Business funding in Reading
Reading has 19,549 trading companies. 2,874 of them (14.7%) have secured borrowing registered at Companies House, above the South East at 13.7% and the UK at 14.0%.
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Check what you can getHow Reading's sectors borrow
The biggest sectors in Reading, 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 52%.
Older businesses borrow more
Lenders like a track record. In Reading, 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.
Who's lending in the South East
The 515 new lender charges we tracked against the South East 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.
Funding that fits Reading businesses
Plain-English guides to the kinds of funding that suit Reading's biggest sectors.
Elsewhere in the South East
Source: every live company on the Companies House register at 2026-10-01, analysed by DueLead for its Q3 2026 Pulse report on Reading. "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.