The breadth and depth of the UK’s professional and business services (PBS) sector has long been a strength of the UK economy, with this extending from the top end of the major global accountancy, consulting and legal networks down to a proliferation of smaller mid-market firms.
The inclusion of PBS in the government’s Industrial Strategy as one of its eight focus sectors was an important recognition of this. PBS contributes some £300bn GVA to the economy and is responsible for around one in seven jobs. Crucially, it is not only important in its own right, but functions as a key enabler to other sectors – helping the businesses they serve become more profitable, productive and successful.
Although a generally tough economy means that there are some client-side challenges to meet as businesses look to contain costs, nevertheless demand for services remains high – with AI in particular a hot advisory topic.
For that reason, it is perhaps no surprise that the PBS sector emerges from our latest Pulse survey of private enterprises as more upbeat than average: 86% of leaders from private enterprise accountancy, consulting and legal businesses saying they are confident in the prospects for their business, compared to the overall average of 80%.
