Business numbers in UK jump

The UK has seen its business numbers grow faster than most other major economies, despite Brexit uncertainties.

The country ranks sixth in UHY’S latest global business creation table – published today – out of 21 nations studied, and comes first out of the Western economies examined.

According to accountancy network UHY, there has been a near-6 per cent increase in UK business numbers in the last year – equating to 218,000 more businesses.

Overall, the major Western economies studied saw their number of businesses increase by just 2 per cent last year compared to the previous 12 months.

China topped the table, with a 19 per cent increase in business numbers in the last year. There were more than 26 million Chinese businesses in total in 2016 compared to almost 22m in 2015. India is in fifth position with an annual increase of 7 per cent to 1.1 million businesses.

UHY said that after years of constrained bank lending, greater access to alternative sources of finance such as crowdfunding and peer-topeer lending may be opening up more opportunities for “ambitious” British entrepreneurs.

Falling rates of corporation tax have also helped ease the pressure on small businesses and their owners – the UK has one of the lowest levels in the G7 group at 19 per cent.