UK report /East of England /Cambridge
DueLead Pulse · Q3 2026

Cambridge business borrowing report

11.4% of Cambridge's 15,608 trading companies have secured borrowing (1,779 businesses), below the East of England at 13.6%.

Covers 2026-07-01 to 2026-09-30 · Companies House file of 2026-10-01 · Free to cite with a link

Share of trading companies with secured borrowing

East of England
13.6%
355,968 companies · 11th of 12
12.3%17.4%
15.6k
Trading companies
15,608
11.4%
With secured borrowing
-2.2 pts vs region
4.2k
Live charges registered
2.3 per borrower
677
New companies in Q3 2026
still trading at quarter end
3.8%
Late filing accounts
600 companies
In brief

What the data says

01Real estate & lettings is the most secured-borrowing sector here: 42% of its 1,624 companies have a lender's charge.
02677 new companies started in Cambridge in Q3 2026, and 600 (3.8%) are late filing accounts.
Who borrows

Bigger and older companies borrow more

Share of trading companies in Cambridge with at least one outstanding charge, by size (from the accounts they file) and by age.

By company size

Dashed line: East of England overall

Micro
8.4%
Small
20.6%
Medium & large
39.4%
No accounts yet
2.1%

By company age

Dashed line: East of England overall

0-2 years
2.4%
2-5 years
9.0%
5-10 years
12.5%
10-20 years
14.2%
20+ years
31.4%
By sector

Where secured lending is concentrated

The largest sectors in Cambridge, ranked by the share of companies with a lender's charge.

Real estate & lettings
42.2%
Construction & trades
9.4%
Retail
8.3%
Manufacturing
7.5%
Business support services
7.4%
Restaurants, pubs & cafes
6.8%
Tech, media & telecoms
5.6%
Professional services
4.8%
Share with secured borrowingAll sectors in Cambridge (11.4%)
Town reports

Other towns in the East of England

Every town with at least 2,000 trading companies registered there.

For commercial finance brokers

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How we built this report

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. You're welcome to quote and chart these figures with a link to this page.