Brand Britain at number four in the world

The latest league table of ‘nation brands’ sees Britain push Japan into fifth place, while the United States retains the top spot and China and Germany follow.

The report, which has been running since 2010, showed that Brand Britain’s value climbed eight per cent on the previous year.

Countries are ranked by their ‘nation brand value’ in the report by Brand Finance in conjunction with accountancy firm Garbutt & Elliott, which has offices in York and Leeds.

Brand Finance’s Nation Brands report was based on analysis usually applied to companies.

David Dickson , senior partner at Garbutt & Elliott, told the Yorkshire Post: “I think there’s increasing realisation that Made in Britain, Designed in Britain, Educated in Britain has a value and certainly in engineering, education areas, technology and looking at creativity, if something is British people say, ‘that’s good’.”

Mr Dickson added: “It’s that’s sort of realisation that Britain is now a strong knowledge-based economy and that knowledge part, that value part.... enables the producers and suppliers to make more money through that, they can charge a higher price. It’s a perceived value.”

He said: “David Cameron has just returned from championing UK businesses in China. In a country so concerned with ‘face’ and reputation, one of the Prime Minister’s key assets is the strength of Brand Britain.”

But Brand Finance chief executive David Haigh suggested that Brand Britain is at risk of being dealt a blow if Scotland becomes independent.

“Scottish independence, however noble the motives of its supporters, represents a significant threat to both Scotland and England.”

He added: “The combined nation brand values for an independent Scotland and England are likely to be substantially lower than that of a united UK, in the medium term at the very least.

“Brand Finance estimates that strong nation branding can add between one per cent and five per cent to GNP.

“In the current economic environment no sensible government can afford to ignore branding as an instrument of economic policy.”