Chelmsford has been ranked the fourth best place in England outside of London to set up a new business.

New research by Tide, a leading business financial platform, found Chelmsford had one of the highest business five-year survival rates in the country at 47.21 per cent.

The research combined data on a number of factors including the rise in the number of start-ups, the five-year start-up survival rate, and the number of Tide registered businesses as a percentage of the town's population.

Chelmsford has 917 businesses registered with Tide.

It achieved an overall score of 7.26 to come in fourth in the rankings.

Colchester was the only other place included in the top 10, coming in fifth place with an overall rating of 6.77.

Bournemouth came top of the pile, followed by Stevenage in second and Watford in third.

There are 0.54 businesses in Chelmsford per person, according to Tide’s research.

Oliver Prill, CEO at Tide, said: “Taking the step into entrepreneurship is a big one, and I am always impressed by the number of people who are keen to leap into the unknown and give it a go, particularly in the last year, when we have seen an unprecedented number of new businesses emerge.

“It’s a very difficult step to take though, and as the data shows, not all start-ups make it.”

Tide says there are a number of steps new businesses can take to increase their chances of success.

They include: Running your new business alongside your day-job initially to ensure there are no financial pressures to begin with.

Explore the services on offer to help run your business, particularly the admin side.

If something isn’t working, look for a new direction or different way of doing it to ensure you don’t waste time