SALISBURY is one of the top ten places for budding entrepreneurs to start a business, a survey has shown.

National analysis of demand for local services, carried out by Nominet, the body responsible for UK domain name extensions, revealed cities where consumer demand was not being met.

The company ranked the ten best cities in the UK to start a business, with Salisbury at number six. Oxford was the top spot, followed by Inverness and Cambridge, and Salisbury was followed by Winchester and Bath.

The analysis, of over 154,000 Google search terms and 63,000 national business listings, covered 59 of Britain’s biggest cities and identified where the opportunities were for new business owners to harness online interest in their trade.

Eleanor Bradley, chief operating officer of Nominet, said: “Setting up a new business can be daunting but giving consumers what they want, where they want it is the key to success.

"But having a great idea and being in the right place at the right time is just one part of the story - businesses need a great shop window, on and offline, to grow. With millions of Brits searching the web for local services before hitting the streets, the lack of an online presence is the same as turning business away.”

Steve Godwin, for the Business Improvement District, said he was "delighted" at Salisbury's ranking and that it had "come at just the right time".

He said the climate was "absolutely right for new businesses to start up".

"As a city not only are we quite vibrant in terms of our economy but we're not reliant on employment from any one employer.

"In Salisbury we have literally hundreds of smaller businesses and we're drawing our labour from all over the place so Salisbury must be a prime place to start a business up.

"You are coming into a relatively prosperous area where you have a wealth of experience. With all the new housing going up around us, that's going to be a huge pool of employees, too."

Daniel Rhind-Tutt, who started the Salisbury and District Young Chamber of Commerce, with a focus on young entrepreneurs said:"In my opinion Salisbury is a fantastic place to start and run a new business. The city has an employment rate of circa 99.7 per cent, highlighting in its simplest form that Salisbury and District is a thriving environment.

"The one thing this area does benefit from is a community embrace, whereby when followers become leaders here, they are not treated as outcasts. We support, work with, work for, promote, engage and buy from the people we know. Long may this continue.

"The young people of Salisbury are about to provide a significant input to our future and for anybody with an idea, my advice would be to start, don't fret or hold back, go for it. The future is exceptionally bright and this town is where things should start."