Business leaders predicting economic growth in wake of General Election

Almost half of businesses in the South West believe the General Election will trigger significant economic growth in the region over the next six months.
The figures came from research commissioned by accountancy and advisory firm Monahans.
The firm surveyed management teams, senior executives, and business owners in more than 300 micro, small, medium, and large-scale enterprises throughout the region.
Accordingly, 47 per cent of business leaders and owners in the region are confident that market conditions will improve after this Thursday’s General Election.
Of these, a third believe that market conditions will improve significantly.
The findings come on the back of what has been a challenging year for many businesses in the region. One in four report that their company has made redundancies in the last 12 months. Inflation and rising operational costs (41 per cent of respondents), energy prices (38 per cent), and generating new business (26 per cent) were the three biggest challenges reported by south-west business leaders over the last 12 months.
Generating new business has been a significantly higher challenge for micro businesses in this time period.
Just under 40 per cent mentioned this as being a challenge, which is significantly higher than all other surveyed business sizes.
Although respondents stated that these will continue to be the primary obstacles to growth over the next six months and into 2025, they are expected to ease.
Indeed, the number of businesses seeing inflation and operational costs as a major challenge will fall to 38 per cent, whilst energy prices and generating new business will drop to 27 per cent and 26 per cent respectively.
Dominic Bourquin, head of tax consultancy and corporate finance and partner at Monahans, said: “The economy has yet to kick into gear following the COVID-19 pandemic, but an expected transition of Government this week appears to be giving business owners and leaders a much-needed boost in confidence in the market over the next six months.
“There are signs that this is already starting to happen. Our research found that the regional economy is seeing strong growth within the Finance, Technology, Construction, Retail, and Professional Services sectors. These are expected to play key roles in driving the post-election south-west economy forward.”
There is some caution among the region’s businesses, as Bourquin explains:
“One in three of all business leaders and owners told us that they feel little will change in the economy following the General Election. That is understandable in light of uncertainty about the direction of future economic policies, but we expect to see that one in three number fall over the next six months, as the market stabilises.”