As Kemi Badenoch, leader of the Conservative party said in a LinkedIn post in November 2025, "Every time I speak with business owners, from small manufacturers to family-run cafés, the message is the same: costs are rising, confidence is falling, and this government feels like an obstacle, not an ally."

The BFA holds no political affiliations, but it's difficult to disagree with the sentiment.

So why is franchising continuing to thrive?

BFA members ‘confident' for 2026

Our members are facing the same economic pressures as businesses across the UK, rising costs, the Employment Rights Bill and increased National Insurance contributions. Yet the sector continues to grow. Franchisors and franchisees are thriving and, according to a recent mini-survey of our members, 77% are either ‘Very' or ‘Fairly' confident about their business plans for 2026 albeit with a healthy dose of realism.

Background

In November 2024 we launched the results of The British Franchise Survey sponsored by NIC Local, which revealed that the UK franchise sector brings £19.1 bn into the UK economy and has a 20 year failure rate of under 6%; so, we were starting from a strong position.

Personal Services

Another notable statistic that came out of the survey was the 53% growth in ‘Personal Services' franchises from 2018 to 2024, eclipsing the growth of any other sector in franchising.  Personal Services franchises are those that deliver services directly to individuals such as children's swimming lessons, dog walking and other care-led or lifestyle services.

Repeat business model

In the main, we put the success of franchising down to two things, being based on repeating a successful business model and franchisees receiving bespoke training and support from an experienced franchisor.

Exceptional success

www.thebfa.org [1].