The decision to leave the EU brought a lot of confusion and uncertainty to Britain, particularly to those in the business world. Rumours began circling that the British economy would crumble in light of Brexit; however, despite the falling value of the pound, the economy as a whole has remained strong and stable. Since the referendum, gross domestic product rates have risen, in addition to overall economic growth.
Although predictions indicate that investments will slow this year as businesses wait to see how the deal impacts trade relations, an unsurprising accolade has been awarded to the British business community. According to Forbes 12th annual ‘Best Countries for Business’ list, Britain has been ranked as the number one location for business. Commenting on the result, Forbes believes Britain still “remains attractive” for organisations considering the uncertainty of Brexit. This most recent result, released in the tail-end of December 2017, sees Britain climbing four places from its position last year.
Britain outranks consistent high-flyer New Zealand, as well as Netherlands, Sweden and Canada.
Forbes takes into account several factors (15, in fact!) when compiling the list. Each of these categories is equally weighted and include such things as innovation, taxes, technology, corruption and investor protection. Political risk was also a category, although in comparison to its other scores, Britain understandably scored lowly with 28th position (although this was its only ranking under 25th position!).
An attractive strength the UK held was low unemployment rates, as well as the technological readiness of British businesses and the size and talent of their workforces.
The methodology saw slight changes this year, with the removal of stock market performance and the inclusion of workforce, infrastructure, market size and political risk taken into account to determine how appealing a location is for capital investment. The data comes from several reports from organisations such as Freedom House, World Economic Forum and United Nations.
Major companies, such as Apple and Wells Fargo, continue to conduct and expand their businesses in the UK’s capital, and the location also remains a central hub for some of the world’s leading financial organisations such as HSBC, Prudential and Barclays. What serves Britain well is that few European cities can challenge London for its place as one of the three global centres for financial services, and regardless of Brexit, there is no sign of this fact changing anytime soon.
However, Britain’s reign as one of the top countries for business could be compromised as the plans for Brexit unfold over the coming year. Despite the good news of this result and the indications that British businesses are performing well in the face of uncertainty, many are still concerned about how Brexit will impact business operations according to surveys by CFOs. Financial chiefs are reacting to these concerns with a focus on cost control.
A sentiment echoed by ERA UK Managing Director, Rob Allison: “It’s fantastic news that Britain has been recognised as one of the top places to do business; however, it is imperative that businesses realise there is no certainty in business, especially considering our current political and economic situation. It therefore makes sense that businesses have maximum control of all their costs.”
Preparation includes streamlining both the business processes and infrastructure to guarantee business prosperity. With the help of cost reduction analysts, businesses can achieve substantial savings on their bottom lines which ensures the business operates at its true potential.