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New study highlights growing skills gap for London SMEs

More than half of SMEs in London and the South East have struggled to find new employees with the suitable skills requirements according to a new study by Aldermore.

The study, which is part of the challenger bank’s SME Future Attitudes report, found that 55% of London and South East SMEs in a sample of 1,000 UK SMEs believed the region was suffering from a skills gap, the highest percentage out of all of the UK’s regions.

Businesses in Yorkshire and Wales were also shown to be suffering from comparable skills shortages, while more than four in ten (43%) of British SME owners said they had difficulties recruiting the right people for their business.

Meanwhile, Brexit could be set to exacerbate the problem with 22% of those surveyed echoing fears that restrictions placed on open access to the EU jobs market would have a negative impact on their business.

Carl D’Ammassa, Aldermore’s Group Managing Director, Business Finance, said that the problem was particularly acute for larger SMEs employing between 100 and 249 people and the construction sector as a whole.

He commented: “SMEs operating in the construction sector have experienced particular difficulties recruiting the staff they need, and it is a similar story in the agriculture sector.

“One area that firms can focus on to close the skills gap is by supporting training and development for their existing staff.

“In particular, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has previously highlighted a shortage of digital skills as a challenge for many businesses and this is an area that we would urge the Government to continue to focus on.”

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