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maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 6 SEPTEMBER 2017 11 Business Today www.creditinfo.com.mt info@creditinfo.com.mt Tel: 2131 2344 Your Local Partner for Credit Risk Management Solutions Supporting you all the way London retains top spot for prosperity but growth slows London has maintained its posi- tion as the UK's centre of pros- perity over the last year, accord- ing to the third edition of the annual UK Prosperity Map from Barclays Wealth & Investments. Against a backdrop of fluctuating economic conditions and Brexit negotiations, the 2017 UK Prosperity Map shows that, despite rising prosperity, growth is slowing across a range of indicators compared to the rest of the UK, including house prices and GDP growth per capita. The UK Prosperity Map uses factors including numbers of millionaires, average earnings, business growth rates, house prices, and GDP per capita to generate a unique 'Prosperity Index Score' for each UK region and city. The UK's biggest spenders While London has the highest average earnings (£41,279) and highest household expenditure (£652 per week) in the UK, it has also seen the biggest growth in expenditure (5.9 per cent) over the last year. It continues to have the highest GDP per capita of the UK's cities and regions at £43,629, but the city has seen only modest growth for this indicator over the last year compared to other regions. GDP per capita in London grew by 1.6 per cent compared with 3 per cent in the North West and 2.8 per cent in the North East. When it comes to house prices, almost every city has seen higher house price growth than London (up 3 per cent), with Birmingham (8 per cent) and Manchester (7 per cent) seeing the biggest increases. However, with an average of £502,787, London continues to have the UK's highest house prices. London remains the most attractive home for millionaires in the UK, with 165,000 living there – more than a quarter (26.4 per cent) of the UK's total millionaire population. Although this is up by 6.5 per cent since last year's research, London saw the third-lowest growth in numbers of millionaires compared with other regions, and a year-on-year drop of 0.3 per cent in its share of the overall UK millionaire population. The East Midlands and South West saw the highest percentage growth in their millionaire population between 2015 and 2016 (11.1 per cent and 10.5 per cent respectively). Challenging environment for SMEs While, at a regional level, London has the UK's highest business birth-to-death ratio, with 1.78 new businesses created for every business "death", the capital remains a challenging environment for SMEs. There has been a sharp decrease of 22 per cent in SME turnover since last year's research according to Barclays Local Insights data. Only two regions in the UK (Scotland on 23 per cent and the North East on 26 per cent) have seen bigger decreases in SME turnover than London. This contrasts with a much brighter picture in some UK regions, such as the North West, where SMEs grew their turnover by 15 per cent. 888 swings to loss after record Gambling Commission fi ne A record £7.8m fi ne from the UK Gambling Commission helped push online bookmaker 888 into a fi rst-half loss despite a jump in revenues. In its report for the six months to the end of June, 888 said it had swung to a pre-tax loss of $17.3m (£13.4m), from a profit of $27.8m in the same period last year. The company said exceptional costs were to blame for the loss, most of which relate to potential VAT charges in Germany. However, those charges also include the cost of the fine issued last week by the Gambling Commission. 888 had to pay £7.8m for allowing customers who had taken a "time out" to continue playing. The Commission said the company had "failed to protect potentially vulnerable customers". The company's revenues rose 3pc to $270m in the period, or 9pc on a constant currency basis. 888 said revenues were boosted by strong momentum in its sports and poker arms, adding that its mobile division was driving growth. Revenues in its casino division, meanwhile, increased 6pc to $146m. "This pleasing outcome was driven by continued growth in 888's core Casino vertical, strong momentum in the fast- growing 888Sport and a good performance in Poker," said chief executive Itai Frieberger. On an adjusted level, 888's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, rose from $44.1m to $47.6m. Frieberger added: "The global online gaming market is dynamic and will continue to grow driven by technology, regulatory and marketing developments. "However, further regulation, such as the expansion of gaming duty on casino, poker and bingo free bets in the UK taking effect in the second half of 2017, will increase the cost base for operators in the UK. "At the same time, enhanced regulation in the UK around areas such as television advertising and bonuses will impact overall UK market growth." 888 had to pay £7.8m for allowing customers who had taken a "time out" to continue playing European court rules fi rms must tell employees of email checks Companies need to make sure that employees are aware in advance of management moni- toring of their work email ac- counts, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday in a landmark privacy case. In a judgment in the case of a man fired 10 years ago for using a work messaging account to communicate with his family, the judges found that Romanian courts failed to protect Bogdan Barbulescu's private correspondence because his company had not given prior notice that it was monitoring his communications. The company had presented him with printouts of his private messages to his brother and fiancée on Yahoo Messenger as evidence of his breach of a company ban on such personal use. The European court in Strasbourg ruled by an 11-6 majority that Romanian judges, in backing the employer, had failed to protect Barbulescu's right to private life and correspondence.