IoD press release Business confidence moves to its highest level since before the Budget

Business leader confidence in their own organisations also improved from +5 in March to +13 in April.

Most of the underlying indicators also saw a modest improvement in April:

• Headcount expectations recovered for the second month running from -4 to +3, the first positive reading since September 2024 (+6), although still significantly down on the year (+20 in April 2024).
• Investment intentions rose for a second consecutive month from -8 to -5, but likewise remained sharply down on the year (+21 in April 2024).
• Cost expectations declined for the second month in a row from +87 to +83, but remained up on the year (+76 in April 2024).
• Export expectations rose from +5 to +8 (+14 in April 2024).
• Wage expectations fell from +49 to +43 (+57 in April 2024).
• Revenue expectations fell from +15 to +14 (+40 in April 2024).

Anna Leach, Chief Economist at the Institute of Directors, said:

“The overall mood amongst business leaders improved in April as the worst of the tariffs from the States were paused for 90 days. The IoD’s headline confidence measure moved to its highest level since before the Budget, while investment, headcount and cost expectations all improved for a second month running. The most prominent areas of concern were uncertainty arising from US tariff policy, which is both slowing-down and scaling-down contracts, alongside the sharp rise in costs following last year’s Budget.

“There’s a strong sense of frustration amongst business leaders that the government has been quick to raise their costs, but slow to deliver policies which will support them to grow their businesses. The government is right to focus on public sector efficiency, but this needs to improve the pace of growth-friendly policy delivery as well as deliver value for money. Businesses would welcome quicker progress on the de-regulatory drive as well as actions to address other barriers to growth – including energy and employment costs – which would free up resource to invest and grow.”

The IoD Directors’ Economic Confidence Index measures the net % positive answers from members of the Institute of Directors to the question ‘How optimistic are you about the wider UK economy over the next 12 months?’ on a five-point scale from ‘very optimistic’ to ‘very pessimistic’.

Full Results

648 responses from across the UK, conducted between 11-29 April 2025. 15% ran large businesses (250+ people), 18% medium (50-249), 21% small (10-49 people), 33% micro (2-9 people) and 14% sole trader and self-employed business entities (0-1 people).

How optimistic are you about both the wider UK economy and also your organisation over the next 12 months?

Comparing the next 12 months with the last 12 months, what do you believe the outlook for your organisation will be in terms of: