Company registrations in Buckinghamshire fell compared to the previous quarter (down 40 or 3.1 per cent) but were 80 (6.4 per cent) higher than in the third quarter of 2017.

Only nine of the 38 Local Enterprise Partnerships bettered England’s rate of new company registrations in the last quarter, with Buckinghamshire ranking 11th with 29.3 registrations for every 10,000 residents aged 16 or over.  Buckinghamshire ranked 4th among county council areas behind Northamptonshire (39.9), Hertfordshire (38.1) and Worcestershire (34.2).

South Bucks recorded Buckinghamshire’s highest new registration rate with 42.5 registrations per 10,000 residents aged 16 or over to rank 42nd among the 380 local authority districts in Great Britain and 14th highest outside London.  No other Buckinghamshire district bettered the national rate, with Wycombe the next highest ranked (29.4, 93rd) ahead of Chiltern (28.0, 99th) and Aylesbury Vale (25.0, 140th).

Table 1: Business registration rates, Q3 2018

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

Management consultancies other than financial management were the most commonly registered businesses in Buckinghamshire in the last quarter, with 97 registrations accounting for 7.8 per cent of the total.  Other common business activities included information technology consultancy activities (55, 4.4), other  business support activities (42, 3.4), the buying and selling of own real estate (39, 3.1), other service activities (38, 3.0), other letting or operation of own or leased real estate (32, 2.6), and the development of building projects (29, 2.3).

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+), Q3 2018

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

Table 3: New business registrations for every 10,000 residents (16+) by LEP, Q3 2018

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