According to a recent census conducted by Creditsafe, more companies in the East of England reported no turnover growth in 2018 compared to anywhere else surveyed in the UK. Only 62% of companies within this region said their turnover had increased throughout 2018, which comes as no surprise when the region is also home to companies where 70% surveyed said they had experienced bad debt.
At the end of 2018, we surveyed over 1,000 UK businesses on what the year has meant for them as a company, how their business is doing in general and what they expect for 2019.
The UK has faced some challenging times over the past 12 months with an uncertain economic future, with recruitment issues and politics all playing an important part according to our latest Business Performance report. Furthermore, recent reports predict the British economy to fall to 7th place in the GDP rankings in 2019, with India subsequently rising above.
Despite this, the British economy had actually reached a two year high in 2018, showing that even in an adverse economic climate, British businesses are determined to create opportunities, grow their offerings, and contribute to society now more than ever.
Although the East of England has reported the least turnover growth regionally, the UK as a whole is looking pretty positive with over 70% of businesses reporting turnover growth. Ireland especially had a very positive year with 90% of companies saying they grew in terms of turnover in 2018.
Chris Robertson
UK CEO
The UK is also very optomistic for 2019 with over 90% of businesses expecting to grow this year. However, once again companies in the East of England are falling behind the UK, this time in terms of positivity as they are one of the lowest regions surveyed with the least optimism regarding whether their business will see growth in 2019, with just 83% feeling positive.
52% of businesses in the East of England also said the government does not support them enough in our census, and 23% of businesses predicted politics as the being their biggest challenge as we continue through 2019 with Brexit looming.
When asked how optimistic they are about the UK economy in 2019, votes within the UK as a whole were split almost three ways, with 30% saying they were optimistic, 30% saying they were not and 40% unsure either way. Expectations for the New Year are unclear, to say the least.
The future lies in the balance for companies in this region of the UK, and only time will tell if they saw the doom and gloom coming or if they will be pleasantly surprised by the end of the year.