Page 110 - Minutes of meeting

The Resilience Challenge

Dependence on Large Employers

Around 1,925 businesses are located in Barrow and the business base has declined by 4.2% (-85) since 2015.

A large proportion (90%) of Barrow’s businesses are micro in size, employing less than 10 people, which is in line with
comparator geographies. At 9.1%, there is a stronger presence of small businesses in Barrow relative to both Cumbria and

England.
Size of Businesses, 2019
At the other end of the spectrum, there are 5 (0.3%)
businesses employing more than 250 people. The
proportion of large businesses exceeds that of Business Size Barrow Cumbria England
Cumbria (0.2%), but it is below the national average

(0.4%). No. % % %

Importantly, employment is strongly reliant on a Micro (0-9) 1,725 89.6% 89.5% 89.6%

very small number of large businesses. BAE
Systems and Furness General Hospital – the two
largest employers – cumulatively employ directly Small (10-49) 175 9.1% 8.9% 8.5%
around 10,500 people in Barrow (35% of total
employment). In the case of BAE, it is estimated Medium (50-249) 25 1.3% 1.4% 1.5%
that there are a further 3,000 direct contractors
employed in Barrow in addition*. Large (250+) 5 0.3% 0.2% 0.4%

These businesses are strongly affected by a range
of government policy decisions including those
related to defence and health and social care

expenditure.
Source: UKBC, ONS, 2019 based on total enterprises; *Cumbria LIS Evidence Base