Business Start Ups

The slowing economy has caused the number of small business start ups to fall by 13% in 2005, the largest fall in the last decade
New figures from Barclays reveal that 388,300 new firms started up in 2005, compared to 446,500 in 2004. The picture is not as bad as it might seem as both 2003 and 2004 were particularly strong years for business start ups with benign economic conditions and a temporary incentive in the taxation system.
A sharp drop in the number of people starting a business in the first half of 2005 (246,400 H1 2004 compared to 187,200 H1 2005) was largely responsible for the substantial change in the figures, as slowing economic growth put people off. In the second half of 2005 there was an encouraging upturn (201,100 H2 2005 compared to 187,200 H1 2005) bringing the figures back to ‘typical’ annual levels.
While the research shows a downwards move for England and Wales as a whole, 25% of local authorities bucked the national trend and recorded an increase during 2005. The number of businesses set up in Poole in the South West recorded a 20 % rise, while those in Darlington in the North East and Rotherham in Yorkshire grew by 15 %.
John Davis, local business marketing director for Barclays said: “The number of businesses started last year moved back to more typical levels after a couple of boom years, the 13% fall in start–ups in 2005 in effect is a large drop from a record couple of years. The underlying market in start-ups is still reasonably strong as was evidenced by the start-up numbers recovering during the second half of 2005.”
These figures are released as Barclays launch seminars throughout the country from the end of April about setting up in business which can be viewed on: http://www.business.barclays.co.uk/bb/seminars.
Essex is the top area overall for starting a business in England and Wales with 9,700 set up during 2005, Kent is second with 9,200 and Surrey third at 9,100. Other leading areas outside the South East are Lancashire at 7,800, Birmingham 7,200 and Devon 6,000.

The number of business started by men was 262,700 and women 125,600. Two small business sectors saw an increase in start-ups against the wider downward trend across England and Wales – agriculture and transport, post and telecoms. Agriculture grew from 6,700 in 2004 to 7,300 in 2005 whilst transport, post and telecoms increased from 16,800 in 2004 to 17,500 in 2005.