Mixed fortunes for Scottish city’s start-up activity

Financial information firm Duedil’s data comparing first quarter figures for this year and last show that while Edinburgh and Dundee saw start-up growth fall sharply year-on-year, Glasgow and Aberdeen saw enjoyed an increase.

A total of 1,596 company formations and registrations recorded in the capital in the first three months of 2017, down from 1,742 in the same period last year, a drop of 8.4 per cent.

Duedil cited nervousness over Brexit as a possible cause of the dip, but Glasgow’s modest growth of 2.5 per cent in its start-up rate represented a notable contrast, with 2,071 companies being formed compared to 2,021 in 2016.

Meanwhile, Aberdeen also saw a similar percentage rise, with 481 companies being formed compared to 470.

Dundee, though, was the worst performing city in Scotland with a drop from 382 to 346, equating to a fall of 11.7 per cent.

The Duedil report found that Britain’s big city dominance of entrepreneurship could be in decline, with the regions producing new businesses at the highest rates, and Salford coming out on top as a new startup hotspot.

The firm used its collated new business registration figures across Britain to produce a league table of emerging startup hotspots.

The table suggested the Greater Manchester area of Salford could be a future home of entrepreneurship. The city registered an impressive year-on-year startup growth rate of 85.49 compared to the first quarter of 2016, with 1,393 new companies founded in the first three months of 2017 alone.

Leicester and Norwich followed Salford in the rankings, with new business growth rates of growing by 34.45 per cent and 22.12 per cent respectively.

Alongside the rapid growth of new business registration in smaller cities, the data indicated London’s dominance as a major startup hotspot in the UK could be reducing.

The UK capital saw a small year-on-year increase of just 5.12 per cent. However, the city continued to produce the highest number of new businesses in the first quarter of 2017, with 57,235 companies registered since January.

Commenting on the findings, Justin Fitzpatrick, co-founder of DueDil, said unexpected regions had started to challenge the big cities to each become a key startup hotspots in Britain.

“Interestingly, just a handful of the UK’s major cities made the overall top 20 for startup growth, with cities such as London, Birmingham, Glasgow and Leeds all absent from the top rankings, suggesting that they are slowly losing their grip on their status as the UK’s startup growth,” he said in a statement.

Overall, 173,100 new firms were registered in the UK between January and March 2017. The projected figure at the same rate by the end of 2017 was 668,759 new companies – 17,096 fewer than were registered throughout 2016.

Mr Fitzpatrick added: “The overall decrease in startup growth across the UK, is perhaps demonstrating a cautious attitude towards enterprise with Brexit looming. Banks and alternative finance providers have an opportunity to play a role in growth through investment.”