Oxford Economics, a private, for profit, market research firm performed the research.

Profit oriented research firms have an interest in generating headlines which drive institutions to pay for their complete analysis.

Was their research undertaken under their own initiative or was the research commissioned? If commissioned, by whom? and what influence did the commissioning party have over the scope of the research, and the decision to release the brief?

We need independent academia to mitigate the biases of for profit research.

Just my two cents ($0.015 USD).