THE BUSINESS SERVICES ASSOCIATION

The BSA is a policy and research organisation. We bring together all those who are interested in delivering efficient, flexible and cost-effective service and infrastructure projects across the private and public sectors.

We provide a forum for service providers to come together to discuss issues of common interest. Our purpose is to understand how services across the private and public sectors can be improved, and to develop policy positions to support that work.

OUR INDUSTRY

The business services sector is one of the UK’s success stories. It has a turnover of £263 billion, over 8% of total economy wide output, and this is steadily growing.

The sector invests in providing high-quality administrative services, facilities management, infrastructure and IT so other businesses can do what they do best, whether that is manufacturing, retail or internet-based businesses. Helping companies to work smarter means they are more productive and innovative.

An increase in outsourcing of 1 per cent adds £2 billion in productivity gains to the UK economy each year, as businesses focus on delivering their core activities more efficiently. This also enables them to reinvest money back into the type of initiatives that can then drive growth.

Analysis of those sectors which use outsourced services also shows this resulting productivity growth is not coming at the expense of jobs. In addition, the most intensive users of outsourcing have also experienced more than double the average annual export growth. Click here for more information.

The sector is one of the most geographically diverse industries in the economy – employing at least one in ten workers in the south west, north east and north west.

70% of its customers are in the private sector and 30% are public sector. The UK public service economy is the biggest and most sophisticated in the world. Working in partnership with public sector clients, the business services sector brings new thinking and investment which both improve efficiency for service users and deliver savings for taxpayers.