the result of the going local trend, as well as smaller players benefiting from government support measures such as business rates relief.
Industry body the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has warned 80% of high-street retailers are at risk of closure without reform to the business-rates systems. According to a BRC survey, 85% of respondents said rates were a key issue for them, with 83% stating they would have to close some shops if the government did not make changes to the tax. This is in addition to the 8,700 stores, or 50 establishments per day, closed over the six months through June 2021, According to the Local Data Company. Clothing and footwear retailers recorded the largest decline, following the exit of Arcadia group at the start of the year. Car showrooms, betting shops and bank establishments also followed a downward trajectory. City centres saw the greatest drop with lower tourist and commuter footfall.

From 4 October 2021, fully vaccinated passengers arriving from low-risk countries are no longer required to take expensive privately administered PCR tests prior to arrival in the United Kingdom. The government has announced that, by the end of October, fully vaccinated passenger will no longer be required to take a PCR test two days after arrival in the United Kingdom, with cheaper lateral flow tests to be required after this date. This is expected to provide a boost for the tourism sector.
According to data published by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the total number of terminal and transit passengers passing through UK airports was 71% below 2019 levels in August 2021. The total year-to-date number of passengers was down 88.7% on 2019 levels according to the July data published by the CAA.
According to European airport body ACI Europe, passenger volumes are not expected to recover to 2019 levels until 2025. It also states that revenue at European airports was down €30 billion during 2020 and they stand to lose a further €29 billion in revenue this year.
According to the ONS, the transportation and storage sector contracted by 0.1% in July 2021. Output in the sector remained 7.6% below pre-pandemic levels recorded in February 2020.
In the ONS Business Insights and Impact on the UK Economy survey conducted between 6 September and 19 August 2021, 21.2% of firms in the transportation and warehousing sector reported that their revenue was lower than would normally be expected for the time of the year. Approximately 14.2% of firms in the sector surveyed between 20 September and 3 October 2021 stated that they had either temporarily or permanently ceased trading.
According to the Road Haulage Association, the UK currently has a shortage of 100,000 HGV drivers. This has been attributed to several factors, including an exodus of European lorry drivers during the pandemic, restricted access to UK labour markets and a large backlog of HGV driver tests. In response, the government is introducing temporary visas for 5,000 fuel tanker and food lorry drivers to work in the UK in the run-up to Christmas.

In the ONS Business Insights and Impacts on the UK Economy survey conducted between 6 and 19 September 2021, 32.2% of businesses in the accommodation and food service activities sector reported a lower turnover than would normally be expected for the time of year. Meanwhile, 27% of businesses in the sector reported vacancies being more difficult to fill than normal, and 11% reported that staff turnover had increased in the last month compared with normal expectations for this time of year, which compares with 4% across all sectors.
Moreover 22% of businesses in the sector that reported difficulties filling vacancies stated a reduced number of applicants aged 16 to 24 years as a reason for this.
UK Hospitality has warned of severe staff shortages, with the vacancy rate across hospitality businesses averaging approximately 10% since they were allowed fully to reopen in July 2021, reports The Financial Times.
The lack of staff has led to many businesses having to limit room and table bookings or even close, with demand from customers since the reopening exceeding 2019 levels. As a result, over 65 hospitality leaders have urged the government to ease visa rules for staff in order to save the industry under the new Brexit rules. According to these hospitality leaders, roles such as chefs, bartenders and sommeliers must be added to the shortage occupations list. The government has previously said the industry should train British staff instead, although businesses have responded there is not enough labour to fill the vacant roles, with labour shortages in other sectors as well.
The UK’s new travel system has come into force, classifying countries as ‘red’ or ‘rest of the world’, and reducing testing requirements. This is expected to boost international travel and has been welcome by the travel industry.
UK hotels and other holiday accommodation are set to benefit from a possible staycation boom continuing into 2022. Despite restrictions on international travel easing, research by Opinion Matters on behalf of UK tour operator Hoseseasons between 27 August and 9 September 2021 found that 83% of those who took a staycation in 2021 hope to do so again in 2022, with 24% already planning their next trip. Additionally, 28% of holidaymakers taking part in the surveys preferred a staycation over a holiday abroad, although 52% planned to take one of each in 2022.
A new report release in October 2021 by the Night Time Industries Association, which represents nightclubs, bars and casinos, states that the UK nightlife sector has lost 86,000 workers since the start of the pandemic.

The ONS Business Insights and Impacts on the UK Economy survey shows that 18.9% of businesses in the information and communication sector reported a decrease in turnover compared with normal levels between 6 and 19 September 2021. The majority, 62.4%, reported that turnover has not been affected.
The information and communication sector comes third when it comes to the highest proportion of businesses reporting an increase in staff turnover, at 5%.
Additionally, across businesses reporting difficulties filling vacancies, 84% in the information and communication sector reported lack of qualified applicants for the roles on offer as a challenge. The sector also reported the highest proportion of businesses (32%) stating that they cannot offer an attractive pay package to applicants as a reason for the difficulty in filling vacancies.
The Public Switched Telephone Network, which has traditionally powered landline telephones, will be switched off in 2025. The switch-off will take place between 2021 and 2025, with all UK landlines to be switched to an internet-based connection.
Recent figures released from ThinkBroadband show that 50.2% of UK homes and businesses can now access the fastest commercial broadband speeds available.
Three UK has stated that its planned £3 billion investment in 5G is under threat if the UK’s competition authority attempts to block Cellnex’s takeover of Hutchison UK’s tower network. Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings owns Three UK, while Cellnex is a Spanish infrastructure operator for wireless telecommunications in Europe.
UK media regulator Ofcom has warned video streaming social media platforms, such as TikTok and Snapchat, must ask the age of users and take down harmful, illegal content or face hefty fines. The Audiovisual Media Services Regulation which came into effect in November 2020 allows Ofcom to levy penalties of up to 5% of relevant turnover, or £250,000. The rules will only apply to platforms with a regional headquarters in the United Kingdom, as reported by The Financial Times.
The release of the latest James Bond film, No Time to Die, in September 2021 is expected to provide cinemas with a degree of relief. According to Odeon, attendance at its UK venues was 10% above pre-pandemic levels, boosted by demand for the 25th Bond film. Nonetheless, the industry continues to face intense competition from online streaming platforms.

In August 2021, chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a government-backed insurance scheme to support live events threatened by further COVID-19 restrictions. However, brokers have cited concerns over conflicts of interest as the scheme has been contracted out to Oliver Wyman, the management consultancy arm of Marsh McLennan. Concerns over as well as limits and cost of cover have also been highlighted. While the scheme is designed to cover organisers against lost expenses if a government shutdown stops an event, it does not offer cover for the impact of a state-mandated reduction in capacity.
UK car insurance prices continue to fall despite traffic returning, according to compare the market. The comparison site’s research found the average annual insurance premium during the summer months of June to August fell was £71 lower than during the same period in 2020. As a result, the average insurance premium now stands at £631, compared with an average of £702 for the same three-month period in 2020.
Interest rate rises are likely as inflation rallies, driven by structural changes such as labour shortages and energy market constraints, rather than solely short-term shocks. Investors are expecting annual UK inflation to peak at about 6% in Spring 2022 as the surge in energy prices filters through to consumers. Meanwhile, the IMF has warned that the emergency support provided by central banks and finance ministries during the pandemic, such as low interest rates, has left the economies vulnerable to another financial crisis with overstretched asset valuations and rapidly rising house prices.
JPMorgan will open the first overseas retail bank, with the launch of a digital-only lender in the UK banking market. Chase will initially offer only current accounts with a rewards programme, but intends to quickly expand into areas including personal lending and investment, and eventually even mortgages.
City Minister, John Glen, has pledged to review the UK financial services tax rates and keep them competitive, ahead of the October Budget. At present, the UK banking industry is subject to an 8% surcharge, first introduced in 2015. In addition to the surcharge, banks must pay corporation taxes, which are also set to increase from 19% to 25% in April 2023. In addition, banks must also pay a 0.1% Bank Levy on UK balance sheets. The cap on bankers’ bonuses, introduced by the EU after the financial crash, will also be kept under review.

In the ONS Business Insights and Impacts on the UK Economy survey, 12.2% of businesses in the real estate activities sector reported a decrease in turnover compared with normal levels between 6 and 19 September 2021, the lowest of all sectors.
According to the ONS, output from real estate activities fell by 10.4% in July 2021 due to the partial end to the Stamp Duty holiday period from 1 July 2021.
According to Nationwide, annual house price growth was 10% in September 2021, down from 11% in August 2021. Prices were up 0.1% month on month and the average house price was £248,742, remaining approximately 13% above pre-pandemic levels in early 2020. Out of all regions in the third quarter of the year, growth in London had been the weakest, while Wales and Northern Ireland were the strongest performing regions.
From 1 October 2021, the thresholds up to which buyers could avoid paying stamp duty fell from £250,000 to £125,000, the level before the tax holiday was introduced. The housing market can remain fairly positive in the near future due to a number of factors including robust demand, limited housing supply, record-low interest rates and savings built up by many people during lockdowns. However, rising inflation, higher energy prices and tax increases are expected to weaken housing demand in the coming months.
Estate agent Savills states that price for prime central London homes, which it defines as the top 5% to 10% of homes by value in a given district, increased by 1.4% in the year to September 2021, growing for the first time since September 2014. This can be partly attributed to businesses edging back towards normal working conditions.
Workers’ return to offices is slow due to lasting coronavirus concerns. A survey of over 1,000 managers by the Chartered Management Institute found that majority of organisations have adopted hybrid working models. On average, just with an average of 44% of staff back in the workplace at least some of the time, with managers expecting this to increase to just 56% by the end of 2021. As a result, close to a third of businesses have cut their office space.
Real estate company Colliers says that investment into the Scottish commercial property market is seeing an uplift as the return to the office gets underway. Investment volumes in Glasgow this year have reached almost £150 million to date, with this number expected to rise significantly in Q4. This compares with investment volumes of just £82 million in 2020, which was a record low.

According to the ONS, output in the professional, scientific and technical activities sector fell by 2.3% in July 2021 and it was the largest negative contributor to growth in services. Advertising and market research, as well as legal activities, fell by 7.3% in July 2021.
The government has agreed to delay its digital tax-collection initiative for self-employed people and changes as to how businesses report their profits, following pressure from professional bodies claiming the measures would put huge pressure on companies. Initially, the government’s plan to make tax digital had been scheduled to make 4.3 million self-employed people and small businesses keep digital records and report their income to HMRC every quarter from April 2023, but now this has been pushed back by a year to April 2024.
A growing number of UK law firms are betting on the outcome of cases in return for a share of the winnings through closer links with litigation funders. Although this offers financing for clients, critics fear possible conflicts of interest.
The head of the Confederation of British Industry has claimed that corporate tax rises proposed by Rishi Sunak, from 19% to 25%, risk reducing business investment.
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has fined Grant Thornton £2.3 million (nearly £3 million if including investigation costs of over £650,000) over its audits of cafe chain Patisserie Valerie, which collapsed in January 2019.
The FRC has stated that 29% of the 103 audits it reviewed required improvement or significant improvement, claiming the level was ‘unacceptably high’. As a result, The Financial Times reports that campaigners for increased corporate responsibility have written to the FRC urging it to disclose the full findings of its routine inspections of large company audits, including the names of companies affected by poor-quality scrutiny, to protect shareholders and other stakeholders who could lose out if financial statements are misleading.
TheCityUK has stated that nine months after the end of the transition period, financial and related professional services firms were reporting significant cost increases to secure high-skilled talent as otherwise they would become less competitive on the global stage.
Deloitte has recorded a surge in UK profit, aided by the public-sector contracts worth £280 million during the pandemic, where it consulted the government with the roll-out of pandemic support programmes. Operating profit amounted to £590 million for the 12 months through May 2021, with partners reportedly set to receive total pay of close to £1 million, according to The Financial Times.

According to the Institute of Fiscal Studies, the gap between private-school and state-school spending per pupil has more than doubled over the past decade. While private-school fees have grown by more than 20% above inflation since 2009-10, state-school per-pupil spending has fallen by 9% in real terms.
Starting in 2022-23, graduates applying to train as teachers in high demand subjects are expected tor received tax-free cash bursaries under government plans to recruit and retain world-class teachers. A total of £129 million is available for trainee teachers starting in 2022-23, which includes increased bursaries of £15,000 for languages, geography and design and technology, and £10,000 for biology – in addition to the existing £24,000 bursary or £26,000 scholarship for maths, physics, chemistry and computing.
In secondary schools, GCSE, A and AS level students will sit 2022 summer exams with adaptations to recognise the disruption to their education. Adaptations may include advanced material in more subjects, formulae sheets in mathematical subjects and more choice in subjects.
Only four out of 27 top UK universities – Sheffield, Southampton, Sussex and York – are to return to full in-person teaching this term, despite increasing demand from students for face-to-face learning. The remaining 23 universities have planned to adopt a ‘blended’ approach, combining face-to-face and online learning. However, the OECD warned that post-pandemic efforts by universities to shift lectures and other events online would undercut their monopoly power on teaching and erode public support for tuition fees of up to £9,250. Universities will fail to offer value for money to students if they persist with online learning, and risk being outclassed by new digital providers.
UK universities are facing rising competition from rivals with mounting fees, visa difficulties and limited marketing. According to UCAS, the number of applications from EU students by the 30 June deadline was down 43% on the previous year to 28,400, though this was offset by a rise of 14% in non-EU students.
Gavin Williamson, the education minister, has stated universities not returning to face-to-face teaching should not charge full fees. However, ministers would give the Office for Students, the independent regulator of higher education in England, the deciding power in pursuing universities that do not meet student teaching standards.

According to Whitehall sources, plans for a new national care service where health and social care would be delivered by the same organisation are being considered by government. At present, local authorities are responsible for running local social care services. However, this approach has been criticised by insufficient incentive for councils to develop better care for people in the community. A hybrid approach is expected to allocate resources, such as staffing and beds, more efficiently.
NHS hospital waiting lists in England reached record levels, hitting 5.6 million this summer and have forced patients to turn to private care. According to a survey of 4,000 adults commissioned by charity Engage Britain, more than 20% of NHS patients have turned to private healthcare, as they could not get the treatment they needed. For instance, Spire Healthcare revealed a 47% surge in half-year revenue from self-paying patients to a record £130 million, which lifted its overall revenue nearly 40% from pre-pandemic levels to £558 million.
Analysis by thinktank the King’s Fund suggests the backlog disproportionately affects those in less affluent areas. The King’s Fund analysed a backlog of 5.6 million patients and found waiting lists increased by 50% in the most deprived area of England, compared with nearly 35% in the most affluent.
£36 billion will be invested in the health and care system over the next three years, to ensure it has the long-term resource it needs. The new funding is expected to fund an extra nine million checks, scans, and operations. The NHS long-term plan committed to increasing activity year on year. In recognition of pressures from the COVID-19 pandemic, this will now increase to 110% of the planned activity levels by 2023-24.
From April 2022, the government will introduce a new, UK-wide 1.25% Health and Social Care Levy, ringfenced for health and social care. This will be based on National Insurance contributions and from 2023 will be legislatively separate. To ensure everyone contributes fairly, all working adults, including those over the state pension age, will pay the levy and the rates of dividend tax will increase by 1.25% to help fund this package.
Surgical operations are also at risk from carbon dioxide (CO2) shortages. CO2 is used in some operations, as well as to freeze meat and in the brewing and nuclear power industries. Surging natural gas prices have pushed seven energy suppliers out of business this year, with concerns other may also go bust.
The British Medical Association has warned NHS England is short of 50,000 doctors. The number of doctors in England has fallen to 2.8 doctors per 1,000 people, which is lower than the EU average of 3.7.

Following the 2021 review of the 2005 Gambling Act, football clubs will no longer be able to display gambling brands on the front of their shirt, and there is also the possibility that other advertising around the stadiums could be prohibited also. The ban is expected to stop normalising gambling and betting within sporting culture. A decline in sponsorship is expected to have repercussions for sports clubs and other leisure activities, in addition to COVID-19 related financial difficulties.
According to ukActive Research Institute, the spread of COVID-19 in UK gyms has remained low. The latest results show an overall rate of one case per 100,000 visits, measured from April 12, 2021, to Aug. 15, 2021, indicating that rates of COVID-19 among the gym-going population remain low and that safety measures taken by facilities continue to be effective. Gym operators can capture real-time data based on membership details, allowing for quick and relevant contact tracing if a case is reported by someone who has visited a facility and then gone on to test positive.
Gym and fitness centre membership numbers continue to rise as individuals look to exercise away from home after a year of lockdown. For instance, over the four months through June 2021, The Gym Group recorded almost a third increase in membership numbers to 730,000. Following this uptick, the group have plans to open 40 more establishments, possible also considering the empty high street shops.

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