Richard Houston, Senior Partner and CEO, Deloitte UK

An important theme of our FY25 Yearbook is shared progress: the actions that we and other organisations are taking to make a difference – together.

The stories we’ve shared bring to life the work we’re most proud of this year. A year that saw complexity continue to dominate our markets. 

And while we expect this to continue going into 2026, what’s changing is how businesses are responding – using technology to build resilience and deliver growth.

For Deloitte, a major focus has been on our transformation, changing how we use technology to serve clients, adapt how we work and empower our people with the skills they need for the future.

Our firm’s multidisciplinary model helped us deliver a robust financial performance in FY25 and we had some notable wins and successes across all our businesses. Alongside this we have also had to review and make changes to the shape of our firm as we responded to the changing markets and evolving needs of our clients.

Our performance, combined with an ongoing focus on cost management, put us in a strong position and allowed us to continue to invest in our people, technology and client services.

While the world might feel more fragmented than in recent decades, for Deloitte, closer collaboration beyond the UK has become ever more critical. By working more closely across EMEA, we’ve been able to scale our investments in areas such as M&A and defence.

It also means we can bring the best of Deloitte to help solve some of the issues facing our clients – from changing regulatory landscapes to securing supply chains.

Like our clients, investing in technology has been a major aspect of how we’ve adapted to changing markets. 2025 saw the launch of four new tech delivery centres in Belfast, Cardiff, Manchester and Newcastle, where our skilled technologists design and build solutions to address the evolving needs of UK businesses. And of course, I should also mention our very own GenAI platform, PairD, which is now generating over one million prompts per month from Deloitte UK employees alone.

There has been much written about the impact of AI on professional services and the jobs in firms like ours. Our focus is on ensuring AI is an enabler of our work, adding value and improving what we do and how we do it. Jobs in our profession – and many others – will undoubtedly evolve as they have done over many decades. How we, and our clients, ensure the workforce is equipped for this change will be key to AI unlocking growth for the UK economy and being a force for positive change in our communities.

It’s not only businesses that need to adapt to changing markets – people need the skills that will help them thrive today and in the future. We established Deloitte University EMEA to give our people access to these skills, and over the past this year more than 4,600 UK colleagues got the chance to experience this bespoke learning facility. We also invested over £10m in our communities in FY25, working with nearly 100 charity partners to provide support on digital inclusion, sustainability and skills for the future. 

Looking ahead, we still face complex and rapidly changing markets. Economic and geopolitical volatility, climate risks and technological advancements are reshaping our clients’ markets and the challenges they need help with. In this context, that power of collaboration is more critical than ever. Working together – across private and public sectors – we can help businesses and communities build resilience and power sustainable growth and shared progress across the UK.