Best UK areas to start a business — the Gera Business Location Score
Pick a business type and budget. We rank every UK local authority by real commercial rent (VOA), local wages (ONS), business rates and market density — so you open where the numbers work.
Which UK areas are best for starting a business in 2026, balancing rent, wages and rates?
Across 315 UK local authorities, the Gera Business Location Score combines VOA commercial rateable values, ONS ASHE local wages, business rates and market density. For a cafe, Gwynedd ranks #1 (GBLS 68.5/100) with premises at just £62/m²/yr. Computed from 2025 government open data; Gera re-dates this annually.
Gera Business Location Score
Top-ranked cafe location: Gwynedd. 45% premises affordability + 25% labour cost + 30% market density.
How this is calculatedFind your best area
Choose a business type and monthly premises budget — get a ranked shortlist.
Budget covers estimated annual rent (VOA rateable value × floor area) plus the 2026-27 small-business rates bill (43.2p multiplier), spread over 12 months. Real reliefs (e.g. Small Business Rate Relief) can reduce the rates portion further.
Best areas to open a cafe or coffee shop within £2,000/month
- 1GwyneddWalesGBLS 68.5≈ £592/mo
- 2PowysWalesGBLS 66.3≈ £640/mo
- 3Staffordshire MoorlandsWest MidlandsGBLS 66.1≈ £601/mo
- 4ConwyWalesGBLS 66.1≈ £716/mo
- 5Forest of DeanSouth WestGBLS 65.9≈ £630/mo
- 6Isle of Anglesey / Ynys MônWalesGBLS 65.9≈ £592/mo
- 7Pembrokeshire / Sir BenfroWalesGBLS 65.7≈ £802/mo
- 8Blaenau GwentWalesGBLS 65.5≈ £544/mo
- 9South TynesideNorth EastGBLS 65.4≈ £630/mo
- 10WyreNorth WestGBLS 65.4≈ £554/mo
- 11Denbighshire / Sir DdinbychWalesGBLS 65.4≈ £649/mo
- 12ThanetSouth EastGBLS 65.2≈ £687/mo
- 13HyndburnNorth WestGBLS 65.1≈ £573/mo
- 14North East LincolnshireYorkshire and The HumberGBLS 65.1≈ £630/mo
- 15Great YarmouthEastGBLS 65.1≈ £726/mo
Top-ranked area by business type
| Business type | Best area | GBLS | Rent (£/m²/yr) | Local median pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cafe | Gwynedd | 68.5/100 | £62 | £25,217 |
| Restaurant | Gwynedd | 67.6/100 | £68 | £25,217 |
| Retail shop | Gwynedd | 66.9/100 | £72 | £25,217 |
| Office-based business | Staffordshire Moorlands | 65.5/100 | £57 | £26,204 |
| Hair & beauty salon | Blaenau Gwent | 66.2/100 | £46 | £26,241 |
| Gym / fitness suite | North East Lincolnshire | 66.2/100 | £14 | £26,631 |
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Frequently asked questions
- What is the Gera Business Location Score?
- The Gera Business Location Score (GBLS) is a 0–100 index that ranks UK local authorities for a given business type by combining premises affordability (45%, from VOA rateable value per m²), local labour cost (25%, from ONS ASHE workplace earnings) and market/footfall density (30%, from ONS Business Counts local units per 1,000 working-age residents). Higher is better for a new small business. The full method is published on the methodology page.
- Where does the data come from?
- Four real UK government open datasets joined on the ONS local-authority code: VOA Non-Domestic Rating Business Floorspace (rateable value per m², 31 March 2025), ONS UK Business Counts 2025 (local units by industry), ONS ASHE 2025 (workplace median earnings) and ONS mid-2024 population estimates. All Open Government Licence v3.0. No figures are estimated or fabricated; suppressed cells are excluded.
- Is the rateable value the same as the rent?
- The VOA rateable value is its estimate of the open-market annual rent a property could let for at the 1 April 2024 valuation date, so it is a strong proxy for commercial rent. It is also the exact basis for business rates: your rates bill is the rateable value multiplied by the multiplier (the 2026-27 England small-business multiplier is 43.2p).
- How many business types and areas are covered?
- This cluster covers 38 SME business types across 315 single-tier and district local authorities in England and Wales, with national, regional and per-area rankings.
Starting a business? Get compliance right from day one.
New UK businesses must handle customer data under GDPR — and AI tools under the EU AI Act if you sell into the EU. GeraCompliance sets up your data-protection and AI Act documentation in a fixed-scope sprint.
Related Gera tools
Contains public sector information published by Valuation Office Agency and Office for National Statistics and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: VOA Business Floorspace + ONS Business Counts + ONS ASHE (work geography) + ONS population estimates (2025 (VOA 31 March 2025; ASHE 2025 provisional; Business Counts 2025; population mid-2024), published December 2025).