UK companies are leading the growth of outsourcing across Europe, contributing 36 per cent of the 84 deals signed during the second quarter of 2007.

Major contracts across the period were valued at a total of €5.4bn (£3.8bn), an increase of €1bn (£698m) over the 65 projects from the same quarter last year, according to analyst Forrester Research.

There was also a significant increase in the number of contracts that included service bundles. Last year only 52 per cent of deals included more than one service, but that figure has now risen to 63 per cent.

Infrastructure services continue to play a key role in outsourcing agreements, featuring in 45 per cent of the deals recorded by Forrester.

The analyst surveyed IT outsourcing agreements worth over €10m (£7m) across the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, from 25 IT service providers active in the second quarter.