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Dept of Trade and Industry

Answer

Roger Casale: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many new businesses have started up in Wimbledon since 1997. [224254] Nigel Griffiths: Barclays Bank's latest survey of business creation includes non-VAT registered firms and shows that there were 453,000 business start-ups in England and Wales in 2004, the highest number since the survey started in 1988. Barclays data show that there were 2,000 business start-ups in the London borough of Merton (which contains the constituency of Wimbledon) in 2003 and a further 2,500 in 2004. Data for London boroughs are not available for before 2003. DTI figures based solely on VAT registrations for Wimbledon parliamentary constituency and the London borough of Merton are shown in the table for 1997 to 2003. Data for 2004 will be available in autumn 2005. VAT registrations _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Wimbledon Merton 1997 530 750 1998 625 840 1999 510 730 2000 580 765 2001 485 680 2002 455 640 2003 480 710 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Source: (except for Wimbledon parliamentary constituency): Business Start-ups and Closures: VAT Registrations and De- registrations 1994-2003, Small Business Service, available from the Library of the House and also at: http://www.sbs.gov.uk/analytical/statistics/vatstats.php VAT registrations do not capture all start-up activity. Businesses are unlikely to be registered if they fall below the compulsory VAT threshold, which has risen in each year since 1997. Only 1.8 million out of four million enterprises were registered for VAT at the start of 2003.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

432 c1216-7W; 224254

Session

2004-05

Subjects

Business New businesses Small businesses Wimbledon

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk