A new survey of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from all across the country suggests that businesses based in London and the East of England are feeling the most confident about their growth prospects in the short-term.
Across the country as a whole, Hitachi Capital’s latest British Business Barometer suggests that 41 per cent of UK SMEs are feeling optimistic about short-term growth this spring, up six per cent year-on-year.
However, businesses based in London and the East of England are leading the way, with the number of SMEs in these two regions feeling confident about growth up by 11 per cent on figures recorded in spring 2017.
Elsewhere, businesses in the North of England, the South and the West Midlands experienced much smaller increases in business confidence and growth expectations, while confidence among Welsh SMEs actually fell slightly year-on-year.
In terms of sector, the financial services and education sectors enjoyed the sharpest increases in confidence, the report reveals.
The study’s authors have commented that it is encouraging to see that “political scaremongering” over the impact of Britain’s departure from the European Union (EU) “hasn’t affected entrepreneurial spirit.”