Your commercial news round-up: GDP, sustainable skyscrapers, fashion retailers and US tariffs, zoo breeding programmes

Reading time: three minutes

The commercial world moves at such a rapid pace that keeping on top of developments can often feel impossible. LCN has summarised four stories from the previous week into bitesize chunks to help make this task more achievable for you. In the second round-up of February, we look at the recently published GDP figures; planning permission approvals for sustainable skyscrapers in London; fashion retailers’ attempts to navigate new imposed trade tariffs; and the impact of Brexit on zoo breeding programmes.

• Despite economists predicting GDP to shrink by 0.1% during Q4 2024, figures released early on Thursday 13 February show that there was a 0.1% rise for this period instead. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) also revealed that GDP grew by 0.9% across 2024 and 0.4% in December alone – the first rise for December since 2020, according to the BBC News. Liz McKeown, the ONS director of economic statistics, explained: “Across the quarter, growth in services and construction were partially offset by a fall in production.” Wholesale, film distribution, and pubs and bars all had “a strong month” too, according to McKeown. That said, GDP by head of population contracted for two consecutive quarters. In response to the figures, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said she’s still “not satisfied with the level of growth”.

• A 33-storey, “world-class, sustainable office development” at the old headquarters of M&S has been granted planning permission by the City of London Corporation. It’ll provide more than 550,000 square metres of sustainable office space for the capital, signalling to investors “that the Square Mile is open for sustainable business”. Chair of the City of London Corporation planning applications sub-committee, Shravan Joshi, said that London is “leading the way on both policy and delivery to reduce carbon emissions and waste from development”. With 70% of office buildings due to be “unlettable” in 2027 after changes to energy efficiency requirements, the demand for sustainable office space is high, according to CITY AM. At the end of last year, permission for 1 Undershaft, which will become the tallest skyscraper in London, and a £191 million funding package to regenerate the Barbican were also approved.

• Fashion retailers including Next and Superdry are making moves to adapt to President Donald Trump’s decision to impose a 10% tariff on products made in China. Superdry will no longer ship products that are made in China to US consumers to avoid the new 10% tariff. Meanwhile, Next is reportedly considering setting up a US corporate entity, which would see the retailer liable for tariffs only on the cost price of the products, rather than the selling price.

• Colchester Zoo said that Brexit has had a “major impact” on zoo breeding programmes across Europe, BBC News reports. The zoo’s zoological director, Rebecca Moore, explained that the number of transfers between the UK and mainland Europe has fallen since the UK left the EU.  The increase in paperwork and legislation has made such projects more “difficult”, “time-consuming” and “expensive”. This news follows the government’s plans to identify a new veterinary agreement with the EU to strengthen trade ties. Speaking of the agreement, Moore hopes that it’ll make it easier to move animals, speed up the process and make the organisation of it much simpler.

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