SWINDON and Wiltshire is a growth hotspot for SMEs, according to the annual SME survey by the Enterprise Research council (ERC).

In the council’s annual UK Local Growth Dashboard, Swindon out-performed the South West and the rest of the UK in terms of new start-ups, with 62 firms created per 10,000 people in the area.

It compared well against most other regions, beating the national average of 50, and nearby Oxfordshire which had 40 per 10,000, Buckinghamshire which had 60, and Dorset which only had 38 per 10,000.

The report noted that the South West was a region of contrasts, with start-up and growth hotspots and less dynamic areas. Devon, Somerset, and Cornwall had some of the lowest rates of SME growth in the country.

Professor Mark Hart, deputy director of the ERC, said: “Our findings show a complex geography which challenges some of the preconceptions about the ‘hotspots’ of business growth across the UK.

“What’s clear is that there are pockets of SME dynamism right across the country and it’s not as simplistic as either a North-South or urban-rural split. It’s also true that firms in some parts of the country face more of a struggle to scale up and grow their productivity.

“The challenge now for policymakers is to learn the lessons of what’s working at local level so that we spread best practice right across the country.

“This is especially important as the UK prepares for Brexit to help mitigate any shock to local economies.”

The research also showed there were 4,402 new registered businesses in Swindon and Wiltshire in 2017, with more than half (58 per cent) of firms started in 2014 survived to 2017.

The ERC, one of the leading sources of independent research on the growth of SMEs, is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and The Department for Business, Energy, and industrial Strategy.