UK household activity companies in numbers (October 2026)
Key figures compared with the UK
| Measure | This sector | All UK | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active companies | 125,750 | 5,166,057 | 2.4% of UK |
| Median company age (years) | 16.5 | 5.6 | 195% higher |
| Incorporated in the last 3 years | 13.8% | 34.0% | 20.2 pts lower |
| Filing micro-entity accounts | 40.3% | 32.4% | 7.9 pts higher |
| Filing dormant accounts | 34.8% | 10.8% | 24.0 pts higher |
| Accounts overdue | 1.1% | 1.8% | 0.7 pts lower |
| Under a proposal to strike off | 1.7% | 7.4% | 5.7 pts lower |
| In liquidation, administration or receivership | 0.1% | 2.0% | 1.9 pts lower |
| With outstanding charges (secured lending) | 2.3% | 12.1% | 9.8 pts lower |
| Median net assets | £9 | £3,113 | 100% lower |
| Negative net assets | 4.9% | 18.8% | 13.9 pts lower |
| Net current liabilities | 15.8% | 36.2% | 20.4 pts lower |
| Median cash at bank | £761 | £10k | 92% lower |
| Cash covers creditors due within a year | 57.4% | 35.3% | 22.1 pts higher |
| Holding £100k or more in cash | 4.0% | 20.3% | 16.3 pts lower |
| Median employees (where stated) | 0 | 1 | 100% lower |
Balance sheet measures use each active company's most recent machine-readable (iXBRL) accounts with a period ending in 2024 or later: 110,768 companies here (88.1% of active). Net assets 25th to 75th percentile: £0 to £3,209. Cash 25th to 75th percentile: £6 to £8,924.
What the numbers say
Section T looks like no other part of the register, and the reason is one code. Of its live companies, 126,192 use 98000 residents property management. The other codes, such as households employing domestic staff (751), have only a few hundred companies each. A residents' management company is typically set up when a block of flats is built, owned by the leaseholders, and used to manage the common parts or hold the freehold. It is not run for profit.
That explains the outliers:
- Age: a median of 16.5 years, and 62.4% old companies against 32.1%. These companies exist as long as the building does, and very few face a strike-off proposal (1.7% against 7.4%) or become insolvent (0.1% against 2%).
- Tiny balance sheets: median net assets of £9 and median cash of £761. Share capital is often nominal, service charges are spent on the building, and where a managing agent holds the money, the company itself may hold almost nothing.
- Dormant share: 34.8% file dormant accounts, likely because the company has no transactions of its own when the agent collects and spends funds. Read more about dormant companies and micro-entity accounts.
Negative net assets are rare, at 4.9% against 18.8%, and have stayed low: 4.4% for financial years ending in 2014 and 4.8% in 2025, while the UK rose from 16.4% to 18.6%. Where one does appear, treat it as a warning sign, not proof of insolvency; it may simply mean a repair bill was paid before the service charge was collected.
New formation is steady rather than explosive: 6,360 active companies were incorporated in 2025, against 3,323 from 2016, tracking new blocks of flats. If you are buying a leasehold flat, check the management company and compare with real estate companies.
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 | 40.3% | 32.4% |
| Dormant | 34.8% | 10.8% |
| Total exemption full | 14.8% | 23.8% |
| No accounts filed yet | 8.6% | 26.0% |
| Unaudited abridged | 1.2% | 2.9% |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 98000 | Residents property management | 126,192 |
| 97000 | Activities of households as employers of domestic personnel | 751 |
| 98200 | Undifferentiated service-producing activities of private households for own use | 649 |
| 98100 | Undifferentiated goods-producing activities of private households for own use | 508 |
Divisions in this section
| Division | Active companies | Negative net assets | Median cash | Overdue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 98 Undifferentiated goods and services of private households for own use | 125,137 | 4.8% | £745 | 1.1% |
| 97 Activities of households as employers of domestic personnel | 613 | 22.5% | £5,837 | 1.6% |
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.
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