Spatial disparities in SMEs productivity in England

Improving productivity is critical to increasing economic growth and prosperity in the long-run and a key objective for UK national, regional and local policy. However, a long tail of low productivity businesses and significant spatial variations in productivity characterise the UK economy. This report presents an analysis of the determinants of Small and Medium Sized Enterprise (SME) labour productivity, with a particular focus on how place and productivity interact. The analysis draws on data from the UK Government’s Longitudinal Small Business Survey (LSBS) for the years 2015 to 2017. It employs a multilevel regression analysis to understand determinants in enterprise labour productivity in different localities and regions and effectively account for the contextual environment.