Consumers in the UK are strongly opposed to offshore outsourcing in both manufacturing and services, according to new research backed by the National Outsourcing Association.

Offshore call centres were particularly unpopular among respondents, with nearly 80% saying they were unhappy that call centres were outsourced to foreign countries.

But offshoring is still unpopular even when the consumer does not need to interact with an individual abroad. Only 15% of respondents said that they would be happy for electronic goods to be manufactured offshore, even if it meant a reduction in price.

Women were especially opposed to offshore outsourcing, with 64% of female respondents saying that they would prefer to pay more for goods and services than have them delivered from offshore, compared to 55% of men.

Young people were the most amenable to the idea of offshore outsourcing, with 52% of respondents aged between 18 and 24 happy to use offshore services if they are cheaper.

Chairman of the NOA Martyn Hart believes that negative sentiment towards call-centre outsourcing has spread to more legitimate areas of offshoring.

“Many large companies will outsource a variety of processes to several offshore locations and consumers seem to tar all of these with one negative brush,” he said.

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