Wednesday 16 March 2022 6:30 am | Updated: Tuesday 15 March 2022 5:41 pm

Revealed: London dominates UK microbusiness landscape

The pandemic accelerated diversity in the microbusiness sector, but left dreams of levelling up the nation in the dust fresh figures show.

The percentage of start-up owners aged under 35 has more than doubled since March 2020, rising from 16.4 to 34 per cent, while the proportion of microbusinesses founded by women and those from minority communities also ticked upwards.

However, a clear North South divide remains entrenched with London dominating the UK’s microbusiness landscape with a fifth of the UK’s 5.3m microbusiness owners based in the capital, according to a study by Godaddy.

“Very few studies focus specifically on companies with under 10 employees. As a result, microbusinesses are under-researched, misunderstood and under-served,” commented Ben Law, the Head of GoDaddy UK.

“Over half of all microbusinesses turn over more than £25,000 a year and three quarters employ at least one other person. Put simply, the more microbusinesses there are in a community, the better the job prospects and finances of the people that live there,” he added.

Despite a shift in the demographics of those setting up microbusinesses, the dataset revealed that the landscape is still dominated by a North-South divide. The top three regions where entrepreneurs live have remained consistent since the start of the pandemic with 21.7 per cent of microbusiness founders living in London, 18.5 per cent in the South East of the country and 10.2 per cent in the South West.

The top 14 areas are all in London, led by the Cities of London and Westminster with 13.33 microbusinesses for every 100 people, Hackney South and Shoreditch in second place with 5.41, and Islington South and Finsbury in third with 4.99.

“With the right policy infrastructures in place, microbusinesses have the power to contribute to levelling-up disadvantaged areas,” Law said.

The three constituencies with the lowest venture densities are Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney in Wales which is home to 0.2 microbusiness owners for every 100 people, Workington in Cumbria where the rate is 0.21 people per 100 and Washington and Sunderland West.