UK 'a good place to start up'

Despite complaints that red tape is stifling enterprise, many Britons believe the UK is a good place to start a business, new research reveals

Some 57% of those respondents who expressed an opinion about entrepreneurship in the poll commissioned by the Financial Times believed the UK offers a good environment for new company owners.

However, only 40% said the UK climate compares to that in the US, a country viewed by many as the best place in the world to start up.

Burdensome regulation was viewed as problematic by 86% of respondents, although access to finance was seen as good by most.

The poll, which questioned people around the globe, also revealed that 90% of British and American residents agreed that risk-taking entrepreneurs are entitled to keep a substantial share of the wealth they create. In contrast, only 57% of Spaniards thought the same.

Despite this the FT said Spanish respondents were "more positive" than other Europeans about enterprise which the newspaper put down to 10 years of strong economic growth.

The French however exhibited a "middling position", according to the report, indicating that promises of reform by Nicholas Sarkozy have not curbed the population's view that France is a hard place to start and run a small firm.




Back to News