Partner Article

New businesses on the up

The number of private sector businesses in the UK at the start of 2010 increased by 48,000 since the start of 2009, statistics from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills have shown.

At the beginning of 2010, there were an estimated 4.5 million private sector enterprises in the UK. These 4.5 million businesses employed an estimated 22.5 million people and had an estimated combined annual turnover of £3,200 billion.

Business and Enterprise Minister Mark Prisk said: “Private sector enterprises will create growth in our economy so it is encouraging to see that the number of businesses at the start of 2010 had increased. This was a difficult period, and these figures show the resilience of British business.

“I am determined that the Government will do everything it can to create the right environment for these businesses to now expand and grow, and also to encourage more people to set up on their own.”

The publication is a continuation of the series of SME-related statistics for the UK and regions but uses a revised methodology to improve the quality of the estimates. The changes have been introduced following a methodology review and the availability of new data.

Applying the improved methodology to produce comparable estimates for 2009, there were 4.4 million private sector businesses in the UK at the start of 2009, compared to the 4.8 million previously estimated using the SME statistics methodology.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .