Brexit is the biggest single issue which will have the greatest impact on business in the next 12 months, say hundreds of family business owners.

With Prime Minister Theresa May having triggered Article 50, Brexit is revealed as the number one topic in the UK’s biggest survey of family businesses.

More than 400 family businesses from across 32 UK counties, who employ 8,000 people with a salary bill of more than £210m, took part in the survey, conducted by leading independent financial and business advisers Armstrong Watson.

Family businesses account for at least 70 per cent of all private sector businesses.

Thirty five per cent of respondents to the survey cited Brexit as the issue set to have the greatest impact on their business in 2017. Of those 69 per cent expect it to have a negative impact.

In Cumbria 33 per cent cited Brexit as the biggest issue and 75 per cent of those expect it to have a negative impact.

The next single biggest issue was the National Living Wage. Of the 10 per cent of Cumbrian businesses who highlighted it, all expect it to have a negative effect.

When it comes to future ownership, 36 per cent of Cumbrian family business owners plan to hand their business over to their children, but 15 per cent plan to sell to the highest bidder, 11 per cent to the bidder who will carry on their ethos and values, and nine per cent plan to cease trading altogether.

But they are not in any rush to make those changes, with 46 per cent set to carry on in the same ownership for more than ten years, with only 24 per cent set to change within the next five years.

When it comes to their personal finance only 36 per cent of Cumbrian family business owners are confident the funds they have earmarked for retirement will be sufficient to support their desired lifestyle.

Cumbrian businesses made-up 46 per cent of the total respondents to the survey with Agriculture, Property and Construction, Hospitality, Manufacturing, Motor and Haulage, and Retail, some of the key sectors represented.

Celebrating its 150th anniversary, financial and business advisory experts Armstrong Watson, the largest independent business of its kind across Cumbria, Yorkshire, and Scotland, says the information helps family businesses plan for the future.

Paul Dickson, managing partner of Armstrong Watson, said: “By understanding the current thinking within UK family businesses, we are able to ensure more businesses are protected, survival rates increase and, perhaps most importantly, they continue to prosper.”

We asked Mark Sugden, managing director of John W Laycock Ltd, whose portrait by Helen Perkins is progressing as part of the in-Cumbria Face Forward project in association with Armstrong Watson, for his reaction to the survey.

It’s really encouraging to know that so many family businesses are looking to the long term. The external environment is in a perpetual state of change. How we respond to the uncertainty of change is key.

That a healthy proportion of the 70 per cent of private sector businesses are family-owned and are looking to the long term has to be good news for forward economic stability.

As a family-owned SME we deal with the uncertainty of the everchanging world by carefully managing risk, by giving priority to protecting the livelihoods of our team and supporting our customers in a way that allows them to grow and develop their own businesses.

The support we get from Armstrong Watson through the BLUE programme is crucial to how we deal with the changing world. Through open discussion in a trusted environment the Armstrong Watson team really helps us to get a grip on the issues at hand and make considered decisions. As a result we can make changes, do things in a different way with confidence and also be satisfied that we are maintaining a core stability within our business.