– Insolvencies on the up, but so are new business start-ups –

– 2011 will see 70,000 (almost 20%) more start-ups than 2010 –

– Birmingham remains the UK’s ‘second city’ –

New analysis from Creditsafe, the business intelligence experts, reveals over 470,000 new businesses to be established by the end of the year.

Insolvencies in 2011 are set to be 4% higher than in 2010, but it’s estimated there will be 18% more new business start-ups in 2011 (471,466) compared to 2010 (400,570). This means the net number of businesses is going up.

Q1, Q2 and Q3 2011 have already produced a net 386,000 increase in registered limited companies; with 2011 as a whole expected to see around 455,000 new businesses added to the UK market after insolvencies are taken into account.

	2009	2010	2011 (Q1 - Q3)	2011 (projected)
New business start-ups (UK)	362,772	400,570	398,400	471,466*
Business insolvencies (UK)	19,077	16,045	12,599	16,621**
Net increase in businesses (UK)	343,695	384,525	385,801	454,845

* Creditsafe data. Projection based on January – October 2011 data

** Q1, Q2 and Q3 assumed to represent 84.6% of the year’s insolvencies, based on an aggregation of 2009/2010 insolvency data

London is the centre of business start-ups with almost 160,000 new businesses expected to be set up by the end of the year. The South East is the second most popular location for fledgling businesses (60,715), while the North West will be the hub for over 46,000 new businesses, followed by East Anglia with over 40,000.

Region	2011 new business start-ups (projected)*
London	159,157
South East	60,715
North West	46,135
East Anglia	41,485
West Midlands	33,665
South West	29,434
Yorkshire and Humber	28,802
Scotland	26,253
East Midlands	19,870
North East	11,711
Wales	8,868
Northern Ireland	5,350

On a city level, it’s a similar story – with Greater London top; Birmingham (West Midlands), Manchester (North West) and Guildford (South East) make up the top four. The North East and Northern Ireland are the only regions not to have a representative city in the top 15.

Top 15 cities	2011 new business start-ups (projected)
London	159,157
Birmingham	14,383
Manchester	10,668
Guildford	7,551
Bristol	7,105
Glasgow	6,838
Brighton	6,812
Edinburgh	6,644
Reading	6,546
Sheffield	6,159
Stockport	6,006
Coventry	5,959
Cardiff	5,310
Chelmsford	5,303
Nottingham	5,257

David Knowles, Business Development Director at Creditsafe, said: “This year has been difficult but the entrepreneurial spirit of the Great British public is alive-and-kicking. While there has been a higher number of business insolvencies this year, the number of new businesses set up over the last two years has also grown steadily. Overall, growth in the UK business population has actually accelerated in 2011."

“We are also able to confirm that Birmingham is indeed the ‘second city’ of the UK, comprehensively beating Manchester in the start-up stakes. By the end of the year, we expect over 14,000 new business start-ups Birmingham, 4,000 more than nearest rival Manchester.”

“And it’s perhaps no coincidence that Yorkshire & Humber and the North West – which have seen the biggest public sector job cuts – have also seen significant rises in start-ups. This could suggest that those made redundant in the public sector are starting new ventures in the private sector.”†

– Ends –

† Yorkshire and Humber: 23,500 in 2009, 24,900 in 2010, jumps to 28,800 in 2011

† North West: 37,000 in 2009, 39,500 in 2010, jumps to 46,100 in 2011

Creditsafe Group

The Creditsafe Group is Europe’s most used supplier of company business intelligence with five Creditsafe Group reports downloaded every second!

Privately owned and independently minded Creditsafe is looking to change the way business information is used by providing high quality data in an easy to use format that allows everyone in an organisation can benefit from.

Launched in Norway in 1997, Creditsafe has offices in the UK, Germany, France, Sweden, Ireland and the Netherlands employing over 500 people and has more than 50,000 customers.