DIFFERENCE FROM UK AVERAGE GVA PER HOUR

Aberdeen has been singled out as the most productive city in Scotland, leaving Edinburgh and Glasgow in its wake.

The Granite City tops the league table for cities north of the Borderm, according to official statistics analysed by Be the Business, a new business-led organisation created to help close the UK’S productivity gap.

The Aberdeen city region was found to be 11.4 per cent more productive than the UK average, making it the second most productive place in the UK, after London. Edinburgh follows behind in third place, at 4.5 per cent above the average, while Glasgow is in sixth position, 4.9 per cent behind the UK average.

Be the Business, which is chaired by Sir Charlie Mayfield, the chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, is calling on companies across the UK to look at their business practices to see how they can make productivity gains.

The group is challenging business owners and managers to do everything they can to improve their company’s productivity, by examining

0 Aberdeen is steadily rebounding from the recent North Sea downturn areas such as measuring staff performance and the take-up of technology such as cloud computing.

Be the Business is already running a pilot programme in Cornwall working with businesses to create industry-led plans to drive productivity growth.

For decades now, Britain has lagged behind many of its major counterparts, with workers producing less in each hour they work than those in the likes of Germany or France. Tony Danker, chief executive of Be the Business, said: “When people talk about productivity, they often think about significant investments, but that isn’t the only way to improve your business performance.

“Small tweaks like setting targets, communicating with your staff and improving the efficiency of routine tasks can sometimes make the biggest difference.

“While Scotland has some of the most productive cities in the UK, we know there are more opportunities across