§ Mr. DjanoglyTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many new businesses started up in Huntingdon constituency in each year since 1997. [170780]
§ Nigel GriffithsBarclays Bank's latest survey of business creation includes non-VAT registered firms and shows that there were 115,000 business start-ups in England and Wales, including 1,300 in Cambridgeshire county (which contains the constituency of Huntingdon), in the fourth quarter of 2003. The latest yearly figures show 465,000 business start-ups in England and Wales in 2003. This represents a 19 per cent. increase on the year before. There were 5,000 business start-ups in Cambridgeshire County in 2003. Data for counties are not available for before 2003.
DTI figures based solely on VAT registrations for Huntingdon Local Authority (which contains the constituency of Huntingdon) are shown in the table for the period 1997 to 2002. Data for 2003 will be available in Autumn 2004.
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Ordinary Written Pqs Named Day Pqs Total answers Answers within 5 days Total answers Answers on named day Number Number Percentage Number Number Percentage 2002–03 November 76 73 96 A monthly breakdown cannot be given December 156 129 83 January 267 225 84 February 183 150 82 March 294 203 69 April 236 178 75 May 208 171 82 June 402 296 74 July 255 215 84
VAT Registrations: 1997–2002 Huntingdon 1997 535 1998 540 1999 485 2000 520 2001 485 2002 515 Source: Business Start-ups and Closures: VAT Registrations and De-registrations 1994–2002, Small Business Service, available from: www.sbs.gov.uk/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. 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.