Bloomberg Businessweek

E C O N O M I C S

28

On any given weekday in the British seaside town

of Bournemouth, surfers can be found dragging in

their boards from the sandy beach to get smoothies

and beers. Retirees andoice workers take midday

strolls along a seaside path lined with busy seafood

restaurants and ice cream stalls.

A visitor to this city of193,000 on the southwest

coast of England would have trouble discerning

signs of a Brexit-induced slowdown. Bournemouth

is home to two universities, a 4,000-person

JPMorgan Chase & Co. back-oice operation, and

a larger-than-normal collection of white-collar

service businesses, including law irms, digital

startups, and health-care providers. Their com-

bined presence lends the place an economic

vibrancy that’s long been missing at other seaside

resorts in the U.K. Nevertheless, interviews with

local executives and government oicials indicate

that Britain’s decision to quit the European Union

is taking a toll. They speak of delayed investments,

labor shortages, and budget cuts that appear to

threaten the area’s prosperity.

Duncan McWilliam says he chose to start his

visual-efects studio in Bournemouth ive years ago,

because overhead costs are lower than in London

and the lifestyle is more relaxed. Now, though,

he plans to open an oice in Barcelona instead

of expanding in Britain. “We built the Barcelona

plan in to give investors conidence that no mat-

ter what the government do, we’ve got a plan B,”

says McWilliam, whose Outpost VFX has worked on

the Jason Bourne and Jurassic Park ilm franchises.

“That’s very labor-intensive, and highly specula-

tive, and a real pain in the butt.”

The U.K. is scheduled to quit the EU in March

2019, and it’s still not clear if Prime Minister Theresa

May will succeed in securing a deal with Brussels in

time to avoid the country being ejected from the

bloc with no new arrangements in place. Even if an

agreement is reached on what trade ties should look

like, the government’s approach has so far focused

on trade in goods and not on services.

It’s a glaring omission, considering the U.K.

is the second-biggest exporter of services in the

Edited by

Cristina Lindblad

On Brexit Beach

○ In the referendum’s aftermath,

Bournemouth’s allure as

a business hub is fading

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY

731; PHOTO: PAULA RISSANEN/ALAMY