A new report has revealed the number of UK businesses who have foreign owners.

According to the Office for National Statistics around one in four of our large companies (those with more than 250 employees) have overseas owners.

US companies own more UK based businesses than any other country, the Telegraph newspaper reports, followed by Germany, France and the Netherlands.

In all some 24,145 UK businesses are owned by companies located abroad, the Telegraph says.

This amounts to just 1.1 per cent of all businesses registered in the UK.

The biggest number of foreign owned companies are in the mining and quarrying sector.