Business confidence in Yorkshire and the Humber has dropped into negative territory as companies face a cost of doing business crisis, a new survey of chartered accountants has found.

ICAEW’s Business Confidence Monitor (BCM) for the third quarter of this year for Yorkshire and the Humber found that confidence had fallen for the fourth successive quarter and was now in negative territory.

Amid a cost of doing business crisis, companies faced challenges from a lack of customer demand, staffing difficulties and slower domestic sales growth than in other parts of the UK.

With firms facing a crisis from the cost of doing business, amid soaring energy prices and high inflation, ICAEW said households and companies would need support in the short-term to get through the next few months.

Of those businesses in the region surveyed, four in 10 said they faced a growing challenge from customer demand.

Just over half of the region’s businesses said they were struggling with staff turnover, while the availability of non-management skills was a growing challenge for two-fifths of businesses.

A quarter of businesses cited the availability of management skills as a growing challenge.

Domestic sales growth was slower than elsewhere in the UK, while export growth was behind the national average.