Immediately following Britain’s decision to leave the European Union (EU), there was initial speculation that investors would begin retreating from their capital investments in Britain, bringing forth an age of volatility and economic stagnation. In reality, the ensuing nine months have painted a very different picture; Britain’s private sector has proven resilience, with upbeat consumer confidence contributing to 0.7% GDP growth in Q4 2016. Furthermore, following on from the momentum of the previous year, the Bank of England also upgraded its growth forecasts for British economy in 2017 from 1.4% to an impressive 2%.
Underpinning this strong economic performance is a thriving private sector comprising of scaling businesses with immense growth potential. Britain commonly sets the benchmark for innovation across all major industries, and this is due to an entrepreneurial ecosystem of high-growth SMEs spread across the country. A perfect example of this is the digital economy – the UK tech industry was crowned the digital capital of Europe in March 2017 due to the investment, talent, skills and collaboration opportunities on offer.
Nine months on since the result of the Brexit referendum was announcement, this week Theresa May has triggered Article 50 and formally commenced the negotiation process. To find out how Britain’s community of investors are approaching their financial strategy in light of Brexit and the beginning of the 2017/18 tax year on 6 April, IW Capital asked 1,000 UK investors with an investment portfolio size of £10,000 or more (excluding property and SIPPs) about their financial strategy.
Our findings were encouraging, with nearly half of all UK investors stating that Brexit is likely to have a positive impact on their investment strategy.
The full results are available in IW Capital’s 2017 Investor Risk Profile. With the new tax year fast-approaching, register as a member of Access 42 to download a copy of the new report.