High-growth business rise

THE number of highgrowth businesses in Halton has increased over the last five years.

A high-growth business is defined as one where the number of employees has grown by at least 20% per year for the last three years – having started with a minimum of 10 workers.

New figures from the Office For National Statistics have revealed there were 25 of these in Runcorn and Widnes in 2016, up by 25% from the 20 in 2011.

It means one in every 17 firms in the borough is classed as high growth.

Across the rest of the Liverpool City Region there were 180 such high-growth businesses in 2016, up by 16% from 2011, when there were 155 in the other five parts of the area.

However, the increase is even higher in some parts of the region.

In Sefton, the number of these types of businesses has shot up by 50%, rising from 20 in 2011 to 30 in 2016.

However Knowsley experienced the biggest increase out of anywhere in the Liverpool City Region, with the number of high growth businesses actually doubling from 15 to 30.

It means that these enterprises make up one in every 11 businesses in Knowsley, which is also the highest rate in the region.

Across Merseyside, high growth businesses account for one in every 19 businesses, although the figure is actually lower in some parts of the region.

The number of these enterprises in Liverpool and Wirral has actually dropped back down to 2011 levels, and these areas also have relatively low rates of high growth businesses.

There are 60 high growth businesses in Liverpool, or one in every 21 businesses, and 35 in Wirral – a rate of one in every 22.