Businesses starting up in Plymouth have an advantage over those anywhere else in the South West, according to recent research. The nationwide study placed Plymouth in 9th place, beating cities many times the size.
Cities trailing behind Plymouth included London, Exeter and Cardiff.
Experts from online magazine Startups Geek found that Plymouth was the best location to start a business in the entire South West of the UK. The closest city to score more highly in the study was Swansea, almost 90 miles away.
StartupsGeek.com, an online platform for creative entrepreneurs and small businesses, reported that Plymouth scored well in the analysis due to several factors including fast internet speed and low start-up business costs.
Plymouth came out as one of the fastest-connected locations when it comes to business internet connections. The city ranked 5th fastest in the UK for average download speeds, not far behind Hull, which notably has the fastest average internet speeds in the world.
Plymouth also ranked well in the research for metrics including start-up employee salary costs and rental price of office space.
Councillor Tudor Evans, Leader of Plymouth City Council, said: “It goes without saying that we think Plymouth is a brilliant place to start a business and we really embrace entrepreneurial spirit. Physically we’re located in an enviable position, sandwiched between the incredible south coast and Dartmoor National Park, which means living here offers a really unique work-life balance with all the benefits of a major city and plenty of blue-green space to enjoy right on our doorstep.
“From a logistical perspective, Plymouth has fairly low start-up costs which naturally makes it appealing. There’s also great internet coverage and speeds and we’ve recently begun the roll out of a £2.2 million ultrafast fibre broadband network, extending access to full fibre networks and making it much easier for businesses to connect in future. On top of this, our city has a network of large organisations such as the Council, two universities and the local NHS trust which are all keen to collaborate and innovate and really see the value in working with local businesses to do so.”
As the UK business community attempts to navigate the impact of the first global pandemic in recent history, Startups Geek posed the question: When the economy and the business world regain some measure of normality, where in the UK would be the best place to start a new business?
Their journalists delved into the data and put together their first ever ranking of 40 towns and cities across the UK.