9th September 2019
How prepared are you for Brexit?
The UK faces an exceptionally volatile period in the run-up to the delayed Brexit date of 31 October 2019. With the new Prime Minister promising to leave “with or without a deal” and few signs of a new deal being achievable, a hard Brexit has never been more likely. Local authorities across the UK will be on the front line in managing the impact on their communities and economies, whilst also trying to protect their own financial resilience and capacity to act.
The impact of Brexit will not be felt equally between places, with varying levels of economic, social and organisational exposure. Grant Thornton has developed a Brexit Resilience Index weighing key factors such as levels of employment in the most exposed sectors, foreign ownership of businesses, workforce nationality and the health of local economies to provide an overall view on local vulnerability. This index can be used as a way to assess the potential impacts of Brexit in different places, with the aim of supporting local leaders to ensure that they are as prepared as possible.
It is encouraging to see that Local authorities continue to work hard to prepare for Brexit. A combination of uncertainty, lack of information from central government, a shifting timescale and limited capacity have made this a challenging and frustrating task. Read the thoughts from Adam Jackson https://www.grantthornton.co.uk/news-centre/brexit-cloud-overshadows-chancellors-plans/.