Forest flourishes in new business probe
Summary
Firms in the Forest of Dean may not always be overwhelmed by a feelgood factor, but a new survey looking at business resilience in South West zones sees Gloucestershire’s leafiest region emerge as a comparative beacon for buoyant business.
Details
With 270 recorded closures in 2024, the Forest district attained a closure rate of 7.7%, that figure being held down by no fewer than 285 new ventures popping up across the region – the aggregate score signalling a net increase of 15 new operations.
With all factors calibrated, the probe from insurers Alan Boswell Group (ABG) established that this performance meant the Forest is 21st in a ranking of most risky places to run a business.
For context, the final rankings for the entire region saw the Forest beat every other part of Gloucestershire and the Cotwolds, with Gloucester city ranked 8th for risk, Stroud 10th, the Cotswolds (including Tetbury and Cirencester) 12th, Tewkesbury 18th and Cheltenham 19th The exhaustive study which ranked areas across the South West as far as the Isles of Scilly (which achieved least risk status at number 1), found the Foreest could boast the sixth-lowest overall closure risk in the region.
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ABG looked at ONS Business Demography data across UK local authority areas and ranked areas on the basis of three factors: The business closure rate in 2024, The five-year survival rate for businesses born in 2019, The balance between new businesses opening and existing businesses closing.
With a final risk score of 34.6 out of 100, the Forest saw 270 business closures from 3,485 active businesses in 2024, giving it a closure rate of 7.7%. The report said: “This is below the UK average of 9.8%. The district also saw more businesses open than close in 2024.
Forest of Dean recorded 285 business openings, meaning openings outnumbered closures by 15. This gives the district a positive net opening and closure balance of 0.4%.” The Forest’s five-year business survival rate also came in above the UK average: of the 295 businesses born here in 2019, 145 were still up and running five years later, giving the district a five-year survival rate of 49.2%.
Across the UK, the five-year survival rate was 38.4%. The report added: “Forest of Dean sits well outside the South West’s main business closure hotspots.
Report source: Punchline Gloucester