The State of Small Business Britain - A manifesto for small business

Since 2013 there has been a general growth in the size of the UK business population, with the growth driven particularly by the smallest businesses (although there was a fall in the business population during the years of the Covid-19 pandemic). [...] The number of individuals in the early stages of setting up a new business is at the highest level since the GEM Global project started in 1999 and is a clear indicator of the entrepreneurial creativity and resilience of the UK. [...] The fall in the job reallocation rate may be attributed to the effects of the pandemic and the formal exit from the EU. [...] It also found that in all of the three groups of firms, the bulk of the job growth took place in the first five years after start-up.24 Turning back to the metrics reported in the Local Growth Dashboard reports, the evidence gathered on the productivity growth metric also shows that only a minority of UK firms achieve this. [...] The research also highlights the fact that definitions really do matter when it comes to small business growth, and to understanding the true nature of the challenges and opportunities across the different regions and nations of the UK.