The region covered by the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has been rated as the best of the 39 LEP areas across the country for its record on business start-ups.
Research by information agency BankSearch shows 5.7% more businesses were launched in West of England during the first eight months of this year compared with the same period last year. 
The figures reveal that 757 new businesses started up in the region in August – a rate of 10.3 for every 10,000 people of working age against a business start-up rate of 9.2 for the whole of England.
The West of England LEP area, which includes Bristol, South Gloucestershire, North Somerset and Bath & North East Somerset, accounted for 2.4% of all start-ups across England despite its working age population of 700,000 being 2.2% of England’s total.
West of England LEP chair Colin Skellett, pictured, said: “We know the West of England is a great place to live – this independent evidence shows it is also a great place to start up and grow business and that our strong regional economy continues to benefit UKplc and everyone who lives and works here.”
Job Seeker Allowance (JSA) claimant numbers in West of England LEP area have fallen so far this year and in August 2015 stood at 11,625 – equivalent to 159 job claimants for every 10,000 people of working age against a JSA claimant rate of 224 for the whole of England.
The sectors with the highest growth rate in the region so far this year are professional, scientific and technical (15.8% growth), construction (11.5%) and retail (8.3%). Manufacturing, with a growth of 3.9%, had the slowest number of start-ups.
BankSearch collects data on start-ups from the main high street banks and provides comprehensive data on company formations across the country.
