Number of tech tenders drops by a fifth following Brexit vote - IT supplier

hSo claims uncertainty has hit public sector technology buying

The number of public sector technology tenders published has dropped by 20 per cent since the UK voted to leave the EU, according to IT supplier hSo.

The cloud and telecom supplier claims that an average of 815 technology tenders per month were posted in the nine months to June this year, but in the five months following the vote, there have been only 651 on average - down 20 per cent.

HSo claims the evidence "suggests that the uncertainty caused by Brexit is the reason for the marked slowdown, stalling the good progress that had been made in the run-up to the referendum when many more competitive tenders were being issued".

Chris Evans, managing director of hSo, said that despite this, he believes the UK has showed resiliency since the vote.

"We were particularly encouraged by the chancellor's Autumn Statement with the focus on investment in infrastructure and improving productivity," he said.

"However, in respect to public sector government tenders issued, there has been a slowdown since the EU referendum. It's understandable, given that we have recently had the appointment of a new prime minister that the new administration is accustoming itself and looking to make its mark. However, this shouldn't prevent them maintaining the momentum that was evident earlier in the year ahead of the Brexit vote.

"We saw important infrastructure projects such as Hinkley Point temporarily put on hold straight after the referendum, but we remain optimistic that the news flow around these large-scale national infrastructure projects will not impact the government's tendering process into the new year. However, with the recent political uncertainty presented by Trump's victory in the US, there are potentially more reasons for inertia to set in at a time when the UK economy needs as much help and stimulus as possible.

"Before the Brexit vote there was clearly a big push by private and public sector SMEs to reign in their IT and network infrastructure spend, but since then as economic activity has slowed there's now even greater reason for businesses to look at more cost-efficient network, telephony and hosting solutions."