Brexit is having a negative impact on business, according to almost half of UK IT leaders questioned in a Computing Delta study.
More than 14 percent said the impact of the UK leaving the EU was”negative” with 33 percent judging it to be “somewhat negative.” Only three per ent viewed Brexit as “positive” and six percent thought it was “somewhat positive.”
The largest percentage thought Brexit had a “neutral” impact.
Public sector respondents working in local government, health and education, were the least optimistic with none seeing Brexit as a positive.
Supply chain problems were affecting several respondents.
“Stock availability is extremely poor and disruptive”, commented an IT manager in a charity. “Supply chain issues are having an impact on procurement and timely replacement of IT hardware”, added an IT architect in the energy sector.
The supply chain issues were caused by increased paperwork, higher costs and Brexit-induced bureaucracy.
Some respondents, including an IT director at a small marketing firm, said they’d lost European customers, while an IT leader at a university complained about the impact on research activities. Another in education said simply, “Brexit is a mistake”.
Recruitment difficulties were another of the issues raised, with some respondents saying Brexit has exacerbated the pre-existing tech skills gap.
Among those who viewed Brexit as a positive, one, an IT distributor, who said there’d been no change to the business as a result of Brexit, although the global semiconductor shortage has been problematic while a CTO in manufacturing believed initial problems will be ironed out. “It’s all good”, that person said.
More than 40 percent said they were more optimistic about their business than this time last year than less optimistic citing a bounce back following the lifting of Covid rules.
