Dutch courage: 250 UK companies to steel themselves for Brexit with Netherlands relocation plans

Michiel Bakhuizen, a spokesman for the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency (NFIA), told the AFP news agency that the number of firms contacting his department with worries about access to the EU market was growing as Britain teeters on the edge of crashing out of the single market and customs union.

A final figure would be announced next month cataloguing the relocations, Mr Bakhuizen said, stating that “every new arrival of a business, big or small, is a success”.

“The number of businesses we are in contact with for a possible arrival is growing. At the start of 2017 it was 80, at the start of 2018 150, and now it’s more than 250,” he said.

“This increase will continue and it’s not strange, because there is great uncertainty at the moment in Britain. And if there is one thing that’s bad for business, it’s uncertainty.”

The spokesperson confirmed that that the NFIA was “in contact with more than 250 interested in an eventual move to the Netherlands because of Brexit”.