Swindon Advertiser:
Business leaders optimistic despite shock statistics that put Swindon among hardest hit by Brexit
31 July 2017
The London School of Economics has published an analysis of the possible effects of a ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ Brexit on towns and cities all over the country.
The report predicts that Swindon’s GVA will decline by 2.8 per cent under a hard Brexit and 1.5 per cent under a soft Brexit.
The authors of the report, Naomi Clayton and Professor Henry Overman of the LSE’s Centre For Economic Performance, said: “All British cities are set to be negatively affected as a result of higher trade costs between the UK and EU, and this impact will be greater in the scenario of a ‘hard’ Brexit.”
But Ian Larrard, the director of the Swindon and Wiltshire Initiative at Business West, shrugged off the findings and said there was good reason to be optimistic.
Related publications
‘Brexit, Trade and the Economic Impacts on UK Cities’, Naomi Clayton and Henry Overman, Centre for Cities briefing, July 2017