'South East third best region in England for Foreign Direct Investment outside of London' - EY

The EY 2023 UK Attractiveness Survey has reported that the South East is amongst the top-three best-performing regions in England for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) outside of London.

Despite the region's lofty placement, 67 FDI projects were recorded in 2022 which is an 18 per cent decrease from 2021 (82 projects). This decline is also more significant than the overall 6 per cent decline in UK projects resulting in a reduction of the South East’s share of all UK projects to its lowest level since 2016.

The number of London projects also fell significantly, 24 per cent from 394 in 2021 to 299 in 2022.

Digital Technology was the South East's leading sector for project numbers but, as expected considering the overall drop in projects, this area was also affected by significant falls in project numbers (from 28 to 10).

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There were positive results on the employment front, with the South East seeing an average 72 jobs created per project. This placed the region 4^th out of all 12 UK regions for employment.

Office managing partner for EY in the South East Gareth Anderson said: “The South East continues to hold strong as one of the most attractive regions for FDI in England despite challenges in some sectors, particularly digital. This has been a common theme across the South of England, where digital tech has been a real investment success story in recent years. But, as we’ve seen in London, while project numbers are down in the sector, value remains solid – supported by a strong employment performance in the South East – and it’s smaller projects being de-prioritised.

“There are several bright spots in the data, particularly in manufacturing. Manufacturing projects have more than tripled from last year – from five to 16 – and are easily at their highest level in the last decade.

“With sustainability and climate change high on investors’ agendas, clean technology is an increasingly important investment focus, providing the UK with the opportunity to play to its regional strengths. Expertise in sectors like manufacturing will be crucial to any efforts by the UK to establish itself as a place where clean technology is not just deployed, but also developed and built too.”

Nationally, over half of the UK’s nations and regions attracted more Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) projects in 2022 than they did in 2021. The UK hosted 929 FDI-backed projects in 2022, the second highest project total in Europe, albeit down 6 per cent from 993 projects in 2021.

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