A recent study by a global financial analyst has found that the UK is the third most competitive country in the world for its IT sector.

It was reported by Computing that the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) stated that Britain, ranking just behind the US and Taiwan, scored highly on areas such as the protection of private property, its receptiveness of foreign trade and the country's commitment to market deregulation.

Director of global technology research at EIU Denis McCauley said that business leaders and policymakers needed to take into account all factors that enabled a competitive industry.

He added: "Few countries can hope to build strong IT production sectors without strong business and legal environments, deep pools of talent, support for innovation and the widespread use of technology throughout society."

The EIU was founded in 1946 when a director of intelligence was appointed to work for the Economist, now serving a number of clients to help them make business decisions.

A recent Connect survey found that the two major concerns about outsourcing services like IT support were 'loss of control' (56 per cent) and 'budget over-runs' (43 per cent)