The latest research by RIFT Tax Refunds looks at what effect the UK’s recent economic uncertainty has had on the nation's industrial prowess by analysing the number of VAT and/or PAYE-based enterprises by a broad industry group to see which sectors have enjoyed the highest rate of growth over the past year, and over the past five years.
According to the latest available data, the largest industry sector in the UK is Professional, Scientific & Technical with 430,980 operational businesses as of 2022.
Construction is the UK’s second-largest sector with 374,980 active businesses, followed by Business Administration & Support Services with 228,840.
The sector to enjoy the biggest one-year growth is Property, increasing by 5.1% to reach a total of 110,715 enterprises.
Hospitality appears to be making a slow recovery following a devastating pandemic, demonstrated by the Accommodation & Food Services sector growing by 4.9% over the year.
Construction has also had a strong year, recording 4.2% growth to the end of 2022 with 374,980 active businesses.
Other sectors to experience positive one-year growth are Education (2.8%), Motor Trades (2.7%), Arts, Entertainment, Recreation & Other Services (2.4%), Retail (1.6%), Wholesale (1.6%), Health (1.6%), Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing (1%), and Public Administration & Defence (1%).
On the other hand, six sectors have shrunk in size over the past year, none more so than Information & Communication (-7.9%), followed by Professional, Scientific & Technical (-4.9%), Finance & Insurance (-1.5%), Business Administration & Support Services (-0.6%), Production (-0.6%), and Transport & Storage (inc postal) (-0.2%).
When viewing industry performance on a longer scale of five years, construction and property feature in the top three sectors again. With 17.2% growth, construction has put in the third-best performance. Property’s growth of 18.8% places it second, beaten only by the Transport & Storage (inc postal) sector which has grown by 26.4% in five years.
Bradley Post, MD of RIFT Tax Refunds, commented:
“Amidst significant economic uncertainty, it’s clear that two of our great industries are thriving more than most. Property and construction rank in the top three sectors for both one-year and five-year growth, and construction even sits in the top three for overall sector size.
"So it’s great to see that the UK’s property interests doing so well, but if that’s to continue in the long-term we need to ensure that construction in particular is given the space and resources to thrive. This is especially true when considering the housing shortage our country has been struggling to remedy for decades.”
