Ipsos Research Highlights - July 2016
As the dust settles on the EU referendum, and a UK political earthquake, there is rising uncertainty and anxiety about the future. Consumer confidence has fallen to its lowest point since 2012 in our July Economic Optimism Index, and retail footfall is also down. Concern about Europe has shot up following the referendumrising by 10 percentage points. Ironically it has taken voting to leave the EU to raise it as an issue for the public.
Despite the shock of Britain’s elite at the narrow Leave victory (and our own surprise that our prediction of a 26% probability of Brexit happened), Britain remains divided. There is no sense of “buyers’ remorse”: 89% of both Leave and Remain voters say they would not vote in differently. Leave voters put controlling immigration above access to the single market. This highlights the challenges facing the new Prime Minister, who starts – as most new PMs do – with the majority of the public giving her the benefit of the doubt.
She is helped politically by a Labour party in chaos: 64% think it should change its leader – including most Labour voters.
We are now tracking pan European attitudes to the Brexit aftermath, and I’ll report on this next month.
Apart from Brexit we look at the impact of rising wages on employers – with firms cutting profits in response to the new Living Wage, and in the world of branded communications, how to get capture attention in the few seconds you have in online advertising.
We look at how doctors are rated by over a million patients – satisfaction remains high, but concerns over access are growing. Finally, with the launch of the Intergenerational Fairness Commission, we look at how young people’s housing hopes have been dashed. While they voted against Brexit, it may make housing cheaper – if asset prices fall. We’ll keep tracking all this.
For more please get in touch!
Ben Page Chief Executive Ipsos
