UK water, sewerage and waste management companies in numbers (October 2026)
Key figures compared with the UK
| Measure | This sector | All UK | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active companies | 16,069 | 5,166,057 | 0.3% of UK |
| Median company age (years) | 6.4 | 5.6 | 14% higher |
| Incorporated in the last 3 years | 33.1% | 34.0% | close to UK |
| Filing micro-entity accounts | 26.8% | 32.4% | 5.6 pts lower |
| Filing dormant accounts | 10.0% | 10.8% | close to UK |
| Accounts overdue | 2.0% | 1.8% | 0.2 pts higher |
| Under a proposal to strike off | 9.3% | 7.4% | 1.9 pts higher |
| In liquidation, administration or receivership | 3.0% | 2.0% | 1.0 pts higher |
| With outstanding charges (secured lending) | 13.8% | 12.1% | 1.7 pts higher |
| Median net assets | £11k | £3,113 | 265% higher |
| Negative net assets | 16.1% | 18.8% | 2.7 pts lower |
| Net current liabilities | 35.6% | 36.2% | close to UK |
| Median cash at bank | £29k | £10k | 189% higher |
| Cash covers creditors due within a year | 29.6% | 35.3% | 5.7 pts lower |
| Holding £100k or more in cash | 33.2% | 20.3% | 12.9 pts higher |
| Median employees (where stated) | 2 | 1 | 100% higher |
Balance sheet measures use each active company's most recent machine-readable (iXBRL) accounts with a period ending in 2024 or later: 11,303 companies here (70.3% of active). Net assets 25th to 75th percentile: £5 to £168k. Cash 25th to 75th percentile: £1,544 to £183k.
What the numbers say
Water and waste companies combine asset-heavy balance sheets with an above-average failure rate.
The balance sheet strength is clear. Median net assets are £11,364 and median cash £29,317, against £3,113 and £10,127 for the UK, and a third (33.2%) hold £100k or more in cash. Waste collection needs vehicles, skips, yards and processing sites, and the median stated headcount is 2, against 1. Negative net assets are less common than average: 16.1% against 18.8%.
The risk shows up on the register. 3.0% of live companies are in liquidation, administration or receivership, about 1.5 times the UK rate, and 9.3% are under a proposal to strike off, against 7.4%. Waste is a volume business with fuel, landfill and disposal costs, permits to maintain, and recycled material prices that can swing, so smaller operators are likely more exposed when costs rise. Before contracting a waste carrier or buying a yard business, our due diligence guide lists the checks.
The negative net assets trend has been stable. The share was 16.6% for financial years ending in 2014 and 16.2% in 2025, while the UK figure rose from 16.4% to 18.6%, so the sector has moved from slightly above to clearly below the national level. A negative balance sheet is still a warning sign, not proof of insolvency (see negative net assets).
The section is mostly about waste rather than water. The largest code is 38110 collection of non-hazardous waste (7,357 live companies), against 1,620 in 36000 water collection, treatment and supply. New entry is accelerating: 1,960 of today's active companies were incorporated in 2025, against 1,143 in 2024. Compare with energy supply or construction, whose site work generates a steady flow of demolition waste.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Total exemption full | 27.6% | 23.8% |
| Micro-entity | 26.8% | 32.4% |
| No accounts filed yet | 23.8% | 26.0% |
| Dormant | 10.0% | 10.8% |
| Unaudited abridged | 3.8% | 2.9% |
| Full (audited) | 3.3% | 1.5% |
| Small | 2.1% | 1.2% |
| Audit exemption subsidiary | 1.4% | 0.7% |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 38110 | Collection of non-hazardous waste | 7,357 |
| 39000 | Remediation activities and other waste management services | 3,131 |
| 38320 | Recovery of sorted materials | 2,192 |
| 38210 | Treatment and disposal of non-hazardous waste | 1,668 |
| 36000 | Water collection, treatment and supply | 1,620 |
| 37000 | Sewerage | 1,486 |
| 38220 | Treatment and disposal of hazardous waste | 352 |
| 38120 | Collection of hazardous waste | 317 |
Divisions in this section
| Division | Active companies | Negative net assets | Median cash | Overdue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 38 Waste collection, treatment and disposal | 10,501 | 16.8% | £30k | 1.8% |
| 39 Remediation and other waste management | 2,743 | 15.3% | £26k | 2.6% |
| 36 Water collection, treatment and supply | 1,488 | 16.1% | £30k | 2.0% |
| 37 Sewerage | 1,337 | 12.0% | £35k | 2.2% |
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).