UK businesses face an exceptionally tough economic environment, with rising costs, higher interest payments and cash strapped customers. Against that background Q3’s business creation and closure numbers are remarkably robust.

To be clear this isn’t a start-up boom, business creations are about in line with the long run average. But nor is there an apocalypse sweeping though UK businesses. In fact things are significantly better than they were this time last year. Nor is the good news concentrated in London and the South East, with signs of strength across the country, while strong new business formation in the scientific and technical sectors will be welcome for those who think the UK is over reliant on the financial services sector.

That’s probably a better result than could reasonably have been expected, and an improvement on where we were at the start of the year. Of course there are tough times ahead, but so far at least, UK businesses seem to be weathering the storm. It’ll be interesting to see how that influences the Autumn statement in a month’s time.