Record new business start-ups

Last year proved a very successful one for start-up firms, with figures showing that approximately 476,000 new businesses were set up in the first ten months of 2009. It is now being estimated that the final total for 2009 may even beat the total of 525,000 in 2008, despite the recession.

There was also a lower rate of business failure than expected, up just 2 per cent in the first nine months compared the same period in 2008. That means that the UK could have ended 2009 with around 90,000 more businesses than at the end of 2008. This would represent the third consecutive year of record new business start-ups, fuelled by a rise of self-employed and the ease of starting up new online-only ventures. However, small businesses continued to comment that credit availability remained tight.

According to The Daily Telegraph report: "Banks said that the extent of peoples’ willingness to set up new ventures and their ability to keep existing ones trading during the recession had been a surprise".

According to the recent New Year's message from the Federation of Small Businesses, more should be done to encourage people to open their own firms in 2010. The body's national chairman John Wright said that individuals with entrepreneurial aspirations could be the key to helping the UK emerge from recession and suggested that ministers establish an Enterprise Allowance Scheme for start-ups which would provide a small income for those wanting to go it alone.