Press Releases

Lack of provision for most vulnerable self-employed in measures announced by the UK Chancellor last week threatens to “decimate a whole generation of early-stage entrepreneurs”, report authors say.
More than 750,000 self-employed people in the UK could miss out on Government support during the Coronavirus pandemic, a new analysis has shown.
The findings from the Centre for Decent Work and Productivity at Manchester Metropolitan University and the Enterprise Research Centre suggest that sole traders who have recently started up are most vulnerable to a near-total loss of income, threatening to “decimate a whole generation of early-stage entrepreneurs”.

Shake-up of geographic origin labels scheme “must educate consumers to support UK food heritage”

• Education of consumers and minimising red tape is essential as the UK develops its own ‘geographical indication’ (GI) labelling system for traditional food products following Brexit, new research shows

The introduction of a new system for protecting unique British food products such as Cornish pasties and Melton Mowbray pork pies will depend on better educating consumers and minimising the regulatory burden for producers to be successful, researchers have said.

• A new Enterprise Research Centre report has highlighted an enterprise divide among Northern Powerhouse regions across a range of growth metrics

An ‘East/West divide’ has opened up when it comes to business start-ups and firm growth in the Northern Powerhouse area, new research has found.
The Enterprise Research Centre’s Northern Powerhouse Growth Dashboard found that in the most recent available figures (2018), Greater Manchester’s start-up rate was among the highest in the entire UK (58 per 10,000 population). But while other parts of the North West including Liverpool and Cheshire also displayed healthy start-ups rates, many areas east of the Pennines lagged far behind, with the North East region having the lowest rate of just 19 per 10,000 people.

• Major new study of 2,975 small businesses across five European cities, supported by J.P. Morgan, finds one-third have experienced a threat to their survival in the past five years.
• Despite this, crisis planning is not widely undertaken by small businesses, which struggle to identify the most potent sources of business disruption.
• Firms run by women and ethnic minorities experience more crises, suggesting a lack of appropriate support and avoidance of outside advice put them at greater risk

Start-ups slump as entrepreneurs brace for Brexit

● Number of new firms being started falls by 13% across the UK - with much sharper declines in many parts of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland
● Firms achieving sustained rapid growth and productivity gains remain a small minority
● ‘Warning signs’ highlight dangers for job creation from ongoing uncertainty around Brexit

The number of new start-ups in the UK fell sharply last year and established firms scaled back their growth ambitions due to Brexit uncertainty, according to new data looking at the health of the grassroots economy.
The findings have emerged from the Enterprise Research Centre’s UK Local Growth Dashboard report, an annual publication that looks at a range of metrics charting the growth of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which account for 99% of all firms in the UK.

Gig economy “a springboard for entrepreneurs”

• Gig workers in the UK are twice as likely as the wider population to be in the early stages of setting up a business, largest global study of entrepreneurs finds
• Sharp fall in entrepreneurship among BAME Britons and immigrants
• Rise of crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending sees people increasingly willing to invest in “strangers with good ideas”

Workers in the gig economy are increasingly seeing their “side hustle” as a launchpad into longer-term entrepreneurship, according to the largest annual survey of UK entrepreneurs.

Although often portrayed as a precarious option to supplement low pay, latest data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), has found gig workers are twice as likely as the wider population to be planning to start a business or to be early-stage entrepreneurs.

The sixth annual ERC State of Small Business Britain Conference takes place today at The Shard in London. The conference, which this year is being held in partnership with the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), focuses on how we can strengthen key sectors of the UK economy. At the event we will present new comparative research on UK firms and hear from industry and policy speakers.
‘Strengthening Sectors’ is a theme at the heart of the Industrial Strategy. Both manufacturing and service firms face significant challenges, however, from increasing global competition as well as the digital revolution. Where do UK businesses stand? Do we have the business mindset to compete effectively?  Are UK firms taking full advantage of new digital technologies? How effectively is policy supporting sectoral strengths particularly among SMEs?
Over the last six years, the State of Small Business Britain Conference has become a must-attend event for those working in enterprise research, support and policy

Firm-level data hints at “canary in the mine” for UK’s employment ‘miracle’

• Enterprise Research Centre study finds established firms are already shedding jobs, despite employment being buoyed by start-ups
• ‘Churn’ in private sector saw 4.9m jobs created and destroyed last year
• Strong employment figures may be “lulling policymakers into a false sense of security” on economy

Firm-level data on jobs ‘churn’ among the UK’s businesses show early warning signs of an economic slowdown despite the country’s record employment, a new study suggests.

• Enterprise Research Centre study shows higher numbers of fast-growing firms in a region can lead to net loss of jobs, especially in rural areas
• But clusters of companies that combine job growth with productivity gains have a positive impact from ‘spillover’ effects
• Policymakers need to be aware of trade-offs from promoting job and productivity growth at the same time

The UK’s efforts to boost productivity while ironing out regional inequalities in job creation may be fundamentally at odds, according to a study of so-called ‘gazelle’ firms.
The findings, based on a study of 6.25m firms over a 17-year period by the Enterprise Research Centre (ERC), shed new light on the spillover effects highgrowth firms have on other businesses in their region.

• New study by the Enterprise Research Centre (ERC) of 600 London firms finds 48% of businesses run by ethnic minority leaders suffered a major crisis in past five years.
• Data on different types of entrepreneur provides basis for new toolkit to help businesses become more resilient to threats.
• With Brexit uncertainty continuing, study hopes to develop practical solutions based on real-world experiences.

Nearly half of firms run by ethnic minority entrepreneurs have experienced an “existential crisis” threatening their survival in the past five years, a major new survey of London firms has revealed.
The startling figure – 15 percentage points higher than firms not run by someone from a minority group – is among survey data providing fresh insight on the challenges faced by firms led by ethnic minority entrepreneurs, who represent a growing but poorly-understood proportion of UK companies.
The findings form part of a major five-country study of 3,000 European firms looking at how entrepreneurs can ‘shock-proof’ their businesses. Entitled ‘Building Better Business Resilience’, the research project led by the Enterprise Research Centre is supported by the JPMorgan Chase Foundation.