EY reports record UK revenues of £3.8bn, following third year of market leading growth

• UK revenues grew 16% with strong growth across service lines and sectors
• Second year of double-digit revenue growth and third year of market leading growth in the UK
• Distributable profits before tax were £659m, reflecting increased investment in the business
• Recruited 5,326 people in the UK and appointed 267 new Partners, increasing the size of the UK partnership by over 10%
• Welcomed over 1,800 students, with 40% based outside of London
• Invested more than £116m in technology consulting over the last three years through acquisitions and Partner hires

EY has achieved a second year of double-digit revenue growth, with UK revenues up 16% and fee income increasing to a record £3.76bn from £3.23bn the previous year. This market leading performance has been underpinned by long term investments in people, audit quality and technology. Distributable profits before tax increased 4% to £659m.

EY achieved strong growth across all of its service lines in the UK. Tax revenues grew by 20%, Consulting 18%, Assurance 17% and Strategy and Transactions by 8%. EY has also seen strong demand across its industry sectors with stand-out performances from Energy (28% UK revenue growth), Government & Infrastructure (26%), Technology, Media & Telecoms (15%) and Financial Services (12%).

Hywel Ball, EY’s UK Chair, commented: “These impressive results mark a third year of market leading growth in the UK. We’ve achieved record UK revenues whilst also continuing to invest for the future.

“The long-term investments we’ve made in the business have underpinned our growth and position us well to continue this trajectory. This year alone, we’ve appointed a further 267 new Partners, adding over 10% to our total UK Partner population, whilst also making a $1.4bn investment globally in AI.

“Client demand has remained strong, particularly in areas such as technology consulting, tax and audit. Companies have been looking to our deep expertise as they transform their businesses in response to the economic and regulatory environment and development of rapidly emerging technologies.”

Investing in Talent

EY has continued to make significant investments in talent, providing a platform for strong and consistent growth in FY24 and beyond. Over the last financial year, EY recruited 5,326 people, with 39% of hires based outside of London. Since January 2023, EY has welcomed over 1,800 graduates, school leavers and interns with 40% based in regional locations. As part of a commitment to social equity and targeted actions to attract talent from low-income backgrounds, around 11% of EY’s student intake disclosed they were previously eligible for free school meals. In September, the firm also announced plans to create 1,000 new jobs in Northern Ireland over five years.

EY has further strengthened the UK business with 267 new Partners, marking a 10% increase in EY’s total Partner population in the UK to 1701, compared to 1534 Partners at the start of the last financial year. 42% (112) of the new appointments are Equity Partners and around a quarter (62) of all the new Partner appointments are based outside of London.

EY has also increased its employees’ salaries by £72m and awarded variable pay bonuses of £83m this year (totalling £155m) as it continues to focus on recruiting and retaining the best talent to support future growth.

Hywel Ball commented: “I’m incredibly proud of the investments we’ve made in recruiting and retaining exceptional talent over the last financial year. We’ve hired over 5,000 people, spanning most parts of the UK, with almost 40% based outside of London. We’re also creating 1000 new jobs in Northern Ireland over the next five years.

“We employ over 21,000 people in the UK and, as a significant people business, we’re continuing to adapt to new, post-pandemic ways of working. We’re three years into our hybrid working model and are continuing to test and refine our approach. It’s vital that we continue to provide the flexibility our people want and need, whilst also supporting an ongoing culture of learning and development.”

Accelerating growth in AI

EY has made significant investments in the firm’s technology capabilities, including the announcement of a new artificial intelligence (AI) platform – EY.ai – this September following a US$1.4bn global investment. The platform is designed to help clients transform their businesses through confident and responsible adoption of AI. EY is also upskilling its 400,000 people globally with AI learning and development alongside the roll out of EY.ai LLM, a Large Language Model.

In the UK, EY has invested an additional £116.1m in technology consulting over the last three years through both acquisitions and Partner hires. As an example, in FY23 EY acquired whyaye ltd, a UK-based consulting services provider for the ServiceNow platform. EY has made eight acquisitions in the UK since April 2021. 

Investing in Audit Quality

Delivering consistent high-quality audits that serve the public interest is a priority for EY and the firm continues to make significant investments. EY holds itself to the highest standards, while expecting the same of the companies it audits, and is encouraged by the progress it has made on audit quality since the Financial Reporting Council’s last review. EY’s UK audit quality strategy underwent a major redesign in 2020 and, globally, has committed to a $1bn investment in technology to support audit quality. In FY23, EY also recruited over 1,250 experienced auditors, graduates and apprentices into its UK audit teams.

EY currently audits 23 of the FTSE 100 and 77 of the FTSE 350, as well as a large number of private businesses and public sector bodies. In FY23, EY won or retained several large audit tenders including Land Securities, Coats Group, and ATG.

Hywel Ball comments: “The audit profession plays a vital role in the functioning of the capital markets and we take our public interest responsibilities extremely seriously. As a firm, we have continued to make significant investments to ensure we’re able to deliver the consistent high-quality audits that our stakeholders expect, but we are only one part of the UK’s audit and corporate governance ecosystem.

“Audit and corporate governance reform provides the opportunity to create long-term change and contribute to an environment within the UK that allows business to flourish. While the profession and our UK regulator have sought to implement our own changes, the lack of primary legislation in this area continues to be a concern. Without it, good companies will abide by the proposed regulations; bad companies won’t have to.”

Commitment to environmental sustainability

EY has been globally carbon negative since 2021 and continues to make progress towards achieving its pledge to become net zero in 2025. The EY UK Net Zero Strategy supports this ambition, with actions to reduce air travel emissions and energy consumption, procure only renewable energy, set targets for suppliers and reduce environmental impacts across all internal operations. In the last financial year, the strategy has received eight environmental award nominations.

EY reduced its UK energy consumption by 21% compared to 2019 (baseline year), with 100% being backed by renewable energy certification. The firm has launched a range of new tools and guides to help EY people make more sustainable travel choices, including the ability to compare the potential carbon impact of different forms of transport and encouraging the adoption of less carbon intensive choices. Total waste fell by 63% compared to 2019 with zero waste sent to landfill. EY has also engaged a social enterprise to help reuse over 20,000 redundant IT peripherals per year, avoiding over 3 tonnes of WEEE waste annually.

Contributing to our communities

Over the last financial year, EY Ripples – the firm’s corporate responsibility programme – has contributed to a range of projects that positively impacted around 3.3m lives, with EY people taking part in 4,789 volunteering opportunities. As well as community projects, the programme supports the next generation workforce by promoting social mobility.

The EY Foundation – EY’s independent charity – has a ten-year ambition to ensure that the two million young people eligible free school meals have an equal opportunity to succeed in the workplace. Working across the country, the Foundation brings young people from low-income backgrounds and employers together by delivering paid employability skills programmes. Over the last financial year, the EY Foundation delivered 60 programmes across the UK. It supported nearly 3,000 young people, worked with over 350 employers, and created over 3,000 volunteering opportunities. The Foundation celebrates its 10-year anniversary next year and has supported over 20,000 young people since the charity was created in 2014.

In FY23, EY also launched the EY STEM app to help inspire young women aged 13-18 to pursue a career in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) and improve the representation of women across these industries. The app offers more than 450 activities and learning modules from world-renowned institutions such as NASA, the Royal Society of Chemistry, Stanford, MIT, and UNDP.

Supporting UK entrepreneurship

EY is a longstanding supporter of entrepreneurship. The EY Entrepreneur Of The Year programme was founded 37 years ago to recognise entrepreneurial achievement among individuals and companies that demonstrate vision, leadership and success, and who work to improve the quality of life in their communities, countries and around the world. The 81 regional finalists in this year’s UK programme represent a combined revenue of £2.1bn and employ over 13,000 people in the UK across 16 industry sectors.

Financial metrics:

• UK revenues grew by 16% for the financial year ending 30 June 2023, while fee income increased to £3.76bn from £3.23bn the previous year.
• Distributable profits before for tax were £659m (£634m in FY22).
  
• EY achieved strong growth across all four of its service lines in the UK. Tax revenues grew by 20%, followed by Consulting at 18%, Assurance at 17% and Strategy and Transactions at 8%.
  
• Performance of EY’s largest sectors: Energy achieved 27.6% UK revenue growth, Government & Infrastructure 26.3%, Technology, Media & Telecoms 15% and Financial Services 12.3%.
  
• EY has re-invested profits into the business, rather than just in Partner distributions. Average distributable profit per Partner was £761,000 (£803,000 in FY22). 
  
• EY has also increased its employees’ salaries by £72m and awarded variable pay bonuses of £83m this year (totalling £155m).
  
• Over the last three years, EY in the UK has invested £116.1m in technology consulting through acquisitions and Partner hires.
  
• Total UK tax contribution of more than £1.27bn in FY23.
  

Non-Financial metrics:

• EY grew UK headcount to 21,136 people, up from 18,962 in FY22. 36% are based outside of London.

• Hired 5,326 people in FY23, with 39% of roles based outside of London. 

• Welcomed over 1,800 students with 40% based in regional offices. 

• Appointed 112 UK equity Partners, bringing EY's total number of UK Equity Partners to 930.

• As of 1 July 2023, 29% of UK Partners were women and 17% were from ethnic minorities, of which 8.5% identify as Black or Mixed-Black. 

• Delivered over 903,000 hours of formal learning for UK people – an increase of 30% from FY22.

• Achieved a 21% reduction in energy consumption across EY’s UK offices, compared to 2019.

• Positively impacted over 3.3m lives through the EY Ripples corporate responsibility programme, with EY people taking part in 4,789 volunteering opportunities.
• The EY Foundation, EY’s independent charity, supported a further 3,000 young people through its programmes.