New company registrations rise

Following two years of steep falls, the number of new business registrations has begun to rise once more.

Recent research by Companies House has revealed that new company registrations rose by 10 per cent to 362,317 during the 12 months to March this year.

These figures, in such stark contrast to those recorded during 2007/08 and 2008/09 - when new registrations fell by 17 per cent and 11 per cent respectively - hint at a possible recovery in the private sector.

Roger Williams, partner at accountancy firm Wilkins Kennedy, said, “Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs since the banking crisis started.

“But what we are now seeing is that many of those have dusted themselves down and are starting up their own business,” he added.

But, whilst these figures do hint at a more positive future, sometimes businesses are registered at Companies House solely to safeguard them for later use, so the newly registered ones may not be starting anytime soon.

PricewaterhouseCoopers also released figures this week showing that the number of business insolvencies has dropped this year compared to last.