A record number of new businesses got off the ground in the UK last year – more than 1,600 of them in Huddersfield – according to new figures.
Analysis by national enterprise campaign StartUp Britain showed that 581,173 businesses were registered with Companies House in 2014 – beating the previous record of 526,446 businesses recorded in 2013 and 484,224 in 2012.
Top performers on the entrepreneurial map according to post code include Greater London with 184,671 businesses registered followed by Birmingham with 18,337 and Manchester with 13,054.
The survey also reported high levels of growth in Yorkshire and Humberside and the East Midlands.
In Yorkshire, there were 36,823 company registrations. In West Yorkshire, Huddersfield post codes accounted for 1,641 with Leeds at 6,778; Bradford at 3,701; Wakefield at 2,730 and Halifax at 1,057. Elsewhere in the region, Sheffield saw 8,052 registrations with York at 3,184 and Hull at 2,219.
Other UK hotspots for business start-ups included Brighton with 8,344 registrations, Glasgow at 8,173 and Bristol at 8,130,
Explaining the increase, Luke Johnson, chairman of the Centre for Entrepreneurs, said: “Starting a business is easier, quicker and cheaper than ever thanks to new technology. Entrepreneurs have higher profiles than in the past and are seen as role models.”
Figures from the Office for National Statistics suggest that as well as a rise in start-ups, there has been a marked drop in the number of business failures.
The number of firms leaving the Companies House register fell by 6% – from 253,000 to 238,000 – last year.
