The top five months for new start-ups in the last six years have now been during 2014, with 55,602 registered in March, 54,692 in April, 51,460 in October, 51,316 in July and 48,765 in May.

The number of incorporations in October was 5.5 per cent higher than the previous year, meaning 496,945 new businesses have been registered in the year to date, compared to 433,371 in 2013 and 302,346 in 2012.

The latest release suggests 2014 will be a record-breaking year for startups. It notes March and April tend to mark the annual peak for company incorporations, with an average of 8.6 per cent of incorporations occurring in October. This means even with low volumes in November and December, company incorporations in 2014 will likely beat levels recorded in 2013.

However, the level of growth is slowing from double-digit increases recorded earlier in the year and 2014’s growth appeared to peak in June, when the number of new incorporations increased by 20 per cent on the previous year.

In the financial year to October volumes of dissolved companies increased by 14.6 per cent compared to last year, from 197,065 to 225,837, and this caused the number of companies on the register to reach 3,368,995.

“In October 2014, there were 2,149 company liquidations in the UK. Over 44 per cent of these liquidations were creditors’ voluntary liquidations. In addition, there were 296 insolvency proceedings notifications, of which 59.5 per cent had administrators appointed closing the month with 80,572 companies in the UK that were in the process of insolvency,” the release said.

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