Scotland business borrowing report
15.3% of Scotland's 214,939 trading companies have secured borrowing (32,891 businesses), above the UK at 14.0%.
Share of trading companies with secured borrowing
What the data says
Bigger and older companies borrow more
Share of trading companies in Scotland with at least one outstanding charge, by size (from the accounts they file) and by age.
By company size
Dashed line: UK overall
By company age
Dashed line: UK overall
Where secured lending is concentrated
The largest sectors in Scotland, ranked by the share of companies with a lender's charge.
New charges this quarter, by lender
477 charges registered in Q3 2026 at the companies DueLead tracks in Scotland. Security agents for syndicated and private equity debt are left out.
Lender type
Share of new charges
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 |  |
Together Property, bridging & buy-to-let |
102 | |
| 2 |  |
LendInvest Property, bridging & buy-to-let |
81 | |
| 3 |  |
Foundation Home Loans Property, bridging & buy-to-let |
52 | |
| 4 |  |
Aldermore Bank Specialist & alternative lenders |
42 | |
| 5 |  |
The Mortgage Works Property, bridging & buy-to-let |
28 | |
| 6 | B | Bank of Scotland Banks |
19 | |
| 7 |  |
Shawbrook Bank Specialist & alternative lenders |
18 | |
| 8 |  |
Virgin Money (Clydesdale) Property, bridging & buy-to-let |
9 | |
| 9 |  |
Hampshire Trust Bank Specialist & alternative lenders |
9 | |
| 10 |  |
Allica Bank Specialist & alternative lenders |
8 |
Explore Scotland by town
Every town with at least 2,000 trading companies registered there.
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- Trading companies: every active private limited company, LLP and PLC in Companies House's free monthly file of 2026-10-01, leaving out dormant companies, lenders and financial firms, and public bodies. Location is the registered office postcode; towns are the post town.
- Secured borrowing: the company has at least one charge (a mortgage or debenture given to a lender) outstanding or part-satisfied. Unsecured loans, cards and most cash advances don't register a charge, so total borrowing is higher.
- Size comes from the type of accounts last filed: micro-entity, small (total exemption, abridged or small), or medium and large (full, medium or group accounts).
- Late filing: the last accounts filed cover a period that ended more than 21 months before the file date, or a company over 21 months old has filed none.
- New companies were incorporated in the quarter and were still active when the file was taken.
- Lenders: charges registered in the quarter at the companies DueLead tracks, with each chargeholder matched to a register of UK lenders. It's a large sample, not every charge filed, so treat lender shares as indicative.
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.