Sunderland, with a population of 300,000 and once famous as the home of 65 shipyards, now has Britain’s fastest-growing business base – an achievement by any standards, but one for the North East to celebrate as recession swirls through much of industry, including the city’s Nissan factory.

The city has topped a survey by Royal Mail of active businesses across the country. The Business Barometer measures the growth of business relative to the size of the existing commercial base. Sunderland showed growth of 2.6 per cent in the five months to August, compared with the same period in 2007. This is above the national average of 1.4 per cent and ahead of heavyweight economies, such as Birmingham and Manchester.

Much of the success of Sunderland, which until relatively recently depended on shipbuilding, coalmining and other heavy industry, comes from the city’s gradual transformation into a technological powerhouse. Sunderland City Council and the city’s university have been pushing high-tech development since the 1990s to establish a “software city” to target start-up technology businesses and to attract existing ones to the area.

The emphasis on high-tech industries is also spreading to domestic Sunderland. This year it was named by Ofcom as the best-connect-ed city in Britain. About 66 per cent of homes have a broadband connection.

Paul Watson, leader of the city council, said: “In the past five years, Sunderland has attracted 7,500 jobs, capital investment totalling more than £1 billion and in the past decade more inward investment than any other location in the North East.”

Sunderland has shot up the Royal Mail survey after ranking 34th in the last comparable survey. The postal group began its business barometer three years ago. Colin Bradshaw, head of data strategy at Royal Mail, said: “Royal Mail delivers to every address in the UK and is ideally placed to monitor the growth in business communities across the country.” Royal Mail is also recruiting small businesses to share advice and tips with each other in an online forum.

The other star performers in the survey were Bolton, which took the second place as a new entry, and Dundee, which jumped 26 places to third spot.

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