Simon Mabey analyses the trends and attitudes revealed in our
14th annual survey of professional practices.
This year, 126 professional practices, including lawyers,
property consultants and patent agents, took part in our annual
survey. The most striking finding is the fall in business
confidence. Last year's results gave the first hint that
confidence was starting to wane, but this trend is dramatically
more marked this year. The service sector has been one of the
success stories of the UK economy over the last few years, but with
only a little over half of the firms surveyed saying they are
confident about the next 12 months, we are undoubtedly entering a
more difficult phase of the economic cycle. Moreover, the
percentage of respondents who are not confident about the future
soared to 42%, from just 11% in 2007/08.
