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New company incorporations in London

In the 12 months to August 2026, Companies House records in this analysis show 256,508 new companies with a registered office in London. Compared with the previous 12 months, the count increased. A registered office in London is where a company is registered, not necessarily where it trades, and an incorporation is not a confirmed trading business.

Latest complete month
16,604
▼ 21.7% vs Aug 2025 (21,209)
Last 12 months
256,508 Sep 2025 – Aug 2026
new companies
Previous 12 months
245,314 Sep 2024 – Aug 2025
rolling change ▲ 4.6%
Share of UK
34.0% registered-office basis
New companies each month

The latest 12 months (solid) over the previous 12 (dashed). A month counting fewer than 10 companies is withheld and shown as a gap, never a zero.

New company incorporations, LondonMonthly new company incorporations in London. Solid line: September 2025 to August 2026; dashed line: September 2024 to August 2025. A month counting fewer than 10 companies is suppressed, and a month with no data recorded is left blank; neither is plotted as zero. Source: Companies House.Companies024164SepNovJanMarMayJulAugNew company incorporations · London · Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 vs prior year · Companies House
Month 2024–252025–26
Sep 19,61624,056
Oct 21,23224,164
Nov 18,53119,145
Dec 15,87617,566
Jan 21,06923,766
Feb 19,94719,291
Mar 22,11223,023
Apr 21,69422,447
May 21,03921,427
Jun 20,65221,783
Jul 22,33723,236
Aug 21,20916,604

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By industry
New company incorporations by industry, LondonNew company incorporations in the 12 months to August 2026, by industry, for London. A industry counting fewer than 10 companies is not shown. Source: Companies House.Retail and e-commerce47284Software and IT services37981Property and real estate29493Management consultancy19776Construction and trades19467Hospitality and food services15184Marketing, advertising and design11990Health and social care9324Manufacturing8706Transport, courier and logistics6090By industry · London · 12 months to Aug 2026 · Companies House
Industry Previous 12 months Companies Change Share of area
Retail and e-commerce 45,076 47,284 ▲ 4.9% 18.4%
Software and IT services 26,956 37,981 ▲ 40.9% 14.8%
Property and real estate 31,450 29,493 ▼ 6.2% 11.5%
Management consultancy 16,690 19,776 ▲ 18.5% 7.7%
Construction and trades 19,005 19,467 ▲ 2.4% 7.6%
Hospitality and food services 16,234 15,184 ▼ 6.5% 5.9%
Marketing, advertising and design 10,524 11,990 ▲ 13.9% 4.7%
Health and social care 9,278 9,324 ▲ 0.5% 3.6%
Manufacturing 8,716 8,706 ▼ 0.1% 3.4%
Transport, courier and logistics 5,367 6,090 ▲ 13.5% 2.4%

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A company is counted in a group if any of its filed SIC codes falls in that group, so a company can appear in more than one group and these figures are not additive — they are not a breakdown of a whole. A filed SIC code records the activity declared at incorporation, not proof of current trading.

Where these companies are registered
Registered-office address concentration, LondonThe share of registrations at the single most-used registered-office address, the ten most-used, and all other addresses, for London. The two review thresholds (15% at one address, 40% across the top ten) are marked. No address is shown.15% single address40% top ten
Most common address — 11.7% Next nine addresses — 19.0% All other addresses — 69.2% 114,668 distinct addresses · 0.0% postcodes unmapped

Address concentration is published as a share and a distinct-address count only; no address is shown. A registered-office address is taken from the record at extraction and may differ from the address at the time of incorporation.

How this page defines this area
Boundary
Greater London — the 32 London boroughs and the City of London
Geography code
E09000001–E09000033 (33 codes) (GSS), under geography version lr-geography-v1. Matching is by official code, never by text on the address.
Postcode mapping
The registered-office postcode is mapped to a local authority through the ONS Postcode Directory. Postcodes that cannot be mapped are counted separately, never reassigned to a neighbouring authority.
Not included
Greater London is the 33 local authorities listed here, not a postcode geography. The boundary cuts through EN, HA, WD, UB, TW, KT, BR, CR, DA and RM, so defining London by postcode area or district both includes companies in no London borough and excludes companies in one. That is not imprecision; it is a different place.
What these figures do and do not show
Registered office
The address recorded at Companies House when the record was captured. It is not a verified trading location, an operational base or a founder's home.
Incorporation
A registration event. It is not evidence the company is trading, and it is not a business birth in the ONS sense.
Historical addresses
For backfilled months, the address is the one shown at extraction, which may differ from the address filed at incorporation.
SIC codes
Self-classified by the company at filing. A filed code is how the company described itself, not proof of current activity.
Cite this page
Suggested citation

Launch Register analysis of Companies House public data: private limited companies incorporated with a registered office in London in the 12 months to August 2026, geography mapped using the ONS Postcode Directory. Pages update in place, so quoting the release month keeps a figure reproducible.

https://launchregister.co.uk/company-statistics/locations/london/ · Data through August 2026 · Last updated 2026-09-18 · Coverage 2024-09/2026-08 · Methodology methodology-v1 · Geography lr-geography-v1 · Industry mapping sic2007-lr-v1

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