Who Will Build the UK's Long-Term Growth? Why Family Businesses Matter More Than Ever
Posted on Tuesday 11 August 2026
Drawing on insights from Professor Kiran Trehan, Sir Michael Bibby and Tariq Shah OBE, we explore what family businesses can teach us about sustainable growth, patient investment and long-term value creation, and why their role in shaping the UK's future prosperity has never been more important. These themes will be explored in greater depth at the Family Business Growth Conference on 15 September at the Guildhall, York.
The UK's search for sustainable long-term growth has become increasingly urgent. Productivity remains stubbornly low, regional inequalities persist and businesses are under growing pressure to invest, innovate and compete in an uncertain environment.
Yet family businesses already hold many of the answers.
While many organisations are shaped by quarterly reporting cycles and short-term pressures, family businesses often take a different view. Their decisions are influenced not only by immediate returns, but by the future they hope to leave behind for the next generation.
Professor Kiran Trehan, Pro Vice-Chancellor at the University of York and one of the UK's leading voices on family business growth, argues that the qualities which have traditionally underpinned successful family firms, long-term thinking, stewardship, adaptability and deep local roots, are becoming increasingly important in a rapidly changing economy.
As she observes, the challenge facing family businesses today is not simply how to preserve their legacy, but how to continue delivering growth, innovation and opportunity in a world being reshaped by technological disruption, changing workforce expectations and new economic realities.
The most successful family businesses, she argues, are those able to balance continuity with reinvention, preserving the values that underpin their success while constantly adapting to changing economic conditions.
Thinking Beyond the Next Quarter
For Tariq Shah OBE, CEO of Vigo Group, the key advantage of family ownership is the freedom to think differently about time.
“It means that we can look at projects over a decade. You do not have to maximise for today.”
Shah points to regeneration projects that have taken more than twenty years to deliver, transforming underused assets into thriving places that support jobs, businesses and communities.
That ability to invest patiently and take a longer view allows family businesses to pursue opportunities that may be difficult to justify within shorter investment cycles. At a time when many organisations are under pressure to prioritise immediate returns, that long-term perspective is becoming an increasingly important competitive advantage.
Investing Beyond the Horizon
Sir Michael Bibby, Chairman of Bibby Line Group and the Family Business Research Foundation, offers a powerful example of what long-term investment looks like in practice.
Bibby Line Group has invested in a pioneering hybrid electric service vessel supporting the offshore wind sector.
The investment reflects a willingness to back future technologies and new commercial models long before returns are guaranteed.
“We're not driven only by financial goals. We're also driven by reputation and positive societal impact.”
For Bibby, commercial success, stewardship and innovation are closely linked.
The willingness to invest in emerging industries and future capability development has long been a hallmark of successful family businesses. Their ability to look beyond the next quarter allows them to support innovations that may take years to mature but have the potential to create significant long-term economic value.
Meaningful Growth, Not Just Bigger Growth
One of the defining characteristics of successful family businesses is that growth is often measured through a broader lens than financial performance alone.
Trehan's research suggests that a new generation of family business leaders is bringing different expectations into the workplace.
“The next generation is looking for something different. They want purpose alongside profit. They care about sustainability, innovation, flexibility and meaningful impact.”
For Trehan, this does not represent a shift away from commercial success. Instead, it reflects a growing belief that purpose, innovation and long-term value creation are increasingly linked.
Research supports this view. EY's research into the next generation of family business leaders found growing interest in sustainability, innovation and long-term value creation, while PwC's Global NextGen Survey found that future family business leaders view transformation and innovation as central to long-term success.
Both Shah and Bibby provide practical examples of what this looks like.
For Bibby Line Group, the electric vessel investment is not simply a commercial opportunity. It also supports the transition to cleaner energy and future industrial capability.
For Shah, growth comes from solving meaningful problems.
“We look for big problems and we take on the risk - if we are able to solve those in a way that's effective, then there will be commercial as well as societal value in doing so.”
The result is growth that creates value in multiple ways. Commercially, these businesses generate jobs, attract investment and develop new markets, while creating lasting value for the communities in which they operate.
“You can literally drive down the streets and places and see the impact we've had over the last sixty years.”
Growth, Productivity and the Long-Term Advantage
Businesses sitting at the heart of the UK's economy are already powerful drivers of growth. NatWest's research into the UK mid-market found that although these businesses represent just 0.5% of UK companies, they generate more than a quarter of national turnover and contribute around 30% of UK Gross Value Added. NatWest describes these firms as a "powerhouse of the UK economy", highlighting both their higher productivity levels and their contribution to regional growth.
Many family businesses sit within this critical middle of the economy. Their disproportionate contribution to growth highlights an important point: a relatively small number of businesses are creating a significant share of the UK's economic value through long-term investment, innovation and a commitment to place.
The wider family business sector makes an equally significant contribution. Research from the Family Business Research Foundation found that family-owned firms generated £985 billion in Gross Value Added in 2023, equivalent to 59% of UK private sector GVA, while supporting 15.8 million jobs and contributing £422 billion in taxation. These figures underline the extent to which family businesses are not simply participants in the UK's growth story, but among its principal drivers.
As Shah explains:
“What we set out to do as a business is try and set a narrative for how tomorrow is better than today. Then we break that into meaningful chunks and go out and deliver it.”
For Shah, growth starts with confidence.
Businesses invest when they believe the future will be better than the present. Communities grow when people believe improvement is possible. Long-term growth therefore depends not only on capital and capability, but on creating a credible vision of the future and then delivering against it.
Family Businesses and the UK's Growth Agenda
This long-term, place-rooted approach is increasingly echoed in wider debates about the future of the UK economy.
Professor Trehan points to the growing emphasis on place-based growth, patient capital and local decision-making as evidence that policymakers are increasingly recognising the value of qualities many family businesses have practised for generations.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham's call for “good growth in every postcode” reflects many of the principles that underpin successful family businesses: long-term investment, local leadership, community commitment and decisions taken close to the people they affect.
The phrase captures an important shift in the national conversation. Growth is no longer judged solely by headline economic metrics, but by whether prosperity, opportunity and investment are reaching communities across the country.
The growing focus on creating opportunity beyond traditional economic centres mirrors the way many family businesses have operated for decades. Rather than viewing growth purely through a national lens, family businesses often build prosperity through investment in local capability, local supply chains and local communities.
Sir Michael Bibby believes family businesses need to become much better at communicating their contribution to society.
"We need to build resilience around the argument that family businesses are a good thing for society."
Too often, he argues, public debate focuses on ownership structures or taxation rather than the jobs, skills, innovation, regional investment and community leadership that family businesses create over generations.
There is also a need for a stronger evidence base. More research is needed to better understand and quantify the contribution family businesses make to economic growth, productivity, innovation, place-making and social value. Strengthening that evidence base would help ensure that policy development is informed by a fuller picture of the role family businesses play in creating prosperous, resilient communities and a sustainable economy.
The challenge now is not only to continue creating that impact, but to evidence and communicate it more effectively.
The question for business leaders, policymakers and future generations is no longer whether family businesses matter to the UK's economy. It is how their approach to investment, innovation and growth can be better recognised, supported and replicated more widely.
These are precisely the questions that will be explored at the Family Business Growth Conference on 15 September at the Guildhall in York, where business leaders, owners, researchers and advisers will come together to discuss how family businesses can drive growth, productivity and prosperity for the generations ahead.