Financial Headlines

Financial Services Dominate UK Market

FINANCIAL SERVICES is the dominant sector in the UK management consulting market, according to a new report.

The sector is growing at more than 7% a year, to £1.8bn, according to a new report by Source Information Services. Its survey was of executives that buy consulting services, and focuses on consulting firms with 50 or more consultants. Data was also collated from 120 firms, and excludes IT implementation and outsourcing.

The UK market for these firms has grown 4.8% in the last year, and is expected to grow by between 5% and 10% in 2014.

Financial Services has grown whilst being dominated by work connected with regulation and remediation.

The Big Four firms grew at 8% in the field during 2013 – twice the rate of their competitors, representing nearly £2bn in revenues. This could be attributed to them buying market share, but also their strength in financial services.

Retail saw 8.6% growth to £241m, with a desire for a multi-channel offering among clients, the key to advisory’s growing prominence in the sector. Healthcare grew 6% to £218m.

However, according to data provided for the Financial Times by two respected economists, Prof. Brian Bell and Prof. Stephen Machin, “professional middle class earnings” in the UK   are becoming deeply divided. Some are emerging as those amongst Britain’s highest earners as a result of globalisation whilst other equally highly qualified members of the group are struggling to maintain their lifestyle.

In a week where Inflation has fallen below 2% for the first time in four years the Bank of England issued forecasts for economic growth, capping the most sustained run of upgrades since it gained independence in 1997. This will likely raise questions about which groups are reaping the spoils of the recovery. On the one side of this great divide doctors and London Financial Services workers are clear winners whilst their provincial counterparts – a much larger group – are struggling to survive despite these bullish figures.