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

Hertford business borrowing report

14.5% of Hertford's 2,970 trading companies have secured borrowing (430 businesses), above 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%
3k
Trading companies
2,970
14.5%
With secured borrowing
+0.8 pts vs region
957
Live charges registered
2.2 per borrower
84
New companies in Q3 2026
still trading at quarter end
3.3%
Late filing accounts
97 companies
In brief

What the data says

01Real estate & lettings is the most secured-borrowing sector here: 41% of its 359 companies have a lender's charge.
0284 new companies started in Hertford in Q3 2026, and 97 (3.3%) are late filing accounts.
Who borrows

Bigger and older companies borrow more

Share of trading companies in Hertford 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
11.2%
Small
19.1%
Medium & large
63.6%
No accounts yet
3.5%

By company age

Dashed line: East of England overall

0-2 years
4.0%
2-5 years
9.8%
5-10 years
15.1%
10-20 years
13.8%
20+ years
37.4%
By sector

Where secured lending is concentrated

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

Real estate & lettings
41.2%
Wholesale & distribution
22.6%
Business support services
9.5%
Construction & trades
9.0%
Personal services
9.0%
Tech, media & telecoms
8.7%
Retail
8.3%
Professional services
6.3%
Share with secured borrowingAll sectors in Hertford (14.5%)
Town reports

Other towns in the East of England

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

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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.