North West business numbers increase

The number of active businesses in the North West has risen again during the first half of 2019, new figures from the insolvency and restructuring trade body R3 reveal.

They show that business numbers in the region rose by one per cent over the six months to reach more than 373,000 – although the rate of growth was much slower than during the ‘start-up boom’ of recent years.

Paul Barber, North West chair of R3 and a partner at Begbies Traynor in Preston, said business numbers were now not far off the peak of more than 374,000 recorded last November.