Start-up growth in Scottish cities outstrips London

The number of new business start-ups has grown by 28 per cent across the UK over the past year, according to an analysis of Companies House data by Instant Offices.

Growth fueled by the UK’s regions has seen the slowest start-up growth in London.

In Scotland, Edinburgh experienced a 33 per cent spike in new business from the last year while Glasgow experienced a 30 per cent boost.

Edinburgh has experienced a 33% rise in the number of startups in the last year. Picture: Mediavision

The increase in start-up businesses across the UK has been driven by the regional cities with Nottingham showing the highest concentration of new business registrations; 68 per cent more companies were started in 2014/5 compared to the previous financial year in the city.

London experienced some of the smallest proportional growth across the UK at just 21 per cent but which, in totality, still demonstrates a significant increase in new start-ups.

The increase in new companies appears to be particularly strong in the Midlands and North; cities in these areas increased proportionately faster than their southern counterparts, including the Capital. Key areas for growth include Bristol, which grew by 40 per cent and Birmingham which grew by 39 per cent.

Tim Rodber, CEO of Instant Offices says: “Demand for office space has been very strong in the regions for the past year but the aggressive growth of starts up in particular shows, in our view, a shift in the balance of the workforce and the way they are working.

“Start-up growth and demand for offices has been driven by London since 2010 but now the balance has shifted to the regions where, perhaps, renewed confidence in the economy is seeing growth in entrepreneurialism.

We should be clear that London is, of course, the largest market for such growth, but the demand in smaller markets is remarkable and this is symbolized by growth in Nottingham, Leicester and ond similar sized cities.”