Instant Offices Entrepreneurial Index has classified Birmingham top amongst the UK’s leading cities with over 21,000 companies launched this year.
When it comes to business start-ups in Britain, London may lead the pack, but the latest study from Instant Offices reveals the UK’s other major cities are making a substantial contribution to entrepreneurialism in the UK.
Instant’s Entrepreneurial Index ranks the UK’s leading cities by analysing Companies House data and comparing average population in each city with the number of businesses launched there year on year. And this year, Birmingham has stormed to the top of the league for start-ups.
London leads in the overall total number of start-ups, as would be expected with being the capital, with 145,993 businesses launched in 2017. But, on a pro rata basis, Birmingham surpasses the capital as the Most Entrepreneurial UK City in 2018 with its impressive start-up to population ratio.
With significant growth over the past few years, Birmingham’s ability to attract and support early-stage businesses is credited to its world-class support networks, accelerator schemes and significant infrastructure investment. The completion of HS2 is set to transform the West Midlands, and Birmingham’s sizeable metropolitan economy is expected to see considerable benefits to boost growth.
As more organisations opt for responsive ways of working, the flex office market has seen explosive growth across UK regions, and interest in cities like Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool is at an all-time high.
Centre growth was up 13% last year, ranking fourth after Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds at 23%, 17% and 15% respectively.
John Williams, Head of Marketing and Research at Instant, said: “While majority of demand still comes from companies looking for flexible office requirements for smaller teams, our data reveals that larger, corporate occupiers are also looking for flexible space in what is proving to be a very competitive market in Birmingham.”
Birmingham has a regular workstation rate of £264 and offers a wide variety of office space.
