Many have speculated that last year’s Brexit vote would put a damper on business in the UK. Preliminary results suggest that’s not the case. A recent survey conducted by Silicon Valley Bank, a lender that’s particularly geared toward start-ups, suggests British businesses have big plans for 2017 and most of them include staying in the UK. Additionally, many international companies have already shown they are committed to Britain regardless of EU membership.
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A Closer Look
Of the 940 start-ups questioned by SVB, the majority (62 percent) did not plan to open a European office ahead of Brexit. Only 16 percent felt a need to relocate their headquarters, 11 percent to another European location and 5 percent outside of Europe altogether. One in five (21 percent) expected to establish European operations while keeping their headquarters in the UK. Even more promising, eighty-nine percent planned to expand their workforce over the coming year, while almost half (48 percent) thought 2017 would be a better year than 2016.
Henner Diekmann, partner and lawyer with Diekmann Associates, assists start-ups with company set-up, corporate structure and contracts. Expanding opportunities among Britain’s newest companies suggests a positive future for the UK economy, but it’s not the only sign that a Brexit future may be better for business than some have predicted. In February, Amazon announced plans to expand its British operation, which included hiring some 5,000 new employees. Of these, at least 500 were highly skilled positions focused on developing some of Amazon’s latest technologies. Admittedly, Amazon’s plans are part of a wider European expansion, but other tech giants have also promised to step-up British operation. Last year, Google announced it would hire 3,000 people for its London office over the next few years, while Facebook expects to recruit 500 new workers in the UK in 2017 and Apple is planning to take over the old Battersea Power Station as a new, expanded UK headquarters.
Top Concerns for Start-ups
The biggest problem post-Brexit may not be the number of jobs, but finding qualified people to fill them. The SVB survey found that diminishing opportunities for non-British workers was the biggest concern among 32 percent of the start-ups surveyed, while 12 percent were concerned about attracting talent from elsewhere in Europe. One in five (21 percent) were worried about rising costs while the same number had reservations about their continuing ability to attract venture capital. Read on to learn more about start-ups in the UK.
