Here are the business stories making the headlines locally and across the country this morning.
National insurance cut risks worsening debt burden, IMF tells Britain
The government’s £20bn national insurance tax cut risks worsening the country’s public finances, the International Monetary Fund has said, as it projected an increase in the UK’s debt burden over the next five years.
In its latest assessment of debt levels across the world economy, the IMF said the UK’s public debt ratio would rise until the end of the decade to 98% of GDP by 2029.
The figures throw doubt on the government’s claims that it can bring down debt within the next five years, in line with the chancellor’s self-imposed fiscal rule.
The IMF’s calculations for the UK’s gross and net debt are lower than measures produced by the Office for Budget Responsibility, but the international body’s calculations show debt will keep rising in every calendar year after 2024.
Aberdeen firm’s multi-million Rosebank deal means 50 new jobs
Aberdeen firm Balmoral Comtec is taking on 50 extra workers to support a new multi-million-pound contract for work on the Rosebank oil and gas development west of Shetland.
The engineering company – part of Balmoral Group – will engineer, design and manufacture more than 600 buoyancy modules for contractor TechnipFMC.
It is “actively recruiting” for a variety of roles at its headquarters in Loirston.
Read the full story in today's P&J.
Compensation payouts to UK rail passengers for delays hit £100m a year
Compensation paid to passengers for train delays in Britain has reached record levels, with annual payouts surpassing £100m and the number of claims for delayed or cancelled trains continuing to grow.
Payouts to passengers for disrupted journeys reached £101.3m in the year to April 2023 – up by 155% from £39m in 2021-22.
The latest official data from the rail regulator, the Office of Rail and Road, suggests the financial hit is likely to be much higher again in 2023-24. The number of approved claims recorded across all train operators in Britain until early January – 4.6m – exceeded the previous year’s tally with several months remaining.
While the compensation total partly reflects a rebound in train travel after the Covid crisis, the growing figures far outstrip the 40% rise in passenger numbers.
Review ordered into another Post Office IT system amid claims of more wrongful convictions
The government has agreed to have an independent IT expert review of a Post Office software system predating Horizon, amid claims dozens more sub-postmasters may have been wrongly convicted.
The Capture software was rolled out across branches in the 1990s, years before the notorious Horizon system was introduced.
Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake has met with a former sub-postmaster and a lawyer representing 35 people who believe they were wrongly accused of stealing.
It was agreed between MPs and the Post Office minister that an independent IT expert would assess evidence claiming to "prove" Capture software was prone to glitches.