LONDON: Confidence in Britain’s financial institutions remains in tatters, notably in Brexit-voting areas in the North and East of the country, an indication of the falling consumer confidence in the country’s institutions generally, a new study finds.

According to media agency the 7Stars, which surveyed 1,000 Britons through their proprietary QT consumer tracking study, confidence in the UK’s institutions, governmental, political, and financial, has dropped significantly following June's general election.  

Well over two thirds of respondents from Brexit-voting areas, the North West (69%), North East (67%), and (69%), reported little to no confidence in financial institutions, in a sign of the continued effects of the 2007-8 financial crisis.

“Ten years on from the economic crash, confidence in the financial services sector remains low, and with little sign of improvement,” said Frances Revel, Associate Director, Insight, at 7Stars.

From finance to politics, Revel continued, it is part of a broader trend. The British public is less confident in its political system, which, from an already low base, declined from 26% to 15%.

The agency suggested that both the public’s ‘election fatigue’ over the last three years, and the result of a referendum that has seen the country barrel toward isolation, are to blame.

Young adults are feeling more uncertain than their elders. Respondents from this demographic who worried about the UK’s exit from the European Union stood at 48% in February. Following the triggering of Article 50, the clause that gives the country two years to negotiate its exit from the bloc, 55% of young respondents now worry about Brexit: an increase of 7%. And yet, bizarrely, 60% of 18-34s report being happier than this time last year.

In contrast, the rate of respondents that remain excited about the prospect of Brexit has more than halved from 13% in May to just 6% in August, a hint of the growing sense of ‘regrexit’.

The survey, Revel said, “reflects the upheaval of a difficult last quarter as the hopeful air with which Brits anticipated the General Election has dissolved, confidence in the government has plummeted, and the realities of Brexit start to emerge.”

It is a complicated time for advertisers, she concluded, warning against a “simplistic or overly rigid view of consumer confidence, attitudes and beliefs” in the current climate.

Data sourced from 7stars