UK planning to become a nation of entrepreneurs

A joint study by academics at the University of Strathclyde and Aston Business School found that more than one in five of the working age population in the UK were either already running an enterprise, are actively trying to start one, or expected to become self-employed in the next three years.

Professor Jonathan Levie, from the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship at the University of Strathclyde, said: “While necessity-driven start-up attempts increased significantly, they comprised less than 15 per cent of all start-up attempts in 2011. Even in a continued recession, most entrepreneurs in the UK start up because they spot an opportunity.”

But Levie warned that although entrepreneurial intention was on the rise, external funding sources were drying up, putting the fledgling businesses at risk.

The proportion of working age adults actively trying to start a business who were not already running one rose from 2.9 per cent to 4.1 per cent last year, while a further 6.8 per cent expected to start a business in the next three years, up from 4.6 per cent in 2010.

The findings confirm the results of a Scottish survey by the same group in June. At the time high-profile businessman Sir Tom Hunter said that, although Scotland had caught up with the rest of the UK – perhaps thanks to educational programmes – its entrepreneurs still had to become more ambitious.

In a further pointer to the value of education, the UK wide study found a “striking” spike in the growth of early-stage entrepreneurial activity among the under 30s in Wales, which follows a comprehensive set of policies aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship in young people throughout the last decade.