This is why Leeds ranks among the most popular places in Britain to start a business

Leeds ranks among the most popular places in Britain to launch a business, according to a new study

Why businesses should look beyond disability Jobs set to be created after mill gains green lightThe survey by the Centre for Entrepreneurs found that the UK hit a record level of startups for a second year in a row last year.

Across the UK, 681,704 businesses were created in 2019, an increase of 2.8 per cent.

A total of 7,492 businesses were launched in Leeds last year, placing it fourth in the table of UK cities. Across Yorkshire, 38,269 business were launched in 2019, an increase of nearly 6 per cent on last year’s numbers.

Matt Smith, director of policy and research at the Centre for Entrepreneurs, said: “It is encouraging that despite a politically turbulent year in which business confidence hit new lows, business formations continued to set records.

“It suggests that entrepreneurial spirit is well and truly embedded across the UK with entrepreneurs continuing to turn their ideas into action.”

Sheffield finished 16th in the table with 3,716 startups in 2019. Doncaster is ranked 32nd (2,572 startups in 2019) and Wakefield comes in at 63rd (1,855 startups in 2019).

Rotherham is 65th on the list (1,843 startups in 2019), York comes in at 92nd(1,467 startups in 2019) and Hull is ranked at 125th (1,433 startups in 2019).

The survey also found that more than five new tech startups were launched every hour in 2019.

More than 45,000 tech startups were launched across the UK in 2019, representing 6.6 per cent of all new businesses, according to the Centre for Entrepreneurs’ sixth annual analysis of Companies House data.

Altogether, 17,401 of these were registered in London (8.2 per cent of total), while tech startups comprised 28 per cent of all new businesses launched in Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch.

Tech startups were also highly represented in Brighton and Hove (15 per cent), Winchester (12.8 per cent) and Cambridge (12.5 per cent).

Companies were launched in 700 different industries. They included firms focused on raising llamas and alpacas (10 new businesses), credit bureaus (23) and driving schools (429).

The statement added: “London continues to dominate; business formations increased by 2.4 per cent to 221,373.

“While Birmingham continues to outperform Manchester in absolute terms (14,509 vs 9,064), the latter is more entrepreneurial when considering population size. This is not the case in Scotland, where Glasgow retains an absolute and per capita lead against Edinburgh.”

“Formation agents and contractor accounting firms will always have a distortionary effect in a handful of areas” said Matt Smith.. “But overall, these figures bring to life the entrepreneurial drive that is evident all over the UK”.

Strong figures relative to population size in Cheshire East, Salford, Trafford and Stockport also set the North West ahead of its Northern Powerhouse counterparts, leaving the North East and Yorkshire and Humber alongside Wales, Scotland and the South West as the five least entrepreneurial areas of the country, according to the Centre for Entrepreneurs’ research.

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