Contingency plans seemed to be the name of the game in recent days as relates to Brexit, and as the Telegraph reported, companies are gearing up to move jobs out of the United Kingdom without more detail on transitions in the wake of the actual severing of ties. As the publication noted, contingencies have included subsidiaries to be established in other countries in the EU.
The Institute of Directors has said that governments should give firms more information as negotiations develop, with a clearer view of what to expect so that as the institute said, “They do not have to jump to relocate staff or operations.”
As many as 30 percent of firms surveyed have said that they have begun assessing what to expect under a variety of outcomes, but contingency plans have yet to make the leap to reality. And the implications themselves are still unclear, as nine percent of firms surveyed do not understand what they may be getting into at all, and another 40 percent “somewhat understand” what might happen as they move operations.
In one high-profile instance, Northern Trust has said it will set up an EU-based banking center in Europe, with operations to be based in Luxembourg.
One other fallout from Brexit ties in not with business but with education. The Independent reports that Brexit may have led to a drop in overseas students coming into the U.K., a charge levied by Tobias Ellwood, a defense minister. Numbers from the country’s admissions service, known as Ucas, EU students applying for a spot in the U.K. dropped at least five percent in 2016, the first slip in five years.
Finally, the International Monetary Fund downgraded its growth forecast for the U.K., with expectations for annual growth of 1.7 percent, down from 2 percent. The 2018 estimate is still the same at 1.8 percent.
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