|
|
Figures from Companies House show that French companies registered 48% fewer businesses in the UK in 2016-17 than the previous financial year while companies in Belgium registered 38% fewer. Companies in the Netherlands, which is probably the worst affected by Brexit of Britain’s trading partners, registered 52% fewer companies last year than in 2015-16.
The collapse in company registrations mirrors the reluctance of foreign companies to invest in the UK either by building new factories or buying UK businesses. OECD figures show that foreign direct investment into the UK tumbled in 2017 by 90% following a bumper year in 2016.
Business lobby groups have blamed the downturn on the uncertainty surrounding the Brexit talks. Several business leaders and thinktanks have criticised Theresa May’s failure to secure more detailed agreement inside her own party on the preferred trading relationship with the EU before triggering Article 50 last spring.
EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation, warned that Brexit was also having an impact on job applications which has dropped by 17% since last year.
In addition, the business lobby group said a further 13% of manufacturers reported an increase in EU workers leaving their firms. Many of those employees were returning to the EU permanently, it added, leaving companies struggling to recruit suitably skilled staff in the UK.
The EEF report, Navigating Brexit: The Migration Minefield, calls on ministers to move swiftly to give companies and their EU workers greater certainty over their future status to stem the flow back across the channel. [...]