Lending Lenny Guides Check what you can get
East Midlands · Q3 2026 data

Business funding in Nottingham

Nottingham has 35,117 trading companies. 5,625 of them (16.0%) have secured borrowing registered at Companies House, in line with the East Midlands at 15.9% and the UK at 14.0%.

Need funding for a Nottingham business?

Tell Lending Lenny what you need in two minutes. One specialist broker, no credit check to start.

Check what you can get
35,117trading companies
16.0%have secured borrowing
1,440new companies in Q3 2026
4.2%late filing accounts

How Nottingham's sectors borrow

The biggest sectors in Nottingham, 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 48%.

Real estate & lettings5,326 companies
48%
Professional services4,221 companies
6%
Construction & trades3,130 companies
8%
Retail2,884 companies
6%
Tech, media & telecoms2,618 companies
5%
Business support services1,806 companies
8%
Restaurants, pubs & cafes1,717 companies
4%
Healthcare & dental1,620 companies
7%

Older businesses borrow more

Lenders like a track record. In Nottingham, 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 years10,378 companies
5%
2 to 5 years6,887 companies
14%
5 to 10 years7,535 companies
19%
10 to 20 years6,615 companies
19%
Over 20 years3,702 companies
39%

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 Nottingham businesses

Plain-English guides to the kinds of funding that suit Nottingham'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 Nottingham. "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.