§ Mr. WyattTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many new businesses have started up in Sittingbourne and Sheppey since 1997. [170291]
§ 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 2,700 in Kent County (which contains the constituency of Sittingbourne and Sheppey), in the fourth quarter of 2003. The latest yearly figures show 465,000 business start-ups in England and 249W Wales in 2003. This represents a 19 per cent. increase on the year before. There were 10,800 business start-ups in Kent County in 2003. Data for counties are not available for before 2003.
DTI figures based solely on VAT registrations for Swale local authority (which contains the constituency of Sittingbourne and Sheppey) are shown below for the period 1997 to 2002. Data for 2003 will be available in Autumn 2004.
VAT Registrations: 1997–2002 Swale 1997 340 1998 315 1999 335 2000 355 2001 385 2002 330 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.