UK is global hotspot for investors

MORE foreign companies will be joining the likes of Samsung in setting up British plants according to a survey, which found that the UK was the favourite location for inward investors.

The UK is being considered by 27 per cent of foreign investors, ahead of China with 21 per cent - the only non-European country to feature in the top five.

Corporate Location, the influential inward investment magazine, interviewed 150 international companies that are planning new overseas facilities in the next two years.

The magazine's editor, Philip Swinden, called the result astonishing. 'The UK has been the top destination for inward investment into Europe for a long time. Now it seems it is the world's favourite location.' Of the respondents who were considering coming to the UK, 45 per cent were in manufacturing, 16 per cent in services, and 8 per cent in chemicals. About 46 per cent of the companies were American, and 11 per cent from the Far East.

On Monday, South Korea's Samsung unveiled plans for a pounds 450m plant in Cleveland, and last month NEC of Japan said it would invest pounds 530m in Scotland.

(Graph omitted)