Download our Enterprising Regions report: A blueprint for entrepreneurial Britain

Cafes where enterprising people can meet to discuss ideas, inexpensive workplaces where small firms can network and positive media coverage are among the key factors behind a successful entrepreneurial area, our new Enterprising Regions report, produced in association with ICAEW, reveals.

Following our recent survey of small business owners and advisers across the UK, the report examines what politicians, policy makers, business support organisations and the business community itself needs to do to encourage the spread of new companies and the creation of wealth across the country.

Some of what is needed is obvious; we all know businesses need access to finance and high-speed broadband, for instance.

What is harder to achieve, because it is less tangible, is the right atmosphere to stimulate creative minds and encourage enterprises to strike out on their own, to experiment and learn from their mistakes.

Some cities are getting it right though and the report profiles Bristol, Manchester, Sunderland, Nottingham and Brighton. It lists the schemes, initiatives and support organisations that are driving local entrepreneurial success.

We also look at three brilliant business owners who discuss why they've based their companies in the area they chose.

Britain needs lots of entrepreneurial towns, villages and cities where go-getting people can create new, flourishing businesses. But if they all have to be based in London then the great imbalances of the British economy will only get worse.

Download the Enterprising Regions report