Luton has best business survival rate
- Fasthosts reveal the top cities in the UK for start-up businesses by looking into a large variety of regional metrics from business survival rates to the cost of office space.
- Luton is the UK’s top city to start a business right now, study finds.
The arrival of the pandemic saw a 12.3% increase in new businesses – the highest increase on record.
By analysing average download speeds, business birth and death rates, five-year survival rates, office renting costs, and average working productivity across the nation, Fasthosts’ conducted a survey that revealed the top 15 cities for business opportunities.
Based on the benchmarks, Luton was crowned as the best all-round UK location to start a new business with an overall index score of 3.375. The city proved to have one the best rates of production, office prices, and business survival rates out of any other UK city.
In second place was Reading which boasted a super high productivity rate – even higher than Luton – but falls short at office costs and internet speeds. The Bedfordshire town ranks marginally higher than fellow southern start-up hotspot Reading (3.312).
In the battle of the capitals, Edinburgh outperformed Central London by the slimmest of margins, to rank as the survey’s fourth best city for overall enterprise opportunities, while the English metropolis took fifth.
The top 15 UK cities to launch a business can be seen below:
| Ranking | City | Average download speed (Mbit/s) | Business Death rate | Business Birth rate | 5 Year Survival Rate | Cost of Office Space per sq. ft. (£) | Productivity level |
| 1 | Luton | 63 | 1040 | 1455 | 410 | 22 | 102.97 |
| 2 | Reading | 54 | 930 | 1145 | 435 | 38 | 126.9 |
| 3 | Nottingham | 69 | 1410 | 1510 | 20 | 14.88 | 86 |
| 4 | Edinburgh | 63 | 2540 | 2885 | 1150 | 35 | 104.8 |
| 5 | Central London | 51 | 5750 | 5190 | 32895 | 112 | 132.3 |
| 6 | Liverpool | 62 | 2445 | 3110 | 805 | 23 | 91.7 |
| 7 | Portsmouth | 55 | 845 | 1275 | 320 | 16.9 | 94.3 |
| 8 | Coventry | 58 | 1410 | 1620 | 605 | 18.5 | 91.6 |
| 9 | Wolverhampton | 61 | 1110 | 1245 | 380 | 16 | 84 |
| 10 | Bristol | 60 | 2370 | 2895 | 1140 | 35 | 97.6 |
| 11 | Birmingham | 58 | 5970 | 7870 | 2080 | 34 | 91.5 |
| 12 | Newcastle upon Tyne | 56 | 1105 | 1295 | 455 | 24 | 90.9 |
| 13 | Stoke-on-Trent | 53 | 810 | 965 | 385 | 16 | 85.5 |
| 14 | Northampton | 44 | 1275 | 2000 | 520 | 13.6 | 93.6 |
| 15 | Bradford | 49 | 1875 | 2305 | 945 | 14.6 | 86.2 |
Michelle Stark, Sales and Marketing Director at Fasthosts commented: “Even in a vastly increasing digital world, choosing the right city to launch a business is an important decision. And it’s great to see such a variety of cities across the country among the top 15 from Portsmouth to Edinburgh and Bradford to choose from. It’s important to be strategic when deciding in your business location and we urge all start-ups to check out our rankings before choosing their desired location for business.”
