Foreign investment to UK breaks £1tn barrier

FOREIGN investment to the UK has broken the £1 trillion barrier for the first time, showing “Britain is the place to do business”, David Cameron said.

No 10 released the record figure as the Prime Minister prepared to travel to Milan for an international business exhibition, where he will have talks with Matteo Renzi, his Italian counterpart, as part of his continental charm initiative on EU reform.

New data shows that last year Britain secured the highest number and value of projects across Europe, with foreign direct investment estimated to have risen by £90 billion. This created nearly 85,000 new jobs and helped secure another 23,000.

Part of Mr Cameron’s pro-EU pitch is that, as part of the single market, the UK benefits from the job opportunities it affords.

Mr Cameron said: “The scale of foreign investment is a huge success story which shows that Britain is the place to do business and is more evidence that our long-term economic plan is working. Securing investment from overseas is a key part of our One Nation policies to create thousands of jobs and provide security and opportunities for working people throughout the UK.”

The UK attracted 1988 FDI projects in 2014-15, up by 12 per cent on the previous financial year, annual investment figures from UK Trade & Investment showed. Investment came from more than 70 countries.