ICAEW latest release of the Business Confidence Monitor

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Clearly the last 12 months have been incredibly challenging for businesses across the North West. Covid, regulation and supply chain issues continue to cause concern.

Despite these challenges ICAEW BCM Q2 2021 found that confidence in the North West has risen to its highest ever level.

Businesses in the North West plan to increase employment by 3.2% over the next year, the second strongest outlook of all UK regions.

With employment levels, domestic sales and exports predicted to grow, businesses expect a recovery which should prove a boost to the North West’s economy.

Please feel free to share the data in any relevant updates to your network. We would love to hear how this has been helpful to you and your business network as well as any feedback.

A question for you to consider and respond to, if you wish – does anything within the data release disagree with what you are seeing in your own and others’ organisations?

Justin Kyriakou, Regional Director North West

THE NORTH WEST BUSINESS CONFIDENCE BRIEFING: CHANGING CITIES – 11 JUNE 2021

Aligned with the release of this data, our collaborative flagship North West Business Confidence Briefing: Changing Cities takes place on Friday 11 June. This event is free-of-charge and open-to-all and I would be delighted if you could join us and share the event with your colleagues and business network.

Our panel of expert speakers will provide an overview of business confidence and the impact on the major cities in the North West.

Panellists:

Sam Booth, Chief Executive Pro Manchester

Kevin Duffy, Regional Managing Partner RSM

Phil Adams, Professional Liverpool

Iain Wright FCA, Managing Director Reputation & Influence, ICAEW will chair the event.

ABOUT ICAEW’S BUSINESS CONFIDENCE MONITOR

The ICAEW Business Confidence Monitor^TM is one of the largest and most comprehensive quarterly surveys of UK business confidence. The results are based on 1,000 telephone interviews among ICAEW Chartered Accountants covering a range of UK sectors, regions and company sizes, ensuring a representative picture of the UK economy. The interviewing is continuous, these latest findings are based on the period between 18 January 2021 and 12 April 2021. The primary business confidence question is, ‘Overall, how would you describe your confidence in the economic prospects facing your business over the next 12 months, compared to the previous 12 months?’

ABOUT ICAEW

There are over 1.8m chartered accountants and students around the world − talented, ethical and committed professionals who use their expertise to ensure we have a successful and sustainable future. More than 186,500 of these are ICAEW Chartered Accountants and students. We train, develop and support each one of them so that they have the knowledge and values to help build local and global economies that are sustainable, accountable and fair.