Two-thirds of people believe more investment is needed in skills and education for the UK to maintain competitive, according to a new poll.

Sixty-five per cent of those surveyed cited skills as essential to competitiveness, followed by more encouragement for small business start-ups and entrepreneurialism (57% of respondents).

The survey also found that most people see offshoring to be an increasing threat, with 82% believing enough jobs have moved abroad already.

Published to coincide with the 2006 CBI annual conference, the Deloitte/YouGov survey of attitudes to global economic competition found that one in three respondents felt that companies should be forced to bring jobs back to the UK. Just 4% supported further offshoring.

David Owen, consulting partner at Deloitte, comments: “Growing awareness of the increased mobility of both resource and labour is causing anxiety with 17% of respondents believing that offshoring presents a threat to their own jobs while a further 25% think the increasing number of workers migrating to the UK is their biggest threat.”

When asked which countries posed the biggest challenges to the UK economy over the next five years, the emerging economies of China (76%) and India (48%) came out top, followed by the US (34%) and Japan (32%).