An East Lancashire borough has come out on top in a fresh study as the most prolific place in the UK to start a new business.

A study by UK packaging supplier, Carrier Bag Shop, shows that there has been a 55 per cent increase in enterprises being set up, compared to pre-pandemic levels.

Nearby Hyndburn also ranks highly, coming in second in the national rankings with a 34.69 per cent rise in start-ups over the same period.

This number of new businesses in Pendle and Hyndburn is against a backdrop of an 8.21 per cent nationwide decrease in startup creation during the same period.

Carrier Bag Shop's study aimed to find emerging business hubs across the UK, outside of the usual city centres.

It compared the number of businesses launched across 406 UK locations over the past year with pre-coronavirus outbreak levels.

The findings show that Pendle had the highest increase in new businesses being set up in the past year compared to pre-pandemic levels, with 465 new businesses launched between mid-2023 and mid-2024, compared to 300 between mid-2017 and mid-2018.

Hyndburn also saw a significant increase, with 330 new startups last year compared to 245 six years ago.

Sujan Shah, CEO of Carrier Bag Shop, said: "In the first year after our lockdown started, we saw a 7.86 per cent increase across the UK in new businesses being set up.

"Increased use of remote working, a turbulent job market, and the economic and emotional impact of Covid-19 may have spurred the leap towards entrepreneurship."

Mr Shah noted that the momentum of new business creation slowed down for almost another year, making the period from mid-2022 to mid-2023 appear as though new ventures had "reduced sharply" by 15.72 per cent.

However, he believes this was simply a result of entrepreneurship being accelerated during the more intense lockdown periods.

He said: "That is why comparing the statistics from two years on either side of the pandemic offered us a unique perspective into the areas that have since flourished as great places to set up a business.

"This can either be a result of local authorities’ efforts to encourage entrepreneurship, cost-effective business infrastructure or new business owners seeing great potential in these areas off the beaten path.

"Either way, we aimed to find these hidden gems for anyone still unsure where to set up shop locally, without having to move to big cities."

Overall, the North West region set up 8.14 per cent fewer businesses than before the pandemic.