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

Hitchin business borrowing report

14.1% of Hitchin's 4,442 trading companies have secured borrowing (628 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%
4.4k
Trading companies
4,442
14.1%
With secured borrowing
+0.5 pts vs region
1.5k
Live charges registered
2.4 per borrower
160
New companies in Q3 2026
still trading at quarter end
3.5%
Late filing accounts
154 companies
In brief

What the data says

01Real estate & lettings is the most secured-borrowing sector here: 42% of its 612 companies have a lender's charge.
02160 new companies started in Hitchin in Q3 2026, and 154 (3.5%) are late filing accounts.
Who borrows

Bigger and older companies borrow more

Share of trading companies in Hitchin 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
9.9%
Small
22.9%
Medium & large
46.2%
No accounts yet
2.8%

By company age

Dashed line: East of England overall

0-2 years
3.4%
2-5 years
10.7%
5-10 years
15.3%
10-20 years
15.6%
20+ years
35.4%
By sector

Where secured lending is concentrated

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

Real estate & lettings
42.5%
Manufacturing
22.1%
Restaurants, pubs & cafes
11.7%
Construction & trades
10.1%
Retail
9.7%
Business support services
8.8%
Tech, media & telecoms
4.6%
Professional services
4.4%
Share with secured borrowingAll sectors in Hitchin (14.1%)
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.