Last Updated on: 22nd November 2023, 06:19 am
On Thursday 23rd August, the Government is set to release the first of 84 documents outlining the United Kingdom’s contingency plan for a no-deal Brexit scenario, with one of the documents focused on the impact to Britain’s financial services. With this in mind, the Enterprise Investment Scheme Association (EISA) has released a national and investor representative piece of research, gauging whether the British public and its investors feel that they will be wealthier in a post-Brexit UK. Please let me know if this is of interest to you as an exclusive.
With the date that Britain leaves the EU edging ever closer, the Enterprise Investment Scheme Association (EISA) has today launched The Brexit Wealth Index 2018. Based on research conducted across a sample of 2007 respondents – of which – 1,122 were nationally representative investors, the data outlines the wealth creation opportunities available to them post-Brexit. Providing anecdotal and quantitative analysis as to whether the country will be richer after leaving the European Union, the survey specifically questions whether they feel their individual wealth will and has increased after the decision to leave was made.
13 million investors believe that Brexit will not make them wealthier. This amounts to 44% of British investors, versus a fifth (19%) who believe that it will make them wealthier. Of the wider sample, 14.5 million British investors believe that their wealth has not increased since the referendum decision in June 2016, while 5.5 million do believe that their wealth has increased since the vote to leave was made.
Key statistics
- 17 million (59%) do not think the Government is doing a good job in securing a deal for the UK’s financial services sector
- Half of British investors – 14.5 million – have seen their wealth decrease since the referendum decision
- 13 million (44%) do not believe that Brexit will make them wealthier
- Nearly half (45%) – 13 million – believe that there will be a Brexit deficit which will make the UK poorer after March 2019
- 4 in 10 – 11.5 million British investors – feel that there will be more opportunity for wealth creation and entrepreneurship post-Brexit
- A third of British investors – 10 million – feel that there will be more opportunities to invest into SMEs in post-Brexit Britain
- 10 million – a third of British investors – believe that there will be a Brexit dividend which will make the UK richer after March 2019. 4 in 10 – 11.5 million – disagree with this statement.
Overwhelmingly, 17 million British investors do not think that the Government is doing a good job in securing a deal for the UK’s financial services sector. Six in 10 (59%) of respondents believe this to be true.
A third of British investors (32%) – 9.5 million – do not believe that there will be more opportunity for wealth creation and entrepreneurship post-Brexit. However, nearly four in 10, (39%) – 11.5 million – do. This sentiment continues as 10 million British investors believe that there will be more opportunities to invest into SMEs in a post-Brexit Britain while seven million disagree.
A third (34%) of respondents believe that there will be a Brexit dividend which will make the UK richer after March 2019. This amounts to 10 million British investors. However, 11.5 million – 39% of respondents – disagree with this. In fact, when asked, I feel that there will be a Brexit deficit which will make the UK poorer after March 2019, 45% of respondents – 13 million – agreed, while just over a quarter (27%) disagreed.
Mark Brownridge, Director General of the Enterprise Investment Scheme Association (EISA), commented on the results of the survey;
“It is clear that from this research that British investors feel that Brexit has not made them wealthier to date, and they do not believe that it will in the future either. Moreover, they feel that our Government does not have their back, and in fact, is contributing to the negative sentiment surrounding Brexit. The fact that so many investors feel this way is going to have a knock-on impact on the rest of the country and the economy.
However, there is some positivity, with many feeling that there will be great opportunities for wealth creation, entrepreneurship, and investment into SMEs in a post-Brexit Britain. We must remain optimistic yet cautious, we need to ensure that investors have the confidence to continue to look to UK SMEs as a viable investment, and also ensure that there is enough capital for investors to reinvest back into UK businesses.’
