Company registrations in Buckinghamshire rose 26.4 per cent compared to the previous quarter, but there were 13 fewer registrations (down 1.0 per cent) than in the first quarter of 2017.

Only five of the 38 Local Enterprise Partnerships bettered England’s rate of new company registrations in the last quarter, with Buckinghamshire ranking 8th with 31.8 registrations for every 10,000 residents aged 16 or over.  Buckinghamshire ranked 3rd among county council areas, behind Hertfordshire (42.1) and Warwickshire (32.3).

South Bucks recorded Buckinghamshire’s highest new registration rate with 54.1 registrations per 10,000 residents aged 16 or over, ranking 22nd among the 380 local authority districts in Great Britain and 14th highest outside London.  No other Buckinghamshire district bettered the national rate, with Chiltern the next highest ranked (30.8, 94th) ahead of Aylesbury Vale (27.9, 115th) and Wycombe (27.5, 117th).

Table 1: Business registration rates, Q1 2018

Sources: Companies House, 2018; MYPE, ONS, 2017

Management consultancies other than financial management were the most commonly registered businesses in Buckinghamshire in the last quarter, with 112 registrations accounting for 8.3 per cent of the total.  Other common business activities included information technology consultancy activities (77, 5.7), other service activities (69, 5.1), the letting or operation of own or leased real estate (54, 4.0), other business support activities (54, 4.0), the buying and selling of own real estate (39, 2.9), and the development of building projects (37, 2.7).

Table 2: Local authorities’ business registrations per 10,000 residents (16+), Q1 2018

Sources: Companies House, 2018; MYPE, ONS, 2017

Table 3: New business registrations for every 10,000 residents (16+) by LEP, Q1 2018

Sources: Companies House, 2018; MYPE, ONS, 2017