{"id":2119010,"date":"2026-11-04T10:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T10:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/westmidlands\/?p=2119010"},"modified":"2026-11-04T10:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T10:05:11","slug":"birmingham-start-ups-falling-twice-as-fast-as-rest-of-west-midlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/westmidlands\/news\/2119010-birmingham-start-ups-falling-twice-as-fast-as-rest-of-west-midlands","title":{"rendered":"Birmingham start-ups falling twice as fast as rest of West Midlands"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">The rate of new businesses being created in Birmingham has fallen more than twice as fast as the rest of the West Midlands since 2019, according to new analysis.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The number of new businesses in the city, measured as businesses registering for VAT or PAYE for the first time, fell from 7,430 in 2019 to 6,500 in 2024, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/censalresearch.com\/studies\/new-business-map-uk\/\">an analysis of ONS data by Censal Research<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Per adult, that is a 16% fall, from 8.7 to 7.3 new businesses per 1,000 adults. The typical West Midlands council saw a 7.5% fall, one of the smallest regional declines in the UK, while the typical UK council fell 12.6%.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Birmingham fared better than some other big cities, however. Among the 15 councils with more than 400,000 adults, the steepest falls were in Bristol (25%), Liverpool (23%), Manchester (20%) and Glasgow (19%). Bradford was the only one to see a rise.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Over the same period, Birmingham\u2019s claimant rate rose by four percentage points, from 6.1% to 10.1% of residents aged 16 to 64, the biggest rise among the 15 largest councils.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Across the UK, company registrations at Companies House rose 20.5% between 2019-20 and 2024-25. However, the number of businesses actually starting to trade or take on staff fell 12.7%, and fell per adult in 291 of the 336 councils analysed.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The research found the fall was less steep where local economies had held up. Where the claimant rate fell, the typical council saw an 8.7% drop in its new business rate, compared with 15.7% where claims rose by more than a percentage point. The researchers stress this is an association rather than proof of cause.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">A spokesperson for Censal Research said: \u201cCompany registrations are up a fifth on 2019, but the number of new businesses that actually start trading or take on staff has fallen in almost nine in ten UK councils.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The VAT registration threshold rose from \u00a385,000 to \u00a390,000 in April 2024, which may have slightly lowered the 2024 figures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The rate of new businesses in Birmingham has fallen 16% since 2019, more than twice as fast as the typical West Midlands council, according to analysis of ONS data<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":284306,"featured_media":2119012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120782,120667],"coauthors":[137138],"class_list":["post-2119010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-smes","tag-featured-story","tag-greater-birmingham"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Birmingham start-ups falling twice as fast as rest of West Midlands | TheBusinessDesk.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The rate of new businesses in Birmingham has fallen 16% since 2019, more than twice as fast as the typical West Midlands council, according to analysis of ONS data\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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