A poll of Institute of Director’s members shows that while 57 percent of UK companies are making Brexit contingency plans, only 11 percent have begun implementing them. The new survey of nearly 1,000 business leaders conducted in the first two weeks of July shows that many of businesses are holding off from making substantive changes to their operations as they wait for more clarity on the likely outcome of UK – EU negotiations.
Commenting on the findings, Stephen Martin, Director General of the IoD, said: “Uncertainty over the UK's future trading status with the EU continues to rank among companies' top concerns. While businesses are preparing for Brexit, most have not made any concrete changes yet, so there is still a window of opportunity for the Government to convince them to hold off triggering contingency plans.
“Some changes and costs are inevitable no matter how we leave the EU, but the more information the Government can provide on the process of Brexit, the more companies will be reassured they do not have to jump to relocate staff or operations. There has been a substantial recent uptick in engagement between businesses and Ministers, and we hope to see an even greater level on technical detail through future position papers and frequent government-industry working groups.”
Other findings included:
- 16 percent of businesses have not engaged in any Brexit contingency planning yet but plan to.
- 33 percent of businesses do not expect to engage in any Brexit contingency planning.
