TheCityUK’s Economic Research underpins the important—and sometimes still counter-intuitive—point that the financial and related professional services industry makes a significant contribution to the economy across the UK, not just in London. Most attention tends to focus on the spread of industry employment across the UK—a metric which is easy to take for granted, but one that is vitally important, and particularly so at a time of rising unemployment. However, this report focuses on something that is conceptually a bit less straightforward: the economic contribution the industry makes through its exports. Overseas sales of British financial and related professional services originate not just in London—one of the world’s leading industry hubs—but across all the English regions, Scotland and Wales (data for Northern Ireland are not available). Indeed, 47% of Britain’s financial and related professional services exports originate in territories other than London. Our research also shows that in most regions and nations, financial and related professional services exports account for 10-20% of total exports (goods plus services). This demonstrates the crucial contribution the industry makes across Great Britain to the overall trade position; without these exports, the trade deficit that Britain runs overall would be far larger.
TheCityUK is the industry body that represents UK-based financial and related professional services – the latter encompassing legal, accounting and management consulting services. I manage the Economic Research programme, which covers issues of financial and related professional services competitiveness, as well as certain thematic or sector-focused areas (for example, green and sustainable finance, as you can see within the carbon markets pricing mechanisms report attached).
We would like to acknowledge TheCityUK for providing us with both reports and to the contributor in author Anjalika Bardalai Chief Economist and Head of Research at TheCityUK. PBEC very much appreciate the sharing of intelligence and knowledge with its community.
For more information on TheCityUK’s work please visit their website: www.cityuk.com
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