{"id":102880,"date":"2016-04-09T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-09T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/what-impact-would-brexit-have-upon-the-digital-and-tech-sector\/"},"modified":"2024-12-19T16:41:06","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T21:41:06","slug":"what-impact-would-brexit-have-upon-the-digital-and-tech-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/en-gb\/insights\/blog\/strategy\/what-impact-would-brexit-have-upon-the-digital-and-tech-sector\/","title":{"rendered":"What impact would Brexit have upon the digital and tech sector?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Via\u00a0The Guardian<\/a><\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s referendum to decide whether Britain should remain a member of the European Union will be held on Thursday 23 June; less than three months away. The most recent Brexit opinion poll by The Telegraph<\/a> showed that the \u2018Remain\u2019 campaign has gained a narrow lead standing at 51%, after trailing last month. \u2018Leave\u2019s\u2019 support has decreased five points to 44%, with only 5% of voters saying they are undecided. Turnout will be crucial in determining the final result, but with such close margins, weighing up the pros and cons of a Brexit for the UK\u2019s thriving digital and tech sector is a critical debate, which hasn\u2019t received an awful lot of exposure.<\/p>\n

If we consider some stats, a very recent poll in March by Tech London Advocates found London\u2019s technology sector to be strongly against Britain exiting the EU.\u00a0It asked 3,000 senior members of the London tech scene their opinion on Brexit, and a resounding 87% said they opposed Brexit. Only 3% declared they wanted to leave, with the remaining 10% as yet undecided. Russ Shaw, the founder of Tech London Advocates, said: \u201cLondon has established a global reputation as the digital capital of\u00a0Europe. There is significant concern within the digital community that Brexit would undermine this position and threaten relationships with the European market.\u201d Similarly, a 2015\u00a0survey of techUK members also found that 71% favour\u00a0staying in a reformed European Union, with a further\u00a017% saying they would stay in regardless of further\u00a0reforms. There has even been talk of some companies relocating in the event of a \u2018leave\u2019 vote. On the whole it seems the UK tech and digital sector believes firmly that future success of the industry depends on Britain remaining in the EU. Brexit fears for the digital and tech sector centre around three core areas…<\/p>\n

The creation of a skills and talent shortage<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Research by TLA in December and January found that 43% of respondents said a talent shortage was the biggest challenge currently facing London\u2019s tech sector. Among the professions urgently required, software developers and engineers sat at the top (as voted by 44%), with data scientists and cyber security experts also being needed. These are skills that can currently be more easily hired from outside the EU, if employers demonstrate that they initially looked domestically. Within the latest changes to immigration rules announced in October 2015,\u00a0four digital technology jobs (product manager, data scientist, senior developer and cyber security specialist) were added to the tier 2 visa shortage occupation list, indicating it\u2019s a situation to be taken seriously. Revisions were also made to the\u00a0tier 1 Exceptional Talent visa<\/a>\u00a0scheme to help alleviate these skills shortages in the UK tech sector. But four-fifths (81%) of those polled by TLA in March believed that Brexit would make it harder to employ people from EU countries. In particular, if the free movement of workers within the EU ends, the concern is that this would negatively affect the ability of UK tech and digital businesses to access developers and engineers with the right skill sets from abroad. An alternative view is that if Britain votes to leave the EU, this might present the opportunity to agree a new framework of specific, tailored immigration laws, which might be more favourable for attracting digital and tech talent from overseas. But this would take time to implement. \"EU-GB-flag\" Via Pi Media Online<\/a><\/p>\n

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