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HouseJester Trade Survival Index · September 2026 edition
Of the 106,023 home-improvement companies set up in 2019 and 2020, 47.8% were still on the Companies House register five years later. Joinery & carpentry lasted longest; painting & decorating had the shortest lives.
By trade
Share of companies still on the register one, three and five years after they were set up.
| Trade | 1 year | 3 years | 5 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| All UK companies | 80% | 50.2% | 43.6% |
| All home trades | 80.6% | 52.2% | 47.8% |
| Joinery & carpentry | 85.7% | 60.9% | 54.2% |
| Plumbing & heating | 83.4% | 58.9% | 53.4% |
| Glazing | 83.4% | 58.8% | 53.2% |
| Electricians | 85.4% | 59.5% | 51.2% |
| Other building finishing | 83.8% | 56.1% | 50.5% |
| Floor & wall tiling | 79.9% | 50.6% | 46.8% |
| Landscaping & gardens | 79.9% | 52.6% | 46.6% |
| Other specialist trades | 81.6% | 52.5% | 46.5% |
| Roofing | 77% | 48% | 45.6% |
| Domestic builders | 77.6% | 47.1% | 45.2% |
| Plastering | 79.2% | 48.4% | 42.3% |
| Painting & decorating | 74.5% | 38.5% | 35.8% |
1-year survival pools companies set up 2019–2024, 3-year 2019–2022 and 5-year 2019–2020. Survival is measured to the end of the calendar year one, three or five years after the year of set-up.
Trend
Of trade companies set up in 2021, 81.4% were still registered at the end of the following year. For 2024 starters it was 75.5%. Figures for 2019 and 2020 starters are flattered because Companies House paused compulsory strike-offs during parts of 2020 and 2021.
By town
Five-year survival of home-trade companies by registered town (towns with at least 400 firms set up in 2019–2020).
Town rankings use the registered office, which may be an accountant's address. We excluded 249 postcodes shared by 15 or more of these firms (formation agents and the Companies House default address). Liverpool (38.3%) and Milton Keynes (50.6%) sit at either end.
Method
We counted companies on the Companies House register by year of incorporation (2019–2024) and trade, and how many had been dissolved by the end of each follow-up year, using the Companies House advanced search (September 2026). Trades are SIC codes 41202, 43210, 43220, 43310, 43320, 43330, 43341, 43342, 43390, 43910, 43999 and 81300. A company listing more than one of these codes counts in each, so these figures are not directly comparable with our Trade Index, which uses the first SIC code only.
“Dissolved” covers companies closed by their owners, companies that never traded and companies struck off for missed filings. It is not the same as business failure, and a sole trader who closes a company may carry on working.
Free to use with a credit and link to HouseJester (CC BY 4.0). Updated each year.
Download the data (CSV)Davendra Patel, Founder · [email protected] · 07973 135243
Hiring? Check how long a firm has been trading or read what a strike-off notice means.