There have been 5,262 new businesses registered in the last year, an increase of 566 or 12.1 per cent over the previous 12 months.

Only five of the 38 Local Enterprise Partnerships bettered England’s rate of new company registration, with Buckinghamshire ranking 9th, with 32.5 registrations for every 10,000 residents aged 16 or over.  Buckinghamshire ranked 4th among county council areas behind Hertfordshire, Surrey and Worcestershire (where Bromsgrove ranked 6th, with no other district inside the top 150).

South Bucks was the only Buckinghamshire district to better England’s rate with 51.4 new registrations for every 10,000 residents, the 26th highest rate of all 380 local authorities in Great Britain and 9th highest outside London, whilst at 34.5 Chiltern’s rate was above Great Britain’s to rank 83rd.  Wycombe (432) and Aylesbury Vale (390) saw the highest number of registrations in Buckinghamshire but both with registration rates that rank outside the national top 100.

Table 1: Business registration rates, Q1 2017

Sources: Companies House, 2017; MYPE, ONS, 2016

London’s share of England’s new registrations rose to 35.7 per cent in the quarter, with London Boroughs accounting for nine of the top ten local authorities by registration rate and 14 of the top 20 with all 33 of London’s local authorities bettering England’s rate of new business registration. 

The geography of new company registration is presented in the map at the end of this bulletin.

Table 2: Local authorities’ business registrations per 10,000 residents (16+), Q1 2017

Sources: Companies House, 2017; MYPE, ONS, 2016

Table 3: New business registrations for every 10,000 residents (16+) by LEP, Q1 2017

Sources: Companies House, 2017; MYPE, ONS, 2016