South East: 432,742 home business owners now operate in the South East, finds DL4B

According to new ONS analysis¹ from Direct Line for Business (DL4B), there are currently 432,742 home business owners now operating in the South East, representing 10% of the total workforce in the region. 

Across the UK there are now 2.5 million home business owners, representing 52%² of the total number of UK small businesses and 8% of the UK’s total workforce.

The analysis highlights an evolving UK workforce which has developed in a challenging and uncertain economic environment. Millions of people are choosing to take control of their future, achieving a better work-life balance and turning a potential hobby into a career by using an increasingly digital, mobile and flexible business landscape.

According to a recent Real Business report titled: The UK's top 25 businesses run from home³, a large majority of these home businesses operate across a range of sectors that include e-commerce, travel, marketing, recruitment and legal. Furthermore DL4B has identified an increase in home businesses operating in other key trades such as catering, photography, hairdressing and arts & crafts.

DL4B’s analysis showed that the South East and South West actually had the highest concentration of home business owners, both representing a tenth of total workforce in the regions.

The analysis also found that men are more than twice as likely as women to run their own business from home, with 1.7 million male home business owners across the country, compared to around 818,000 female home business owners.

Jazz Gakhal, head of Direct Line for Business, commented: “Self-employment has been on the rise for several years and our research now shows that a great number of these people work from home. Once individuals have taken the decision to set up a home business, it is crucial that they fully appreciate their responsibilities as business owners and ensure that adequate protection is in place should anything happen to threaten what they have worked so hard to achieve.”

UK regional breakdown of home business owners

Source: DL4B analysis of ONS Labour Force Survey (16th April 2013)

The UK’s Top 15 areas for home business owners

Source: DL4B analysis of ONS Labour Force Survey (April 16, 2013)

1 Analysis of ONS Labour Force Survey (16th April 2013)
2 Federation of Small Businesses
3 http://realbusiness.co.uk/article/18346-the-uks-top-25-businesses-run-from-home