UK investors believe 'government does not have their back' on Brexit

A survey commissioned by the Enterprise Investment Scheme Association (EISA) found 59% of UK investors - amounting to 17 million people, according to the report - do not think the government is doing a good job in securing a deal for the UK's financial services sector.

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The organisation's Brexit Wealth Index claims 14.5 million UK investors have seen their wealth decrease since the referendum decision, while 44% of those surveyed do not believe Brexit will make them wealthier. In addition, 45% said they expect the country to be poorer post Brexit.

In July, EU lawmakers rejected the UK's negotiating position on the governance of UK financial services firms' access to European markets over concerns the proposal would endanger the bloc's "decision making autonomy".

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier dismissed Prime Minister Theresa May's proposal, which was laid out earlier in July in a white paper, explaining it would violate the principle that access rights to the bloc's financial services market are a gift from Brussels that can be freely withdrawn.

May's controversial white paper dismissed the asset management industry's favoured mutual regulatory recognition model in favour of an enhanced version of the "equivalence" model, which enabled the likes of the US and Singapore to simplify their access the bloc.  

Mark Brownridge, director general of EISA said UK investors "feel that our government does not have their back", and is "contributing to the negative sentiment surrounding Brexit".
 
He added: "It is clear that from this research that British investors feel that Brexit has not made them wealthier to date, and they do not believe that it will in the future either.

"The fact that so many investors feel this way is going to have a knock-on impact on the rest of the country and the economy."

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Despite this negative sentiment, the survey also found 40% of UK investors believe there will be more opportunity for wealth creation and entrepreneurship post-Brexit, with one-third of the belief there will be more opportunities to invest into SMEs. 

In addition, one-third still believe there will be a Brexit dividend post-Brexit - the potential financial windfall from leaving the EU.

Brownridge said: "We must remain optimistic yet cautious, we need to ensure that investors have the confidence to continue to look to UK SMEs as a viable investment, and also ensure that there is enough capital for investors to reinvest back into UK businesses."

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• Topics
• Regulation
• Markets
• UK
• UK investor
• EISA
• enterprise investment schemes
• Michel Barnier
• Theresa May
• Brexit