Businesses in UK enjoy strong end to 2014, poll shows

London

BRITISH businesses enjoyed a strong end to 2014, marked by rising demand at home and abroad and a record number of companies hiring staff, a major business survey showed on Thursday. The British Chambers of Commerce's (BCC) quarterly economic survey - the largest of its kind in Britain - also showed manufacturing and services companies were in fairly confident mood about their prospects for 2015.

Four months before a national election, the BCC report will make welcome reading for Britain's governing Conservatives, following a string of surveys and data that suggested Britain's economic recovery slowed towards the end of last year. The net balance of manufacturers and service sector firms that expanded their workforce in the last quarter rose to the highest level since records began in 1989, the BCC said. But it said "political point-scoring" could yet derail the strong business confidence, adding that Bank of England (BOE) interest rates should remain at their record low of 0.5 per cent.