Companies House Fees 2026: Why Higher Costs Mean Better Business Leads

On 1 February 2026, Companies House doubled its digital incorporation fee from £50 to £100. Combined with mandatory identity verification (live since November 2025), the cost and effort of registering a UK limited company has never been higher.

For B2B sellers who target newly incorporated companies, the natural reaction is concern: will fewer companies register? The answer is nuanced — and the news is actually good. Here's why higher barriers to entry are making new company data more valuable, not less.

What Changed on 1 February 2026

The fee increases are the second major rise in two years, following the May 2024 jump from £12 to £50. Here's the full picture:

Two things stand out. First, every fee went up — except strike-off, which was cut by 60%. Companies House is actively encouraging dormant and shell companies to remove themselves from the register. Second, paper filing is now significantly more expensive than digital, accelerating the push toward full digitalisation.

Why This Is Good News for Lead Quality

If you sell to new businesses — whether you're an accountant, insurer, web agency, IT provider, or any B2B service — you've likely encountered the problem of junk registrations. Companies that exist on paper only. Shell companies with no trading intent. Dormant SPVs that will never buy anything.

The 2026 reforms are systematically filtering these out:

1. The £100 barrier filters out non-serious registrations

At £12, incorporating a company was almost free — cheaper than a pizza. At £100, it's a real financial commitment. Founders who register now are far more likely to be genuinely starting a business. For B2B sellers, this means a higher proportion of new incorporations represent real prospects with real budgets and real needs.

2. Identity verification eliminates fake directors

Since 18 November 2025, all new directors must verify their identity before appointment. This means matching against government databases, submitting photo ID, and receiving a personal verification code. The days of registering a company under a fake name are over.

For your sales pipeline, this translates to verified contact data. The director name on a Companies House filing now has a real, ID-verified person behind it.

3. Cheaper strike-offs are cleaning the register

By dropping the voluntary strike-off fee from £33 to £13, Companies House is encouraging the roughly 500,000 dormant companies on the register to close down properly. A cleaner register means that active company counts become a more reliable indicator of the real business landscape.

4. PSC verification adds another trust layer

Persons with Significant Control (those who own or control 25%+ of a company) now face stricter verification requirements. This means the ownership data behind new companies is more accurate, giving B2B sellers better insight into who actually controls the business.

What's Happening to Formation Numbers?

After the May 2024 fee increase (£12 to £50), there was a brief dip in incorporations followed by a strong recovery. The UK saw 313,715 new business creations in 2025 according to ONS data — actually outpacing business closures by 28,470.

The February 2026 increase is still fresh, and complete data won't be available for several months. But early signals suggest a similar pattern: a short-term dip followed by normalisation. The companies that drop out are predominantly the ones that were never going to trade — exactly the ones you didn't want in your pipeline anyway.

What This Means for B2B Sellers

If you use new company data to prospect — and you should — here's how to adapt your strategy:

Expect higher conversion rates

With junk registrations filtered out, a greater proportion of the companies in your daily feed will be genuine startups with genuine needs. If you were seeing a 2-3% response rate on cold outreach to new companies, expect that to improve as data quality rises.

Act faster — there's more competition per lead

Higher-quality leads attract more attention. Every accountant, solicitor, and service provider targeting new companies will notice the improved quality. The speed advantage — reaching a company in its first 48 hours — becomes even more critical.

Use identity-verified data to personalise

With verified director names and cleaner registration data, your outreach can be more personalised. Address directors by name with confidence. Reference their specific SIC code and sector. The data supports it now.

Monitor the spring tax-year surge

Despite the fee increase, March and April 2026 will still see a seasonal spike in formations as the tax year ends on 5 April. Founders who've been planning since January are registering now — and they've consciously chosen to pay the higher fee. These are high-intent prospects.

The Full Timeline of Companies House Reforms

To put the fee increase in context, here's how the reforms have rolled out:

By late 2026, everyone who files anything at Companies House — not just directors — will need to be identity-verified. The trajectory is clear: Companies House is transforming from a passive register into an active gatekeeper. Each reform makes the data on the register more trustworthy.

How NewCo Data Helps You Capitalise

NewCo Data delivers new UK company registrations to your inbox every morning — filtered by sector, region, and SIC code. With the post-reform data quality improvements, here's what you get:

• Verified companies only — every director has passed identity verification
• Same-day delivery — reach new companies within hours of incorporation
• SIC code filtering — target only the sectors relevant to your business
• Director contact details — verified names and registered office addresses
• CSV downloads — import directly into your CRM or email tool

The companies registering in 2026 are more serious, more verified, and more likely to need your services than at any point in the last decade. The question is whether you reach them first.

Key Takeaways

• Companies House digital incorporation fee doubled to £100 on 1 February 2026
• Combined with mandatory ID verification (November 2025), the barrier to registration is the highest it's ever been
• This filters out shell companies, fake directors, and non-serious registrations
• For B2B sellers, the result is higher-quality leads with better conversion potential
• The spring 2026 tax-year surge will still bring thousands of new high-intent registrations
• Speed to contact matters more than ever — the best leads attract more competition

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