Some UK regions lacking aspiration according to new survey

All regions in the UK ranked among the top half of Europe’s most entrepreneurial ecosystems, however many are being accused of a lack of aspiration which is holding back growth.
 
That’s according to Santander’s “Enterprise Index”, published this week, which ranked regions across Europe according to their attitude to entrepreneurship, economic infrastructure and aspiration levels.
 
The index found that London came second in the whole of Europe behind Denmark’s Hovedstaden region, which includes Copenhagen.
 
The South East of England came ninth in Europe overall, while the East of England came third out of all UK regions and 22^nd in the whole of Europe.
 
The UK’s worst-performing region was the North East of England which ranked 59^th in Europe.
 
Undoubtedly the most glaring discrepancy between UK’s most entrepreneurial region – London – and the least entrepreneurial – the North East of England – was levels of aspiration. London scored 77.7 within the index while the North East scored just 35.8 out of 100.
 
Santander’s follow-up report suggests that UK regions should “unlock their own aspirational premium” by empowering entrepreneurs to grow and bring new, innovative products to market.
 
The report adds: “Ability alone is not enough: even able businesses will not grow and prosper unless they really seek to do so. Growth does not happen by accident.
 
“If new businesses do not aspire to seek growth (and have a realistic potential of achieving growth, as defined by ability), they are unlikely to achieve significant performance.”
 
Ana Botin, chief executive of Santander UK, said: “Enterprise is a crucial engine of economic growth – enterprise and entrepreneurs drive innovation, productivity growth, and job creation.
 
“By building partnerships we can develop entrepreneurship ‘ecosystems’ to support today’s successful modern entrepreneurs; and thus enable regional and national economies to thrive.”

Date published 4 Jul 2014 | Last updated 4 Jul 2014