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East Midlands · Q3 2026 data

Business funding in Leicester

Leicester has 36,108 trading companies. 5,300 of them (14.7%) have secured borrowing registered at Companies House, below the East Midlands at 15.9% and the UK at 14.0%.

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36,108trading companies
14.7%have secured borrowing
1,779new companies in Q3 2026
4.0%late filing accounts

How Leicester's sectors borrow

The biggest sectors in Leicester, and the share of companies in each with a lender's charge registered against them. Real estate & lettings borrows most against its assets here, at 47%.

Real estate & lettings5,488 companies
47%
Retail4,000 companies
8%
Professional services3,472 companies
6%
Construction & trades2,661 companies
7%
Tech, media & telecoms2,105 companies
3%
Haulage & logistics1,980 companies
3%
Restaurants, pubs & cafes1,936 companies
4%
Healthcare & dental1,896 companies
7%

Older businesses borrow more

Lenders like a track record. In Leicester, the share of companies with secured borrowing climbs with age, which is why a young business often starts with asset finance or a smaller unsecured loan.

Under 2 years11,458 companies
4%
2 to 5 years7,346 companies
12%
5 to 10 years7,923 companies
19%
10 to 20 years6,533 companies
19%
Over 20 years2,848 companies
42%

Who's lending in the East Midlands

The 288 new lender charges we tracked against the East Midlands companies in Q3 2026, by type of lender. Property, bridging & buy-to-let made up the largest share, as most mortgages on company-owned property are registered as charges.

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

Funding that fits Leicester businesses

Plain-English guides to the kinds of funding that suit Leicester's biggest sectors.

Elsewhere in the East Midlands

Source: every live company on the Companies House register at 2026-10-01, analysed by DueLead for its Q3 2026 Pulse report on Leicester. "Secured borrowing" means at least one outstanding charge, a lender's security registered at Companies House, so unsecured loans and overdrafts don't show. Trading companies means active limited companies, LLPs and PLCs, excluding dormant companies, financial services firms and public bodies. Sole traders aren't on the register, so they aren't counted.