Standing view · business · Torbay
mixed, held with tentative confidence, formed on 31 August 2026 from movements in 2026-06.
Business deaths in Torbay rose to 135 in the second quarter of 2025, then fell to 80 in the third. No figure for formations is published, so the net change in the business base cannot be established from these figures, and the two closure readings point in opposite directions. There were 4,040 businesses in the borough in 2025, of which 230 employed between 10 and 19 people and 130 employed 20 to 49, across 4,880 sites. Computer and household goods repair employed 75 people in 2024.
A view is formed only where the evidence names a figure you can check. Each movement listed as a reason had to be large enough to matter and distinctive in at least one way — unusual against this area's own history, unusual against comparable areas, or sustained over several periods. A movement shared with peers counts for less, because it says something about the country rather than about Torbay. Where no figure supports a direction we hold no view rather than a hedged one.
| Measure | Period | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Business deaths | 2025-06 | deteriorating |
| Business deaths | 2025-09 | improving |
These figures carry no defensible direction of their own: a rising house price is good news to an owner and bad news to someone trying to buy, so we do not score one as an improvement. They are shown because they are part of the picture, and they did not decide the view above.
| Measure | Period | Series |
|---|---|---|
| 95 : Repair of computers and personal and household goods | 2024 | — |
| Businesses | 2025 | — |
| Businesses employing 10 to 19 people | 2025 | — |
| Businesses employing 20 to 49 people | 2025 | — |
| Business sites | 2025 | — |