The UK Investment Trends report uses data from the Decision Maker Panel – a large and representative survey of businesses. It examines recent trends in business investment and prospects for the future, showing how both Brexit and Covid-19 (Covid) have weighed on investment, with evidence that this weakness can be accounted for by the businesses most exposed to those events.

Despite the overall decline in UK Investment Trends, there were some individual regions and cities that did better than others. The best performer outside of London was Birmingham, which secured 67 FDI projects in 2023, a 139% increase on the year before and more than double that of any other UK city. Greater London was Europe’s highest performing region for FDI, with 359 projects, an increase of 20% on the previous year.

In contrast, Wales and Northern Ireland saw a fall in investment, with the latter recording its lowest total for a decade. The FDI project figures for the East Midlands were also lower than in 2022, though they remain higher than in any other devolved region or devolved administration.

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The report explores the drivers of business investment in the UK, with evidence from the DMP suggesting that a key factor is financing constraints on businesses and that the availability of tax incentives to support investment can play an important role. In addition, the report analyses the effect of changes in corporate taxation on investment and discusses the impact of the recent fall in sterling.