10 November 2014
| CBI Press Team
News
Financial technology, infrastructure investment and bringing back outsourced jobs to the UK offer huge potential for the UK economy and entrepreneurs, EY’s UK Chairman tells the CBI Annual Conference.
Exploiting three economic opportunities – financial technology, new infrastructure, and the reshoring of jobs that have been outsourced to emerging markets over the last few decades – present major opportunities for UK manufacturing and services entrepreneurs, said Steve Varley, Chairman of EY UK.
‘Unless the UK capitalises on this there is a very real risk that we will lose out to our global competitors,’ he told business leaders. ‘Fintech, infrastructure and reshoring could be worth £300bn by 2020.
‘A number as large as that could fuel a massive amount of entrepreneurial zeal across the UK.’
Economic driver
According to UK Trade & Investment, the UK is a destination of choice for overseas firms seeking to gain a global presence in the financial technology sector. Mr Varley said the total UK financial technology market was worth £20bn a year in revenue and still growing.
‘There’s a real wave of change occurring with fintech firms disrupting existing models across the financial services sector,’ he said. ‘The UK’s position as the preeminent financial centre has allowed it to attract the most ambitious start-ups from around the world.’
Mr Varley also said upgrading Britain’s infrastructure was a clear political priority with the latest National Infrastructure Plan envisioning investment of £250bn by 2020. ‘Investment in infrastructure is a key economic driver that would attract further private sector investment and act as a magnet for foreign direct investment.’
Meanwhile bringing back jobs to the UK was being ‘widely touted’ as a way for developed economies to recover ground lost to emerging markets in the last two to three decades, Mr Varley said.
He said that £30bn of economic activity and 2 million jobs had been lost from 1995 to 2011 while the UK now imports 60% of the value of its final and intermediate manufactured goods, more than its key rivals.
‘We think the UK should have a strategy to compete more effectively for manufacturing jobs. We estimate the potential number of reshored jobs available to the UK could be up to 275,000 by 2025.’
He argued this could help reduce youth unemployment from its current total of 750,000. ‘This is a golden window for entrepreneurs to examine in detail the manufacturing projects that offer the biggest potential.’
