Informi’s Best Place To Start A Small Business In The UK 2018 is hotting up. We looked at a variety of factors – including digital connectivity, number of current startups and access to highly skilled workers – to determine which of the UK’s leading 63 towns and cities offers the very best attributes for a small business to operate in.
From tomorrow, we’ll be counting down the top three. Just missing out on bronze medal position, however, is capital city London, which has risen by four places since our 2016 study, where our focus was slated more towards categories such as business churn, number of patent applications made and pollution levels.
Why is London a good place to start a business?
Perhaps ‘why shouldn’t I start a business in London?’ would be a more appropriate question. The capital comfortably ranks #1 for total business stock – there are 566 businesses per 10,000 population, 92 more than nearest challenger Reading – and for the number of business startups, with more than 100 per 10,000 people set up during 2016.
It goes without saying that London has the infrastructure, resources and networking opportunities for businesses to help one another on the path to success. Little wonder over 400,000 micro-businesses and startups based themselves there during 2015.
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Big names at home in London
Where can London improve?
As we know, for every startup success there are many failures – so in the dog eat dog world that is business, London is comfortably ahead of the game for business closures as it is for those who go on to achieve great things.
Affordability of scarce properties is, of course, an area that London will always perform poorly in. Despite the best efforts of the London Mayor and local councils, the average house price is 16.78 times that of the average wage. Perhaps it will be a surprise to some that this figure isn’t the UK’s worst – that dubious accolade goes to Oxford, with a ratio of 17.3.
At home in London
Marcus Franck set up Franck Energy, a green energy supplier who helps homeowners and businesses switch to renewable solutions, and which is now owned by Smart Renewable Heat. He is one of many thousands of small business owners who recognises the benefits the capital holds.
“Talented and innovative people flock to London from around the UK and the rest of the world,” said Marcus. “This makes recruitment challenging due to the wealth of expertise – but that’s a great problem to have. In addition, we’re in a forward-thinking city that has loads of people that wish to make an impact on the world.
“London has a population which embraces new technology and fresh ideas across the board, which is brilliant for business in general. Being based there was a contributor to Franck Energy’s quick growth and success, and ultimately our acquisition.”
We’re steadily climbing up our list and tomorrow we will find out who has taken the bronze medal position. Our Best Places list is soon getting filled up!
The Top 10 Best Places To Start A Business In The UK 2018
| UK town/city | |
|---|---|
| 1. | |
| 2. | |
| 3. | |
| 4. | London |
| 5. | Cambridge |
| 6. | Slough |
| 7. | Reading |
| 8. | Bristol |
| 9. | Aldershot |
| 10. | Warrington |
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