Nutt and Woodford clash on UK recession forecast

Income giants Jupiter's Anthony Nutt and Invesco Perpetual's Neil Woodford are divided over the likelihood of the UK falling back into recession.

Nutt, manager of the £2bn Income Trust, said although he does not expect the UK to fall back into recession, investors should prepare for a period of "dull, modest returns".

He has urged investors to stick with their defensive positions as he does not believe the UK will see any sharp moves upwards in economic or share price growth.

"We are in the midst of the most severe economic crisis which has probably been brought about by globalisation. Investors have pursued all sorts of techniques which has led to this untoward level of leverage. But we need to think about the opportunities rather than threats," he said at an IQ Roadshow last week.

"We will be debating these issues, which started in 2007/8, in a decade's time. The UK is not going to rebound sharply like it did in the 1970s. I am not bearish - it is about understanding reliability and sustainability. Investors should not be putting greater cyclicality into their portfolios."

Nutt said he is not fearful of a recession in the UK or a shock fall in GDP growth as if risks grew the Bank of England would unleash more QE.

His comments come just a week after Invesco Perpetual's Neil Woodford, a peer in the UK Equity Income sector, said he believes the UK could follow Europe into recession in 2012.

Woodford said: "There are things that maybe [Angela] Merkel and [Nicolas] Sarkozy cannot control. The risk of something unpleasant happening quite soon has increased significantly. I do expect the eurozone to be in recession next year and the UK could follow suit."