Business confidence rises as region’s bosses take mixed outlook in their stride

BUSINESS CONFIDENCE in Yorkshire rose in the last six months, according to the latest Business in Britain report from Lloyds Bank.

The confidence index – an average of respondents’ expected sales, orders and profits over the next six months – increased to 23 per cent, from January’s score of 17 per cent.

However, it remained slightly lower than the score it recorded following the EU referendum vote (27 per cent).

The Business in Britain report, now in its 25th year, gathers the views of more than 1,500 UK companies, predominantly small to medium-sized businesses, and tracks the overall “balance” of opinion on a range of performance and confidence measures.

Leigh Taylor, the regional area director for SME, Lloyds Banking Group, said: “Overall confidence in Yorkshire has increased since our last survey in January, but remains lower than that seen in our report last September.

Yorkshire businesses also anticipate sales, profits and staffing levels will rise.

Mr Taylor said: “The outlook for the external environment remains mixed, with details of Britain’s exit from the EU still to come but businesses have been working within those parameters for a while now.

“Yorkshire businesses are taking this in their stride until there is a clearer sense of what it will mean for them in the short and medium term.”

Yorkshire companies were less positive about export prospects. The net balance of firms in the region expecting higher total exports in the next six months fell to 29 per cent from 34 per cent.

They were most confident about export prospects to North America followed by the Middle East (13 per cent) and Latin America (10 per cent). Hann-Ju Ho, senior economist, Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, said: “Although the pound’s value is seen as nearer ‘fair value’, currency volatility remains a big concern for some UK businesses that trade internationally.”