2007

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Theme	Environment>> Economic
Sub-theme	<<Employment and income Jobs business and industry
Indicator	<<Occupations Stock at end of year>> Registrations per 1000 residents
Analysis	2007

Source	Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
Date Released	28 November 2008
National Indicators	NI 171
Date range	2007

Data Time Series Comparisons Commentary Confidence Levels Notes

Commentary

National Indicator 171 measures business start up rates in each local area. VAT registrations are used as a proxy measure for business start ups. The population denominator is the resident population aged 16 and over according to ONS Mid Year Population Estimates for the year to which the registrations relate. The rate is calculated per 10,000 adults. NI 171 is therefore defined as the proportion of business registrations per 10,000 resident population aged 16 and above. The population denominator is taken from ONS Mid Year Estimates.

Data is taken from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) at:
http://stats.berr.gov.uk/ed/vat/

The data, which relates to 2007, represents the final time these statistics were released. The Office for National Statistics released a new National Statistics series on business births, deaths and survival rates, also on 28th November 2008. From 2009 this is the only official source of information on business start-ups and closures.

The Hampshire Local Area Agreement measures "business start ups". This is covered in the Profile Online in the section on VAT registrations and de-registrations.

Both the Hampshire LAA and the Regional Economic Strategy measure the quantity of business stock per 1,000 resident population. This is covered in the Profile Online under "Stock at end of Year".

Confidence Levels

VAT registration and de-registration are proxy measure for business start ups and closures. In interpreting the data, there are two key points to note. Firstly, that there may be many reasons for de-registration for VAT and as such it is not necessarily an indication of business failure. Secondly, these figures do not necessarily give a complete picture of business start-ups and closure. Some VAT exempt sectors and those operating below the VAT threshold are not covered. At the start of 2008, the VAT threshold was an annual turnover of £67,000. At the start of 2007, 2m of the estimated 40.7m enterprises in the UK were VAT registered.

However, some businesses do voluntarily register for VAT even though their turnover is below the threshold. Data for 2007 shows that around a fifth of all registrations have turnover below the VAT threshold.

Data

VAT registration rate per 10,000 adults (NI 171)

In 2007 there were 715 VAT registrations overall in the borough. With an adult population of 127,900 this equates to a rate of 55.9 registrations per 10,000 people. There were 390 de-registrations in 2007 which equates to a rate of 30 per 10,000 people. At the beginning of 2008, the total business stock in the borough amounted to 6,185 which equates to a rate of 484 per 10,000 people.

The borough registration rate per 10,000 adults is higher than that for both the county (47) and South East region (48). The borough saw a lower de-registration rate than Hampshire (33) and the South East (34). Both Hampshire and the South East have lower rates of stock per adult population - a rate of 471 for Hampshire and 476 for the region.

VAT registration rate per 1,000 adults

With an adult population of 127,900, the 2007 registration rate equates to 5.59 registrations per 1,000 adults. Stock at the end of the year equates to 48.35 businesses per 1,000 adults. See "VAT registrations and de-registrations" and "Stock at end of year" for further information.

Time Series

Since 1994, VAT registration rates have remained at around 40 to 50 registrations per 10,000 adults, with increases and decreases tracking the county and regional averages. 2007 saw a significant increase in the number, and therefore the rate, of registrations. Increases, though to varying extent were seen in many of the South East authorities from 2006 to 2007.

Comparisons

With the exception of Gosport and Wycombe, all comparator authorities showed increases in VAT registration rate from 2006 to 2007. The table below shows the rate for each comparator authority for 2006 and 2007 in descending order according to the 2007 rate. South Buckinghamshire and Windsor and Maidenhead are the top performers. The Basingstoke and Deane rate is similar to Winchester, Wycombe, East Hampshire and Wokingham.

VAT registration rate per 10,000 adults (NI 171)	Reg rate per 10,000
VAT registration rate per 10,000 adults (NI 171)	2006	2007
South Bucks	74	78
Windsor and Maidenhead	65	71
West Berkshire	56	66
Hart	56	64
Surrey Heath	57	60
Guildford	51	59
Wokingham	45	57
East Hampshire	50	57
Wycombe	56	56
Basingstoke and Deane	44	56
Winchester	50	54
Reading	40	53
Eastleigh	46	52
Slough	44	50
Test Valley	43	50
South East	43	48
Bracknell Forest	46	48
Hampshire County	42	47
Rushmoor	40	44
New Forest	38	40
Fareham	37	39
Havant	28	31
Gosport	25	24

Notes

The differences between the new business demography statistics and the current BERR business demography statistics can be found in the PDF below.

Documents

Help with document downloads

	The new business demography statistics - the key methodological differences between the old BERR VAT statistics and new business demography	149.27KB
	Business-Demography - introduction to - Jan 2010.pdf	56.45KB