U.K. businesses have delayed or canceled investments worth 65.5 billion pounds (US$82 billion) since the vote to leave the European Union, with more than 40 percent of large firms scaling back, a survey showed yesterday.

    Executives have been reluctant to follow through on spending plans because of a plunge in the pound and a lack of clarity over the U.K.’s future relationship with the EU, according to the study published by the Centre for Economics and Business Research and Hitachi Capital U.K.

    “Everyone talks about uncertainty, but what does that mean?” Hitachi Capital U.K. chief executive officer Robert Gordon said. “Once you start putting a number to it, it becomes quite scary.”

    Overall, about one-third of U.K. companies delayed or abandoned spending plans in the wake of the vote. Small firms, which are less exposed than big companies to foreign exchange markets and rely less on foreign investment, were less likely to postpone or delay investment, according to the survey.

    But they collectively accounted for 81 percent of the total investment lost. The numbers were extrapolated from a survey of 1,015 businesses by polling company YouGov in the last week of October. Answers were collated and weighted with data from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

    Big companies, defined as those that employ more than 250 people, cited access to the EU’s single market, the falling pound and policy changes as their major concerns. About 42 percent of these firms have canceled or delayed spending, the study showed.

    Gordon urged the government to provide more clarity about its Brexit plans. “Confidence is very easy to lose, but its a bit harder to gain,” he said. (SD-Agencies)