UK report /East Midlands
DueLead Pulse · Q3 2026

East Midlands business borrowing report

15.9% of the East Midlands's 206,048 trading companies have secured borrowing (32,668 businesses), above the UK at 14.0%.

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 Midlands
15.9%
206,048 companies · 3rd of 12
12.3%17.4%
206k
Trading companies
206,048
15.9%
With secured borrowing
+1.8 pts vs UK
87.2k
Live charges registered
2.7 per borrower
8k
New companies in Q3 2026
still trading at quarter end
3.6%
Late filing accounts
7,460 companies
In brief

What the data says

01The East Midlands ranks 3rd of 12 UK regions for the share of companies borrowing against their assets.
02Real estate & lettings is the most secured-borrowing sector here: 47% of its 27,570 companies have a lender's charge.
038,021 new companies started in the East Midlands in Q3 2026, and 7,460 (3.6%) are late filing accounts.
Who borrows

Bigger and older companies borrow more

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

By company size

Dashed line: UK overall

Micro
11.6%
Small
26.8%
Medium & large
59.7%
No accounts yet
4.2%

By company age

Dashed line: UK overall

0-2 years
4.8%
2-5 years
12.1%
5-10 years
17.7%
10-20 years
18.0%
20+ years
39.8%
By sector

Where secured lending is concentrated

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

Real estate & lettings
47.0%
Manufacturing
23.8%
Holding companies
20.9%
Wholesale & distribution
17.1%
Motor trade
11.3%
Construction & trades
9.4%
Business support services
8.6%
Retail
8.3%
Personal services
7.4%
Healthcare & dental
6.7%
Haulage & logistics
6.5%
Professional services
6.4%
Restaurants, pubs & cafes
5.5%
Tech, media & telecoms
4.7%
Share with secured borrowingAll sectors in the East Midlands (15.9%)
Who's lending

New charges this quarter, by lender

288 charges registered in Q3 2026 at the companies DueLead tracks in the East Midlands. Security agents for syndicated and private equity debt are left out.

Lender type

Share of new charges

Banks
33%
Specialist & alternative lenders
8%
Property, bridging & buy-to-let
42%
Asset finance
1%
Invoice finance
1%
Cash advance & revenue-based
0%
Other & private lenders
15%

Counts of charges registered, not amounts lent. "Other & private" is mostly individuals, family trusts and one-off funding companies.

Most active lenders

By new charges registered in Q3 2026

1 Metro Bank
Banks
49
2 Together
Property, bridging & buy-to-let
17
3 The Mortgage Works
Property, bridging & buy-to-let
17
4 K Kensington Mortgages
Property, bridging & buy-to-let
15
5 Fleet Mortgages
Property, bridging & buy-to-let
14
6 HSBC UK
Banks
13
7 Barclays Bank
Banks
9
8 Godiva Mortgages (Coventry BS)
Property, bridging & buy-to-let
9
9 Aldermore Bank
Specialist & alternative lenders
7
10 Paragon Bank
Specialist & alternative lenders
6
Town reports

Explore the East Midlands by town

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

For commercial finance brokers

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167Companies in the East Midlands with a new trigger this week
215Hot leads in the East Midlands right now
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.