One part of England is adding businesses at a sprint. Another is quietly losing them. London collected the largest absolute increase, while the East Midlands recorded the fastest growth. The South East, meanwhile, went in the opposite direction altogether. England’s business development story is therefore less a single boom than a crowded room in which several regions are speaking at once, and not all of them are saying the same thing.
At the start of 2025, the number of private businesses in England rose by 206,000, an annual increase of 4%. That is a substantial expansion, although national figures have a habit of smoothing over the interesting details. A map would make the situation much clearer: growth is being distributed unevenly, with some regions adding businesses rapidly and others struggling to maintain their previous position.
The East Midlands led the country in percentage growth, increasing its business population by 13%, or roughly 45,000 new businesses. That is the kind of figure that changes the mood of a regional meeting. It suggests more than a few new ventures appearing above a shop or in a spare bedroom, even if the statistics do not explain why every individual business was created. The region’s lead is particularly striking because it was achieved through speed rather than sheer scale. It did not need to add the largest number of businesses to produce the strongest rate of growth.
London tells a different story. It recorded the biggest absolute increase, with 59,000 additional businesses. The capital’s appeal in business statistics is much like its property market: even when the percentages are not the most dramatic, the numbers remain difficult to ignore. London’s increase alone represents a substantial share of the national rise, reinforcing its role as England’s largest centre for commercial activity.
That does not make London and the East Midlands interchangeable success stories. One is growing through scale; the other through momentum. For entrepreneurs, investors and local authorities, that distinction matters. A region adding businesses quickly may be experiencing a fresh wave of enterprise, while a region adding the greatest number may be deepening an already large and complex business ecosystem. The same word, “growth”, covers two rather different experiences.
The South East provides the uncomfortable counterpoint. It was the only English region to record a decline, losing 30,000 businesses, or 3%. A national increase can therefore coexist with a regional contraction without either figure being misleading. Statistics, in this respect, behave like a slightly mischievous accountant: the total may look healthy while one line of the ledger is plainly not.
The South East’s decline also complicates the familiar assumption that proximity to London automatically guarantees business expansion. The region may sit beside the capital, but geographical closeness is not the same as identical economic performance. Its result stands out precisely because the rest of England recorded growth, making the fall more than a minor variation in an otherwise uniform picture.
Business development is not measured only by how many firms appear. Foreign investment offers another view, one that focuses less on the number of companies and more on the scale of projects and the jobs attached to them. During the 2025/26 financial year, London attracted 326 foreign direct investment projects, creating 14,261 jobs. The figures underline the capital’s ability to draw international investment at a level no other English region matched.
The pattern outside London is more dispersed, but it is not insignificant. The North West attracted 115 foreign direct investment projects and generated 5,254 new jobs, giving it the strongest result among the English regions outside the capital by project count. The East of England created 5,216 jobs from 35 projects. That is almost the same number of jobs as the North West, produced from far fewer projects, a reminder that counting projects alone can tell only part of the story.
Those two regions reveal different forms of investment activity. The North West’s total reflects a broad pipeline of projects, while the East of England’s employment figure points to a smaller number of projects with a considerable jobs impact. It would be tempting to turn this into a neat regional league table, but business development rarely stays neat for long. One large project can alter a jobs figure dramatically; dozens of smaller projects can build a wider base of activity that is less visible in a single headline number.
London’s position is equally multifaceted. It led in both foreign investment projects and the number of jobs created through them, while also recording England’s largest increase in businesses. That combination gives the capital a powerful numerical presence. Yet the regional figures show that international investment is not confined to London’s familiar skyline. The North West and East of England both secured substantial employment gains, though through very different routes.
For companies choosing where to establish themselves, the figures offer no universal formula. The East Midlands is the place that catches the eye if growth rate is the priority. London dominates the absolute numbers and foreign investment totals. The North West has built the strongest non-London tally of FDI projects, while the East of England has turned a smaller project count into almost as many jobs. The South East, with its 3% decline, is a reminder that established economic strength does not remove the possibility of contraction.
There is also a useful distinction between the birth of businesses and the arrival of foreign-backed projects. New private businesses can reflect local entrepreneurship, shifting demand or individual decisions to trade independently. Foreign direct investment usually arrives through larger, more structured commitments. These measures overlap, but they are not twins. Treating them as the same would be like judging a town’s cooking solely by counting both restaurants and visiting chefs.
England’s current business landscape is consequently defined by contrast. The national total is rising, yet the regional experience varies sharply. The East Midlands has the strongest growth rate; London has the largest increase and the biggest foreign investment presence; the North West and East of England are converting international projects into thousands of jobs; and the South East is the solitary region moving downwards.
That unevenness is not a footnote to the story. It is the story. England’s business development is taking place through several different engines at once, with some regions building momentum, some attracting large-scale international commitments and one dealing with a measurable retreat. A single national growth figure may open the conversation, but the regional numbers are where the plot becomes interesting.