Chief executives say UK is top investment target
The UK has bounced back as a destination for future growth among global chief executives, according to a major survey published yesterday.
The UK remained the fourth most important territory for growth for chief executives, joint with India and Australia, and behind the USA, China and Germany.
Chief executives in Europe’s largest economies rated the UK as one of the most important territories for their organisation’s future growth, the survey from audit firm PwC found.
For chief executives in Germany, France and Italy, the UK is viewed as positively now as it was in 2015, with a “notable uptick since last year,” the report found.
In Germany, the percentage of chief executives who view the UK as one of their top three growth targets jumped to thirteen per cent, from six per cent last year, to match the level in 2015.
Chief executives in France rate the UK as one of their most popular growth targets at a level (23 per cent) not seen since before the 2016 Brexit referendum.
Outside Europe, the UK has become more attractive to chief executives in the US (up four percentage points to 20 per cent), Australia (up six percentage points to 19 per cent) and Japan (up 2.5 percentage points to 11.5 per cent).
Kevin Ellis, chairman and senior partner of PwC UK, said: “Viewed against the turbulent global backdrop, the UK is a beacon of relative stability. You can’t replicate natural advantages like our timezone and location between the US, Asia and the rest of Europe, but more than that the UK is a fair and trusted place to do business.”
Speaking to CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, PwC global chair Bob Moritz, said: “When you look at the UK specifically, there is less pessimism…you have an increasing consumer confidence that’s there, you’ve got a little bit more certainty, relevant to politics, now the survey was done before the election, but nonetheless…I think you’ve got an increasing confidence level for people to take some actions.”
Business secretary Andrea Leadsom said: “It’s excellent to see such confidence in the UK. I want the UK. to be the best place in the world to grow a business, and as an outward-facing, trailblazing country, we will attract even more investment from old allies and new friends alike in the months and years ahead.”
Globally, chief executives have become less optimistic about their business’ revenue prospects, with only 27 per cent saying they are “very confident” in their own organisation’s growth over the next 12 months – the lowest level since 2009 and down from 35 per cent last year.
Looking ahead to the next three years, 35 per cent of chief executives globally and 37 per cent in the UK said they were confident about their business’ future growth.
The vast majority (90 per cent) of UK chief executives are confident to some degree about their business’ future.