Bedford one of the most enterprising locations in the UK during lockdown

Although the lockdown has been a particularity tough time for the town, with rates of infection soaring, Bedford has proved it's got some serious business clout.

Research carried out by www.Awin.com found the town was the ninth's most enterprising locations in the UK during the pandemic.

The team used data from Companies House to conduct the research to look at all businesses registered from the beginning of lockdown on March 23 to May 30.

They looked at the registered postal town of each business, and accumulated the results, to find the number of companies registered in each town and city during this period - and Bedford beat Milton Keynes, Luton and Cambridge to get the ninth spot.

Unsurprisingly, the team found 29 per cent of all businesses registered with Companies House in lockdown were located in London, with Birmingham (3 per cent) and Manchester (2 per cent) hosting the next most.

Droitwich was uncovered as the most enterprising town in the UK during the lockdown, with 38 people in the area for every one business set up - but Bedford had 310 people in the area for every one business set up.

In comparison, Portsmouth had one registered business per 1,403 people, whilst Hull had one for every 1,223, and Plymouth one for every 1,076.

Commenting on the study, Michele O’Sullivan, business development director UK at Awin, said: “Whilst the pandemic and ensuing lockdown has proved to be one of the most difficult in history for business, we have still seen a remarkable amount of ingenuity and innovation in this period."