Senior Midlands business leaders back Family Business UK Manifesto

Business from across the Midlands are supporting the launch of the first-ever Manifesto by Family Business UK.

Taking The Long-Term View, which lists “policies to unleash the potential of UK family business sector”, has received support from business leaders including those from Rigby Group, Samworth Brothers, Wates Group and ARCO.

A number of family businesses based in the Midlands are members of Family Business UK, including the Rigby Group, Everards Brewery Samworth Brothers, the Bennie Group, Weatherby’s Park and AF Blakemore & Son.

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The Manifesto launch comes after a survey of FBUK members showed a majority of family businesses surveyed think the Government is not doing enough to help support businesses with long-term investment planning.

The survey, conducted with the Family Business UK membership - made up of some of the largest family businesses, including household names and global companies - found that a significant majority of members felt that the Government has been too focused on addressing short-term issues and wasn’t doing enough to provide stability for family businesses by delivering a long-term strategy.

Overall, a majority of family businesses were looking to increase their investments over the next five years.

Over half said initiatives such as the Full Expensing regime had provided some investment support and urged the Government to make the scheme permanent in the upcoming Autumn Statement.

The survey also found that family firms said not having access to the right skills was one of the major barriers they currently face.

These insights have helped inform the new recommendations of the first-ever Manifesto by Family Business UK. Published today, the document sets out a list of key policy recommendations that can provide “enormous potential of the family business sector to support economic growth, family businesses, their workforce, and society at large”.

Chief Executive of Family Business UK, Neil Davy, said: “In the UK, we are sitting on an enormous resource of entrepreneurialism in the form of our family business sector. Family businesses make up 90 per cent of the UK’s total private sector firms, employing 14 million people and contributing over £200 billion through tax receipts each year alone.

“This manifesto represents our offer to policymakers, informed by the UK’s family business community and their everyday experience of doing business in helping to solve the big challenges of today and tomorrow.

“If implemented, they will unleash the enormous potential of the family business sector to support economic growth through responsible business practices that benefit the family business, their workforce, and society at large.”

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Sir James Wates CBE, Chair of Family Business UK said: “Family businesses are the backbone of the UK’s entrepreneurial landscape, weaving together tradition and innovation. Their unwavering commitment to quality, sustainability, and community sets them apart.

"I wholeheartedly endorse the manifesto for family businesses in the UK, recognizing their vital role in driving economic growth and nurturing the local fabric of our society.”

Steve Rigby, Co-Chief Executive for the Rigby Group (pictured) said: "FBUK represents the beating heart of the family business community in the UK, as a board member of FBUK and owner of a top 10 wholly owned UK family business, I am delighted to whole heartedly support the manifesto in its support for UK private enterprise and in aiming to drive our UK economy."