UK construction companies in numbers (October 2026)
Key figures compared with the UK
| Measure | This sector | All UK | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active companies | 503,123 | 5,166,057 | 9.7% of UK |
| Median company age (years) | 6 | 5.6 | close to UK |
| Incorporated in the last 3 years | 31.3% | 34.0% | close to UK |
| Filing micro-entity accounts | 36.2% | 32.4% | 3.8 pts higher |
| Filing dormant accounts | 6.9% | 10.8% | 3.9 pts lower |
| Accounts overdue | 1.6% | 1.8% | 0.2 pts lower |
| Under a proposal to strike off | 9.3% | 7.4% | 1.9 pts higher |
| In liquidation, administration or receivership | 2.7% | 2.0% | 0.7 pts higher |
| With outstanding charges (secured lending) | 11.1% | 12.1% | close to UK |
| Median net assets | £7,457 | £3,113 | 140% higher |
| Negative net assets | 16.8% | 18.8% | 2.0 pts lower |
| Net current liabilities | 33.2% | 36.2% | close to UK |
| Median cash at bank | £13k | £10k | 31% higher |
| Cash covers creditors due within a year | 32.2% | 35.3% | close to UK |
| Holding £100k or more in cash | 21.7% | 20.3% | close to UK |
| Median employees (where stated) | 1 | 1 | close to UK |
Balance sheet measures use each active company's most recent machine-readable (iXBRL) accounts with a period ending in 2024 or later: 385,048 companies here (76.5% of active). Net assets 25th to 75th percentile: £99 to £59k. Cash 25th to 75th percentile: £1,329 to £76k.
What the numbers say
Construction is a sector of two halves: balance sheets that look stronger than the UK average, and a higher rate of companies falling off the register.
The stronger balance sheets have plausible sector reasons. Many construction companies hold plant, vans, materials and work in progress, and the largest single code, 41100 development of building projects (119,361 live companies), covers developers that hold land and part-built property. That likely explains why median net assets (£7,457) and median cash (£13,249, against £10,127 for the UK) sit above the national figures. Only 6.9% file dormant accounts, well below the UK's 10.8%, because a construction company is usually set up to trade from day one.
The weaker side shows up on the register. Under a proposal to strike off: 9.3% against 7.4%. In liquidation, administration or receivership: 2.7% against 2.0%. Thin margins, fixed-price contracts, retentions held back by main contractors and long payment chains are the usual explanations: when one contractor fails, its subcontractors often wait months to be paid. Before taking on a subcontractor or supplier, it is worth following our guide to checking a supplier before paying.
Negative net assets are slightly less common than average: 16.8% of construction companies against 18.8% for the UK. The trend is also flatter. The share was 16.2% for financial years ending in 2014 and 16.9% in 2025, while the UK figure rose from 16.4% to 18.6%. A negative balance sheet is a warning sign, not proof of insolvency; our guide to negative net assets explains what to check next.
New entry is strong: 55,530 of today's active construction companies were incorporated in 2025, against 16,939 from 2016. Compare the sector with real estate, where many developers also sit, or run a specific contractor's figures through the balance sheet ratio calculator.
Share with negative net assets, 2014 to 2025
Share of accounts with net liabilities (total liabilities larger than total assets) by financial year end, for companies on the live register. Dissolved companies are not included because the register no longer lists their industry, so earlier years show survivors. Negative net assets is a warning sign, not proof of insolvency: see what negative net assets means.
Accounts types filed
| Type of last accounts | Share here | Share UK |
|---|---|---|
| Micro-entity | 36.2% | 32.4% |
| Total exemption full | 29.7% | 23.8% |
| No accounts filed yet | 20.8% | 26.0% |
| Dormant | 6.9% | 10.8% |
| Unaudited abridged | 3.9% | 2.9% |
| Small | 0.9% | 1.2% |
| Full (audited) | 0.8% | 1.5% |
The type shows how much a company has to disclose. Micro-entity and abridged accounts contain no profit and loss account on the public record. Read more about accounts categories and micro-entities.
Active companies by year of incorporation
Companies incorporated in each year that are still active today. Younger cohorts are larger partly because older ones have been dissolved.
Most common activity codes
| SIC | Activity | Live companies |
|---|---|---|
| 41100 | Development of building projects | 119,361 |
| 41202 | Construction of domestic buildings | 71,617 |
| 43210 | Electrical installation | 55,821 |
| 43999 | Other specialised construction activities n.e.c. | 53,956 |
| 43220 | Plumbing, heat and air-conditioning installation | 46,653 |
| 43390 | Other building completion and finishing | 40,698 |
| 41201 | Construction of commercial buildings | 38,563 |
| 43290 | Other construction installation | 31,598 |
Divisions in this section
| Division | Active companies | Negative net assets | Median cash | Overdue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43 Specialised construction activities | 274,999 | 13.3% | £16k | 1.3% |
| 41 Construction of buildings | 202,667 | 22.5% | £9,038 | 2.0% |
| 42 Civil engineering | 25,457 | 11.6% | £25k | 2.1% |
Methodology
Industry is the first SIC code each company declares on the Companies House register (snapshot 1 October 2026); the dormant placeholder 99999 is excluded. Status, accounts type and due dates come from the register. Financial measures come from our parse of 37 million iXBRL accounts filed since 2008; values above £100bn are treated as extraction errors. Companies filing paper or PDF accounts are not in the balance sheet figures. Full details: methodology.
Download and cite
Download these figures as CSV. Licensed CC BY 4.0: reuse freely with a link to this page.
Check a specific company in this sector with our free company search, or query these statistics from code and AI assistants through the API and MCP server (tool market_stats).