Revenues hit £2.010bn, up from £1.868bn in the previous year. Distributable profits increased by 6% from £412m to £437m. The growth over the last 12 months sees EY move into number three position in the Big Four ranking in the UK, although KPMG does not release its results until December.

However, with 95 new equity partners joining this year, and 68 partners admitted last year, the average distributable profit per partner for this year was £700,000, down 3.7% from £727,000 in 2014.

EY reported growth across all of its four service lines. Assurance grew by 6.4% to £585m, with new audit wins including The Co-operative Bank, BBC, London Stock Exchange, Sainsbury’s and Sage, along with RBS, Royal Dutch Shell, RELX Group and Associated British Foods.

The firm says there was also a strong demand for broader assurance services, including financial accounting and forensic services, which both grew by over 20%, along with interest in new data analytic solutions and additional assurance on areas such as the measurement of corporate integrity.

EY’s advisory business grew by 4.5% to £584m, while transaction advisory services (TAS) was up by 12.1% to £324m, and tax grew by 10% to £517m.

Steve Varley, EY’s UK chairman, said: ‘We had several fantastic audit wins in FY15, which not only reflect our continued investment in improving quality but also the significant investment we have made into digital analytics and real-time assurance. We continue to invest in the same areas as last year - fraud investigation technology, corporate integrity and cyber security.’

EY recruited over 4,500 people, including 1,275 graduates, 609 undergraduates and 110 school leavers during the course of the year which also saw the firm refurbish the majority of its 21 offices and open a new office in Canary Wharf.

Globally, EY reported annual revenues of $28.7bn (£18.97bn) for FY15, an 11.6% increase over the previous financial year in local currency and its fastest growth globally since 2008. Headcount increased to an all-time high of 212,000 people.

Despite some concerns about UK economic growth expressed by economic commentators, Varley is confident about business prospects for EY.

He said: ‘I am feeling very positive about the health of the UK economy. Improved market conditions have provided us with a great platform to further accelerate our investment in the business. We are seeing an increased demand from our clients for our services to help them drive growth and trade in both the UK and internationally.’

‘Our global strength continues to give us significant competitive advantage when combined with our deep local connections across the 21 offices in the UK.

‘I am very proud of the jobs that we have created this year, especially as we continue to provide more opportunities for school leavers as well as experienced hires and new graduates. We have recruited over 4,500 people in the UK to fuel our growth and we plan to continue this level of investment as part of our ongoing global growth strategy.

Sign up to our newsletter

If you would like to receive regular news alerts about breaking news and developments in tax, accounting and audit, sign up to receive our free newsletter here