New businesses boom in Lancashire

There were 10,080 new companies formed in the county in 2015 – up from 9,788 formed the year before.

This represents a three per cent growth and means there are now a record number of firms in the area.

The statistics were compiled by www.informdirect.co.uk, a provider of online company formations and secretarial software, using data available from Companies House and the Office of National Statistics.

Its report The Inform Direct Review of UK Company Formations in 2015 includes a league table of company formations county by county as well as statistics on firms registered and dissolved and percentage growth.

It has revealed that for the 12 months ended December 31 2015, there were a record-breaking 612,565 firms formed across the United Kingdom – up from 586,784 the year before.

Of those, 551,886 companies were in England, 34,711 in Scotland, 14,689 in Wales and 7,254 in Northern Ireland.

Henry Catchpole, managing director of Inform Direct said: “Our dynamic economy and business-friendly environment are the reasons there is a ‘Great’ in Great Britain.

“Of course London has always stormed ahead in business but our figures from 2015 demonstrate that the rest of the UK is also displaying a growing confidence in entrepreneurialism.

“Lancashire has had a very successful year.”

The new companies included 1,305 in Blackburn with Darwen, 1,204 in Preston, 1,181 in Fylde, 1,094 in Blackpool and 738 in Chorley.