Brexit is having a negative impact, say 47% of UK IT leaders

Supply chain issues, skills shortages, increased costs and red tape among the issues cited

Brexit is having a negative impact on business, according to almost half of UK IT leaders questioned in a Computing Delta study.

14% said the impact of the UK leaving the EU has been "negative" with 33% judging it to be "somewhat negative". That compares with 3% who viewed Brexit as "positive" and 6% who said "somewhat positive". The largest proportion (44%) said Brexit has been "neutral", however.

Among public sector respondents working in local government, health and education, none viewed 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.

In part, these supply chain issues were thought to be a result of global shortages, but in the main increased paperwork, higher costs and Brexit-induced bureaucracy were blamed.

"We deal internationally, and within the telecoms sector there have been some changes when dealing with EU countries which make it more difficult to trade and setup customers within these countries," said a UC architect at a technology firm, while a contracts and framework manager in another tech company blamed "red tape, a slower supply chain and troubled logistics."

Some respondents, including an IT director at a small marketing firm, said they'd lost numerous 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.

Despite the travails caused for many by Brexit, overall more (40%) said they were more optimistic about their business than this time last year than less optimistic (18%) citing a bounceback following the lifting of Covid rules.

"The pandemic has shown the resilience of staff and the ability for the business to adapt to new challenges," said an upbeat CIO in a large engineering firm.

The research was carried out in July among 115 UK IT leaders with responsibility for IT strategy, planning, procurement and budgets.

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