---

Dept of Trade and Industry

Answer

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many new businesses have been established in Crosby since 1997. [160441] Nigel Griffiths: Barclays Bank's latest survey of business creation includes non-VAT registered firms and shows that there were 93,100 business start ups in England and Wales, including 500 in Sefton Local Authority (for which Crosby is a constituency), in the third quarter of 2003. The latest yearly figures show 384,900 business start ups in England and Wales in the 12 months ending September 2003. This represents a 3 per cent. increase on the year before. Data for local authorities are not available for before 2003. DTI figures based solely on VAT registrations for Sefton Local Authority (for which Crosby is a constituency) are shown in the table for the period 1997 to 2002. Data for 2003 will be available in Autumn 2004. VAT Registrations: 1997-2002 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Sefton 1997 570 1998 585 1999 565 2000 545 2001 580 2002 560 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Note: VAT registrations and de-registrations, which 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. Similarly, businesses that de-register will not necessarily have closed. Only 1.8 million out of 3.8 million enterprises were registered for VAT at the start of 2002. Source: Business Start-ups and Closures: VAT Registrations and De- registrations 1994-2002, Small Business Service.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

419 c863W;419 c864-5W; 160441

Session

2003-04

Subjects

New businesses Registration Small businesses VAT Sefton

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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