WHILE Britain sizzled in the summer heat, the number of business start-ups cooled as Britons put spreadsheets and business plans to one side in favour of siestas.

At least, that's what Barclays quarterly Start-ups and Closures survey reveals, with the number of start-ups between July and September of this year 13.5 per cent lower than a year ago at 93,090.

However, the South West shone as the best performing region for business start-ups, containing six of the top ten areas nationally, outperforming London and the South East, with Wiltshire drawing equal eighth in the nation's Top Ten together with Cornwall and Southend-on-Sea.

After 12 months of start-up figures boosted by the rebound from foot and mouth, the stock market crash and the economic fallout of September 11th,the summer fall in business is beginning to reflect a return to normal trends.

Barclays SME economist Dr Richard Robert said: "Would-be entrepreneurs may have been dazzled by the sun, spending time building barbecues and topping up their tans rather than laying the foundations for their future business empires."

He added: "The fall in start-ups brings the numbers back in line with my expectations. I forecast economic activity to accelerate in 2004 with business starts rising to just over 100,000 per quarter by this time next year.

"Any entrepreneur who is intending on launching a new venture over the coming months will need to focus their energy in ensuring that they have a solid business plan, a good idea and plenty of commitment backed by the right advice."

Other key findings of the research include the fact that the number of closures fell by 14 per cent year-on-year to 99,325 business closures and total business stock contracted by about 6,200 to just over 2.67m businesses.