Nearly a third of UK CFOs braced to relocate staff away from UK after Brexit
Nearly a third (31 per cent) of chief financial officers in some of the biggest firms across the UK are gearing up to relocate staff away from the UK because of Brexit, up 10 per cent from summer 2017.
The findings appeared in Thomson Reuters’ quarterly Brexit survey of 100 chief financial officers at companies generating between $100m (£73.7m) and $5bn in revenue annually across various sectors.
In March 2018, execs were asked questions around the impact of Brexit in a number of areas, including company expansion, investment, headcount, relocation and compliance.
However, the proportion of financial officers who anticipate neither increasing or decreasing staff in the UK after Brexit stayed steady from the last quarter, rising to just over half (51 per cent) from 44 per cent.
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The survey also asked respondents to rate how confident they were in the ability of top politicians to deliver a good Brexit deal for businesses.
Confidence in Conservative ministers increased across the board. Prime Minister Theresa May’s score went up from 3.25 to 4.5, while foreign secretary Boris Johnson had his score increased from 2.5 to 3.7.
Department for exiting the EU secretary David Davis saw his score increase a point from 3.57 to 4.5.
Respondents expressed little confidence about Jeremy Corbyn’s ability to deliver a good Brexit deal as he sat rock bottom with a score of 3.2.
“Businesses appear to be holding fast to a ‘wait and see’ attitude, and a sizeable minority (37%) have held off from investing in the UK, which suggests that the full impact is yet to be felt,” said Laurence Kiddle, managing director for the EMEA Tax & Accounting business at Thomson Reuters.
“However, the slight rise in confidence in the political leaders negotiating Brexit – and a recognition that there may be some business benefits, particularly in reducing UK tax rates and in deregulation – suggests business leaders are beginning to feel increased faith in the process.”
The feeling around the effects of Brexit on British business have been softened in recent months.
In January, a report from an academic research group suggested that the actual effect of the UK crashing out of the EU would be “negligible” to businesses in the City.
Just last month, financial bosses said in a Lloyds survey that they thought the UK would still remain a European financial services hub even after Brexit.