Nearly 1,000 businesses closed in Portsmouth last year due to 'complicated' economy

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows 860 businesses closed in 2021 – reaching the highest level since 2017.

Last year’s figures are higher than those in 2020, 840, and those in 2019, 760 – before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Nationally, 327,000 businesses closed in 2021, which was a nine per cent increase from the year before.

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Kitty Usher, chief economist at the IoD, said businesses are constantly opening and closing, particularly sole traders undertaking casual work – including delivery couriers, which saw a boom during the pandemic – and self-employed people conducting freelance work.

These are included in the official statistics and are more likely to be created or closed in a short period of time, she added.

The transport, storage and postal industry had the highest business birth rate, at 26 per cent, and death rate, at 22 per cent.

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Ms Ussher said: ‘The picture is then complicated by the impact of the pandemic, which not only led to a temporary increase in unemployment and so increased the number of people looking for freelance work, but also caused a change in consumer spending patterns that affected different parts of the economy in different ways.

‘All of this led to particularly high churn rates as the economy adjusted in 2021.’ Ms Ussher said business births rose in 2021, suggesting an economic recovery. Across the UK, 330,000 businesses opened in 2021, with 920 welcoming customers in Portsmouth.