BUSINESS owners in Yorkshire are working almost ten hours longer each week than their equivalents in the South East, according to a report published by Barclays today.

The Barclays report, Clocking On: How Businesses Use Their Time, shows that owners of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Yorkshire work an average of 66.3 hours per week, compared to 56 hours in the South East. The average full-time worker in the UK works 37.5 hours per week.

The long hours ethos in the county was revealed after more than 500 telephone interviews by Continental Research with owner/managers of businesses in England and Wales with turnovers of between £50,000 and £5 million.

On average, entrepreneurs are spending 16 hours a week - the equivalent of two full days for most workers - on administration, including IT management, payroll, invoicing and accounts, four hours on Health & Safety, legal and regulatory requirements and just under eight hours a week on business development including marketing and new product development. Their ideal week would see them spending two hours less on admin and two hours less on their core business activity with the time dedicated instead to developing new business ideas and finding new customers.

Among other findings were that:

40 per cent of business owners who use the Internet for business do not work at the weekend, compared to just 23 per cent of those with no Internet access

Internet use appears to reduce hours worked. Those with access work an average of 61.7 hours per week while those without average 65.6 hours.

Entrepreneurs cite desire to retain control (57 per cent) and the lack of anyone else abvle to undertake the task (63 per cent) as the main barriers to reducing the hours they work.

Updated: 09:19 Tuesday, October 07, 2003