The State of the Nation: The UK Family Business Sector 2020-21

This report presents detailed evidence on the UK family business sector and estimates the contribution it made to the UK economy in 2019. It investigates the family business sector’s characteristics and identifies the challenges faced by family SMEs in the year prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the UK government’s policy response. This report also includes statistical analysis of data from the UK's Longitudinal Small Business Survey to investigate whether family ownership of a firm affects its adoption and use of technology. No evidence was found to show that family SMEs were less likely than non-family SMEs to use technology in 2019, once other factors such as firm size had been taken into account. There was some evidence that larger firms, firms that exported, and firms in office-based sectors were more likely to use technology irrespective of their ownership status.