Strategy Management

The Scottish government has called for drivers moving perishable goods such as seafood and salmon to be prioritised as France eases it travel ban.

France and the UK have reached agreement over their shared border which was closed amid concerns over a new coronavirus variant.

EU nationals and hauliers are among those now able to travel – if they have had a recent negative test.

But there have been warnings that it could take days to clear the backlog.

Soldiers have joined NHS Test and Trace staff in Kent to carry out rapid tests on thousands of stranded lorry drivers.

There have also been reports of clashes between some stranded lorry drivers and police.

The travel ban was imposed on Sunday after the UK government warned of a new, fast-spreading variant of coronavirus and introduced strict tier four – “stay at home” – restrictions across large parts of southern and … Read the rest

New research into the state of play for 250 U.K. business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing leaders  has revealed that over half of brands surveyed saw a rise in their marketing technology budget in 2020.

Businesses are focused on using these expanded resources to deliver for a market radically altered by COVID-19. The top concern from marketing leaders for 2021 was the growing demand for convenience and safety, more than twice the second biggest concern – the acceleration of e-commerce.

In the new year, brands are preparing to bounce back from the challenges of 2020 with a more mature, tech-driven approach to build meaningful connections with customers. Sixty-one percent of respondents pointed to increased new customer acquisition as their top business priority in 2021, followed by improved data management, optimised marketing automation workflows and better mapping of the customer lifecycle.

These priorities translate into an ambitious expansion of businesses’ martech stack in 2021. … Read the rest

More than 800,000 private tenants in England and Wales could be behind on their rent, with young people and the self-employed most likely to have missed payments, research for a landlords group has found.

The National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) warned of a “rent debt crisis” and called for government action to help struggling tenants.

A survey for the NRLA found 7% of renters had built up arrears as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, a figure that would equate to 840,000 people across England and Wales.

While the average arrears were between £251 and £500, some tenants reported that they owed their landlord more than £1,000.

Renters aged between 18 and 24 were twice as likely to have fallen behind as the general population of tenants, and the self-employed were most likely to be struggling, with 17% saying they had built up debts to their landlord.

These groups have … Read the rest