During the first five months of this year there were 14.8% more businesses starting up in England than compared to the same period last year.
Simon Anderson, Managing Director of BankSearch said “in England 38,100 new businesses started up in May, 2,630 fewer than the previous month. At the beginning of the year there was a strong uplift in the number of businesses being formed. However, the numbers fell back a little in May. There are wide variations in the number of start ups across the country. So far this year Scotland (+21.2%) London (+22%), North East (+15.9%) and Yorkshire (15.8%) have seen the seen strong year-to-date growth compared to the corresponding period in 2009. Wales (+6.5%), the West Midlands (+8.4%) and East Midlands (+10.7%) had the weakest growth.
David Rea, Group Economics, Royal Bank of Scotland said “with two bank holidays during the month, seasonal factors played a big part in the dip in the number of starts in May. Moreover, there was a week of uncertainty following the election; we were all asking who would form the next government and what would happen to spending and taxation. The general economic backdrop was quite favourable; output continued to pick up in May and the claimant count fell – dropping below 1.5 million for the first time since March 2009