Edinburgh and Aberdeen have both been placed within the top 10 of a list ranking the best cities to start a business in.
The Virgin Money study ranked cities based on several factors important to businesses, such as internet quality, high street recovery rate, employment rate and innovation.
Edinburgh was found to be the second best city for new business, while Aberdeen ranked sixth.
The Scottish capital scored well across most categories, featuring in the top five for CO2 emissions, business churn rate and employment.
Sharon Ellis, head of business networks at Virgin Money, commented: “It’s great to see cities outside of London coming out on top in the study, which adds to the evidence that businesses are investing in thriving cities outside of the capital.“
Recent years have been challenging for small businesses, with an estimated 20% increase in insolvencies in 2022, and nearly 400,000 businesses closing between 2020 and 20211.
Despite this, start-ups continue to launch. Last year saw a record for new businesses registered on Companies House, with nearly 80 new companies listed per hour in the first half of the year.
Virgin Money scored cities on the following criteria: commuting time (% of journeys taking over 60 mins); innovation (patents filed per 100,000 people); internet quality (average download speed in mbps); CO2 emissions per capita (% change 2017-2019); business churn rate (% change 2017-2020); high street recovery rate since Covid; unemployment rate; and happiness index.
Taking this into account, the top cities to start a business in 2023 are:
- Cambridge
- Edinburgh
- York
- Oxford
- Portsmouth
- Aberdeen
- Plymouth
- Swindon
- Southampton
- Exeter
- Cardiff
- Gloucester
- Newport
- Milton Keynes
- Bristol
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