UK’s services sector starts to count the real cost of Brexit

In non-regulated services businesses, Sam Lowe, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, a think-tank, says, “The difficulties are more indirect: if [a UK advertising agency] wants to be serving clients in Italy from London, you want to have Italians on staff. The new [UK] immigration system makes it more difficult to hire [EU nationals].” 

All services businesses face new obstacles to moving freely around the EU without a visa or work permit. “You can do meetings and talks, but anything that involves direct payments is pretty much not allowed,” says Lowe. 

...The CER’s Lowe suggests Brexit has “focused minds a little bit”, so both services businesses and the UK government are likely to put more effort into export promotion outside the EU.