Finance exports growing faster in Scotland than London

TheCityUK estimates in its ‘Exporting from across Britain 2019’ report that almost half of Britain’s £96.9bn financial and related professional services exports came from outside London in 2017.

And between 2012 and 2016, Scottish and Welsh industry exports underwent the largest expansion, showing average annual growth of 7 per cent.

This compares to 2 per cent annual average industry export growth in London across the period.

The North East and West Midlands also showed strong growth across this period, with industry exports growing by an average of 6 per cent and 5 per cent each year respectively.

In terms of absolute exports, the South East (£10.8bn) is the largest exporter outside London (£50bn), followed by Scotland (£7.2bn) and the North West (£5.9bn). For international context, in 2017 the North West’s financial services exports were equivalent to nearly 40 per cent of the total financial services exports of France. Greater Manchester’s financial services exports alone are now roughly equivalent to the total financial services exports of Austria.

In 2016, financial services were the largest exporting services sector in all British regions and nations except the South East, where ‘real estate, professional, scientific and technical services’ took the top spot.

Taken together, financial and related professional services exports as a percentage of total regional services exports ranged between 27 per cent in the South East to 50 per cent in Wales.

Anjalika Bardalai, chief economist and head of research, TheCityUK, said: “There is a common misconception that financial and related professional services are only of value to ‘the City’ of London. This report helps to debunk this myth, showing clearly that the industry, including international finance, is a UK-wide success story. London and the regions and nations all play a role in making the UK a world-leading international financial centre.

“The industry’s multi-billion pound exports from areas such as Eastern Scotland, West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands contributed to a financial and related professional services trade surplus of around £75bn in 2017. In most of the UK’s regions and nations, this industry is the largest services exporter, and a significant local source of jobs and economic output.”