Investor appetite undimmed by Brexit vote, according to infrastructure specialist

The boss of infrastructure investor John Laing has said overseas investor appetite for UK projects remains despite the Brexit vote.

Speaking on the BBC鈥檚 Today programme, John Laing chief executive Olivier Brousse said international players 鈥渟till see the UK as a great venue for investment鈥�.

Asked if appetite had dimmed after the EU referendum, he said: 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think so. Obviously Brexit has created more uncertainty. But if there are new projects and new decisions by the government, investment will follow.鈥�

However, Brousse urged Theresa May to commit to more infrastructure projects: 鈥淭here are obvious needs for infrastructure plans. The population is growing and there is urbanisation and climate change. Not enough projects are being announced by the government. I鈥檓 hoping they鈥檒l make decisions over the next few weeks.鈥�

His comments come after

In half-year results this morning, regional developer Henry Boot became the latest firm to play down the impact of the EU referendum, saying its trading expectations for 2016 remain unchanged.

Henry Boot said development deals were progressing as expected, .

However, the firm said housebuilders had paused land buying after 23 June to review their development plans, although 鈥渟ome two months on we have seen some land buying confidence return, with appetite for smaller scheme sizes鈥�.

In its results for the six months to June 2016, pre-tax profit rose almost 50% to 拢20.8m, up from 拢14m.

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