Here’s how many new businesses launched in Sunderland last year

The number of new businesses established in Sunderland held steady last year, with total registrations rising 3%.

According to Companies House data analysed by the Centre for Entrepreneurs (CFE), a London-based think tank, 1,182 new ventures were registered in the city in 2018 compared with 1,148 the year previous.

It follows a report from card payment firm paymentsense that named Sunderland the UK’s third best city for setting up a business.

The research found that Sunderland has a five-year startup survival rate of 41.9%, which was paired with the average weekly salary of a full-time worker in the city (£517.20) and the average monthly rent for a one-bed city centre flat (£550) to put Sunderland in third place behind Nottingham and Sheffield.

Sunderland City Council Leader Cllr Graeme Miller said: “Like many post-heavy industrial cities in the North, Sunderland has worked hard to reinvent itself in recent years and has done so magnificently and figures like this back that up.”

Key changes to the city’s economy include developments in the automotive, telecommunications, offshore, subsea and software sectors.

Sunderland’s burgeoning software industry is of particular interest to leaders in the city, as data shows it to be one of the fastest growing clusters of its kind in the UK.

In a recent report from Tech Nation, the North East was listed among the fastest-growing regions for digital technology, with Sunderland found to have the UK’s second highest digital turnover growth rate outside London.

Speaking further, Cllr Miller said: “Sunderland is steaming towards a digital tech future.

“While the city’s software pedigree has its roots in the 1990s, it has grown rapidly since the establishment of business hubs such as Sunderland Software Centre and Evolve Business Centre in Houghton.”

He continued: “The two centres are now home to well over 100 businesses, from global tech companies such as Saggezza and Coatsink to innovative, forward-thinking start-ups and SMEs such as Technically Compatible, Geek Talent and EDS HV, to name just a few.”

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