500 small businesses created each day
Business is booming - or at any rate baby booming - according to new research by the Department of Trade and Industry.
Figures published yesterday showed that between 2002 and 2003 there were 500 small businesses born each day – a net increase of around 200,000 firms.
Thanks to the flurry of launches, the business population rose from 3.8m to 4m. The DTI said that the increase was the highest ever since it started to compile the statistics in 1995.
Nigel Griffiths, enterprise minister, said: ‘Small and medium-sized businesses are the engine room of the UK economy. I am delighted that the sector is growing as a whole and that an unprecedented number of new businesses have been set up.’