Britain’s SMEs move beyond big cities
Some of the UK’s small satellite cities are experiencing rapid small business growth, as entrepreneurs move outside of their larger neighbours, new research shows.
Salford in the North West of England (population ~130,000) – just two miles from Manchester (population ~550,000) – is officially the UK’s most entrepreneurial city, with its concentration of small businesses increasing by 15.4% in the last twelve months.
The figures come from GoDaddy’s new Most Entrepreneurial City rankings, informed by data from the company’s Small Business Research Lab. Each place with city status in the UK is given a microbusiness density growth count, based on the number of new start-ups for each 100 people.
The big rise of the small city
Four of the top five Most Entrepreneurial Cities were found to be satellite cities. Ely, located 14 miles north of Cambridge, was the second most entrepreneurial city. Its microbusiness density score increased by 14.9%, more than double that of its larger neighbour Cambridge (+7.1%).
Bangor in Northern Ireland (+12.9%) and Milton Keynes in England (+11.7%) also featured in the top five, and their growth significantly outpaced that of their nearby capital cities of Belfast (+3.2%) and London (+9.8) respectively.
Local investment fuelling the boom
Salford’s emergence as a small business powerhouse has not come around by accident. The city has invested deliberately in becoming a digital and innovation-led enterprise hub, anchored by HOST Salford at MediaCity.
Backed by Salford City Council and public funding, including £846,900 from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, it has supported over 300 businesses and upskilled over 5,000 individuals. This is enhanced through programmes including “EnterprisingYou” and “Build a Business” which support aspiring entrepreneurs in building and launching new ventures.
Cheaper property rents, advancing technology and lower start-up costs improve opportunities in satellite cities
Satellite cities are perfect for entrepreneurs in today’s challenging economic climate. They often offer materially-cheaper cost bases for outgoings like property rent – the average rent in Salford is around £2,500 cheaper per year than in Manchester, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Technology has also advanced to a point where being in the thick of the action is no longer a key consideration for entrepreneurs. Over half (52%) utilise generative AI to support their business, gaining the biggest time-saving benefits from using it for content creation (62%), marketing (40%), and business advice (39%).
In parallel, the average amount of capital needed to launch a business has shrunk. In GoDaddy’s latest Small Business Research Lab survey, the majority (53%) of UK entrepreneurs said they’d created a new venture with under £1,000 of initial investment.
Zwi Meisner, 48, has been running the New York Laundrette for seven years, he commented: “I’ve lived in Salford for more than 20 years and run New York Laundrette with my brother, serving the local community. When we took over the laundrette, we started with a relatively small customer base, but by investing in the business, improving the customer experience and putting customer service at the heart of everything we do, we’ve been able to grow tremendously.
I’ve seen first-hand what makes this city such a great place to build a business. Salford has a real sense of community. It’s a diverse place where people from different backgrounds support each other and genuinely want to see local businesses succeed. It doesn’t surprise me that so many new businesses are starting up in the area. Finding the right location is everything, and Salford can offer lower premise costs that would be harder to find in Manchester.”
Yvonne Sampson, director of enterprise at GM Business Growth Hub that delivers the EnterprisingYou Programme, said: “The growth in Salford has been over a decade in the making, leveraging commercial and residential investment to create an environment for thriving entrepreneurship. The City has fantastic strengths – from the University to MediaCity and the longstanding partnerships between Salford Council and support organisations like ours, GM Business Growth Hub.
“Not only does it have a well-established digital, creative and technology sector, but recent investment in the City’s high streets has meant there has been some incredible growth in the everyday business economy. Working with hundreds of new businesses in Salford, through EnterprisingYou and our Scale Up programmes, it’s clear that there is a real desire to succeed at all levels.”
Alexandra Rosen, economist and head of the GoDaddy Small Business Research Lab, said: “Entrepreneurship is no longer tied to major city centres. Better digital infrastructure, the rise of AI tools and lower start-up costs have changed the economics of building a business, making it possible for founders to launch and scale from places that may previously have been overlooked. What we are seeing is a more distributed model of growth, where smaller cities and towns are becoming increasingly important parts of the UK’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.”