Informi studied a range of factors from the 63 largest towns and cities in the UK to determine which created the most friendly environment for small and medium-sized businesses to succeed. The website focused on categories including amount of highly-skilled workers, affordability of housing and current business stock in the area.
Cambridge came fifth overall, with the city scoring top nationally for the working age population with qualifications at NVQ level 4 or above (at 66.8%). It also had the third best ultrafast broadband figures nationally, behind Worthing and Luton.
Brighton came top of the list, due to having high business stock, or total number of businesses, per 10,000 population, strong broadband figures and having a skilled workforce. Edinburgh was second due in part to also having a well-educated population of working age, while third-placed Northampton had a strong number of recent business start-ups.
Other towns and cities to make up the top 20 this year include Warrington, Crawley and Preston. London took fourth spot, but was held back by overall levels of digital connectivity and ranked poorly for the ratio of house prices to average wages.
Steven Drew, spokesperson for Informi said:“Small businesses provide the backbone for the UK’s economic strength, even – perhaps especially – during uncertain times, with the nation holding its collective breath for what any Brexit deal may look like. It is in the best interests of every town and city throughout the UK to create the right environment for entrepreneurs as thriving businesses contribute to the wealth and prosperity of local communities.
“However it’s all too well-established a fact that so many SMEs are doomed to fail, due not only to market conditions not working in their favour, but often a lack of awareness of the various steps that owners need to take to help their business get off the ground. Those thinking of starting a business should seek out support – such as our how to start a business in 20 days eBook – to help them in their early days.”
Vishal Chatrath, Chief Executive of PROWLER.io, a Cambridge-based artificial intelligence (AI) company, said: “In my experience, Silicon Valley is 10% tech and 90% hype, while Cambridge is exactly the opposite. As an entrepreneur, I wanted to bring world-changing technology to market. The way to do that is to make something which has never existed before and create the science behind it. Cambridge, with its rich history of mathematicians, has the kind of scientific ambition to do just that.“The company has been expanding at an incredible rate, and I think this is something that can only happen in Cambridge.”
Read informi's blog on Cambridge’s success in its research
Best places to start a business in the UK 2018
- Brighton
- Edinburgh
- Northampton
- London
- Cambridge
- Slough
- Reading
- Bristol
- Aldershot
- Warrington
- Manchester
- Southampton
- Leeds
- Aberdeen
- Worthing
- Crawley
- Portsmouth
- Milton Keynes
- Preston
- Birmingham