Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the role of medium-sized family businesses in supporting growth as part of the recovery from the covid-19 pandemic.
Family run businesses make a key economic contribution to the UK economy. 77% of SME employers1 were defined as family-owned businesses in 2020 (a 3 percentage point increase on 20192) and they have been estimated to contribute 29 percent of UK GDP3. Over half of medium-sized businesses4 are family-owned (58%)5. Like other businesses they have been able to benefit from the unprecedented package of support that government continues to offer and we expect them to continue to play a key role in the recovery.
1 Businesses with 1-249 employees
2 Longitudinal Small Business Survey – SME employers, 2020 (BEIS)
3 Institute for Family Business Research Foundation, the UK Family Business Sector 2020-21
4 Businesses with 50-249 employees
5Longitudinal Small Business Survey – SME employers, 2020 (BEIS)