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HouseJester Trade Index · Companies House · September 2026
10.6% of the 282,346 home-improvement companies we analysed are proposed for strike-off or are in liquidation or administration, against 9.1% of UK companies overall. Plastering fares worst, at more than 1 in 8.
Key findings
By trade
Share of live companies in each trade that are proposed for strike-off, or are in liquidation or administration.
| Trade | Firms | Facing removal | Strike-off | Liquidation | Formed in last year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All UK companies | 4,011,341 | 9.1% | 7.5% | 1.5% | 554,317 |
| Plastering | 5,793 | 13.8% | 12.4% | 1.4% | 676 |
| Other building finishing | 29,310 | 12.1% | 10.5% | 1.6% | 3,223 |
| Other specialist trades | 39,667 | 11.9% | 10.1% | 1.7% | 4,230 |
| Domestic builders | 56,417 | 11.8% | 10.2% | 1.5% | 8,821 |
| Painting & decorating | 9,915 | 11.5% | 10.5% | 1% | 1,597 |
| Kitchen furniture makers | 2,121 | 11.2% | 8.3% | 2.8% | 206 |
| Floor & wall tiling | 7,267 | 11.1% | 9.6% | 1.5% | 924 |
| Roofing | 11,004 | 10.5% | 9.1% | 1.2% | 2,217 |
| Joinery & fitted kitchens | 13,314 | 10.1% | 8.6% | 1.4% | 1,571 |
| Carpet & flooring shops | 3,822 | 10.1% | 8.5% | 1.5% | 341 |
| Glazing | 4,894 | 9.7% | 7.8% | 1.9% | 448 |
| Furniture makers | 4,566 | 9.7% | 7.5% | 2% | 457 |
| Electricians | 42,132 | 8.9% | 7.6% | 1.3% | 5,198 |
| Furniture & lighting shops | 618 | 8.9% | 7.4% | 1.5% | 54 |
| Plumbing & heating | 35,341 | 8.6% | 7.3% | 1.2% | 4,613 |
| Landscaping & gardens | 13,958 | 7.7% | 6.9% | 0.8% | 1,981 |
| DIY, paint & hardware shops | 2,207 | 7.4% | 6.2% | 1.1% | 197 |
“Formed in last year” counts firms registered September 2025 to August 2026 that are still on the register. For growth in new trade firms, see our trade business boom report.
By town
Trade firms facing removal, by the post town of their registered office, next to the rate for all companies there. Towns with at least 1,000 trade firms.
Most stable
Towns where trade firms are least likely to be facing removal.
Trade heartlands
Home-trade firms per 1,000 registered companies, by postcode area.
Lowest: London WC (12.5), London EC (14.1), London W (28), London SW (34.6), Manchester (47), where offices and professional firms dominate.
Trade firms per 1,000 companies, by registered post town.
Explained
It means the company is due to be removed from the Companies House register. A notice has been published in The Gazette, and unless it is withdrawn the company is usually dissolved about two months later. Until then it is still “active” and can keep trading.
A compulsory strike-off is started by Companies House, usually because accounts or the confirmation statement are overdue. A voluntary strike-off is requested by the directors on form DS01 when they want to close the company. Both show the same status, so it does not always mean a firm has failed, but it does mean the company may soon not exist.
For homeowners: check a firm's status before paying a deposit. You can look up any UK company on HouseJester's company search or the Companies House register.
Read our full guide to proposal to strike off, including the Gazette timeline and how to object.
Explained
CF14 8LH (PO Box 4385, Cardiff) is the address Companies House gives a company when its registered office turns out to be wrong. The company must then supply a proper address, or it can be struck off.
We found 1,517 home-trade firms registered at CF14 8LH, and 90.2% of them are already proposed for strike-off or in insolvency. A trader whose company is registered there has no working official address, which is a warning sign worth asking about.
Method
We analysed the Companies House Free Company Data Product (snapshot 1 September 2026). Companies were classed as home-trade firms by their first listed SIC code: domestic builders (41202), electrical (43210), plumbing and heating (43220), plastering (43310), joinery installation including fitted kitchens (43320), floor and wall covering (43330), painting (43341), glazing (43342), other building finishing (43390), roofing (43910), other specialist trades (43999), landscaping (81300), furniture making (31020, 31090) and home retail (47520, 47530, 47591).
“Facing removal” means a company status of active with a proposal to strike off, or in liquidation, administration, receivership or a voluntary arrangement. A strike-off proposal can be compulsory (usually for missed filings) or requested by the directors, and some liquidations are solvent, so this is not a measure of business failure alone.
To avoid distortion, we excluded companies registered at the Companies House default address and at any address shared by 50 or more companies (typically formation agents and accountants). That removes 1,677,606 companies from both the trade figures and the all-company baseline. Towns are the post town of the registered office, which may be an accountant's address rather than where the firm works.
Free to use with a credit and link to HouseJester (CC BY 4.0). Includes all 38 towns and every postcode area.
Download the data (CSV)Davendra Patel, Founder · [email protected] · 07973 135243
The Trade Index is updated quarterly. Local breakdowns are available on request.
Fastest-growing trades in the UK, 2026: new home-improvement firms by trade and town.
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