Analysis

What the public data turns out to say once you load all of it. Every figure here came out of a query we can run again, and each post says how.

12 August 2026

Hampshire's councils hold 37,474 business premises. Not one names a sole trader.

We loaded the published business rates list from every Hampshire council that publishes one — 37,474 rated premises. Of the 3,711 creative businesses we hold in those areas, 209 appear as a named ratepayer. Of the 91 we identify as sole traders, none do. Not because the councils don't know: because the law stops them saying.

Also here

The numbers — how many creative businesses there are in each council area, and what their filed accounts show.
Guides — the practical stuff: ICO registration, copyright, Self Assessment, whether to incorporate.