Financial analysis of the Liverpool City Region community business market

This study follows on from research conducted on community businesses in the Liverpool City Region in March 2019. The original work aimed to build a detailed evidence base to demonstrate the size and scope of the community business market in the region, and to provide insight into how growth and financial sustainability can be achieved.

That evidence base is one component of a wider data set covering the region’s social economy which has helped to inform and support policymaking by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. Recognising the importance and value of the social economy is one element of the region’s Building Back Better economic recovery plan, a direct response to the Covid-19 pandemic which aims to reshape the regional economy in a way that is greener, fairer and more inclusive.

In this research the author's update the region’s community business universe using the same selection criteria as the 2019 study. They then conduct a detailed analysis of the publicly available accounts data for the updated universe looking at resilience and failure rates and going on to examine common success factors and barriers to financial sustainability.