Lewes shines among areas where small businesses are thriving the most in 2023, new study reveals

The research, conducted by Qardus, analysed data from the ONS to determine where SMEs are thriving and where they are in fact struggling. Lewes ranked as the eighth best area for SMEs to grow, with an indexed score of 31.41 out of 100.

The analysis was based on six different factors, including the following: The Active Enterprise Change between 2021-2023, the change in the count of births of new enterprises 2020-2022, the change in the count of deaths of new enterprises 2020-2022, the change of high growth enterprises per 1,000, and the survival rate of SMEs across 3-5 years.  

According to a spokesperson: ”Taking these factors into consideration, a process called minimum to maximum normalization was used to convert metrics to a score between 0 and 10, where 0 is the worst score in the range and 10 is the best.

“Each metric had a weighting for how much it contributes to the final score, the score was then scaled to a maximum of 100 using the weightings provided. Local authorities were then ranked based on their overall score out of 100.”

This study comes after Lewes was named one of Time Out’s Best Places to Visit in the UK. The town was also named by The Times as one of the prettiest towns in the UK for Christmas shopping, and one of the prettiest towns according to The Telegraph.

According to The Times: “The big-brand shops of Brighton may be just down the road, but your pounds are better spent in the independent shops of Lewes.”