The number of businesses starting up in the past year has risen sharply, according to a new index that challenges official figures.
Marketspan, the data research company, said the number of new businesses opening in the year to September rose by 8.39 per cent over the previous 12 months.
The figures are based on the net number of new business telephone lines, supplied from the 2 million-odd businesses listed in the Thompsons directories, so include almost 400,000 more than the government's data, which cover only VAT-registered companies.
Figures from the Small Business Service, part of the Department of Trade and Industry, showed the number of small, VAT-registered businesses closing rose by 5 per cent last year.
This was apparently supported by data from Dun and Bradstreet, the business information group, showing an 11.3 per cent rise in the number of small businesses failing in the first three quarters of this year.
