New businesses in London — October 2026

Auspector · Published: October 27, 2026

Between September 27 and October 27, 2026, 7,463 business records in Greater London entered our newly opened businesses section — the most of the UK’s 150 counties, more than three times Greater Manchester (2,249). The town of London itself received 4,969; Ilford (130) and Edgware (122) led the outer-London towns.

Bar chart of new business records in Greater London between September 27 and October 27, 2026, by sector: restaurants 235, hair and beauty salons 187, construction companies 174, auto repair shops 174, cafés 94, gyms and fitness studios 49, supermarkets and grocery stores 45, car dealers 44, bakeries and pastry shops 43, bars and pubs 32.

How many new businesses open in London?

7,463 Greater London records entered our newly opened businesses section between September 27 and October 27, 2026 — about 249 a day on average, although arrivals swing from day to day: the date is when a record reached us, not when the business opened. Greater London here is the county as a whole, the 32 London boroughs and the City of London, with 648,764 records in our database, more than any other UK county.

Is there a borough-by-borough breakdown?

No. Below county level our records carry the town on their address, not the borough, and the town on an address does not follow borough boundaries, so we do not convert one into the other. Most Greater London addresses simply say London — 455,661 of the records in our database — while many in outer London name a town of their own, such as Ilford, Croydon, Harrow and Romford. Those businesses are counted under that town, not under London. The table lists the 15 towns with the most records.

Towns in Greater London: new business records, September 27 – October 27, 2026
Town	New records	All records	New per 1,000 records	Phone	Website information
London	4,969	455,661	10.9	74.6%	68.4%
Ilford	130	11,239	11.6	81.4%	57.0%
Edgware	122	7,012	17.4	80.6%	58.8%
Harrow	112	9,439	11.9	79.9%	60.6%
Romford	98	8,366	11.7	81.6%	61.5%
Hounslow	96	6,345	15.1	76.4%	57.3%
Croydon	91	10,071	9.0	79.5%	63.8%
Enfield	86	7,059	12.2	80.8%	60.6%
Wembley	80	6,898	11.6	71.6%	56.6%
Hayes	71	4,673	15.2	81.8%	57.1%
Bromley	63	5,725	11.0	82.9%	67.7%
Dagenham	62	4,888	12.7	78.5%	55.7%
Sutton	62	4,864	12.7	81.7%	64.4%
Kingston upon Thames	62	4,385	14.1	78.7%	70.6%
Orpington	55	4,487	12.3	82.3%	65.2%

September 27 – October 27, 2026. The 15 towns with the most records in our database, sorted by new records. A town is the locality on the record’s address. Phone and website information are shares of all the town’s records, not only the new ones. Compare the towns with each other, not with the county total.

London itself received 4,969 new records, more than four times the other 14 towns combined (1,190). Among the outer-London towns, Ilford received the most (130). Edgware, sixth of them by records in our database, was second by new records (122); Croydon, second by size, was sixth (91). Relative to size, that makes Edgware the outer town with the most new records (17.4 per 1,000), and Croydon has the fewest (9.0); London itself is at 10.9.

How the London locality compares with Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow, including the phone and website shares of its new records: new businesses in UK cities.

Which sectors are opening in London?

New business records in Greater London by sector, September 27 – October 27, 2026
Sector	New records	All records	New per 1,000 records
Restaurants	235	21,780	10.8
Hair and beauty salons	187	19,997	9.4
Construction companies	174	13,375	13.0
Auto repair shops	174	4,785	36.4
Cafés	94	7,637	12.3
Gyms and fitness studios	49	4,048	12.1
Supermarkets and grocery stores	45	9,420	4.8
Car dealers	44	1,815	24.2
Bakeries and pastry shops	43	2,487	17.3
Bars and pubs	32	4,560	7.0
Pharmacies	31	2,051	15.1
Dentists and dental clinics	29	3,643	8.0
Clothing stores	22	4,418	5.0
Real estate agencies	19	6,321	3.0

Greater London records only; each sector links to its UK-wide data page. Counts are records, and one business can have more than one. Construction and auto repair include businesses that serve customers across an area; new records in these sectors carry a location less often, so their county counts are the least complete.

Restaurants lead with 235, followed by hair and beauty salons (187); construction companies and auto repair shops had 174 each. Relative to their size, auto repair shops stand out by a wide margin (36.4 new records per 1,000), ahead of car dealers (24.2) and bakeries and pastry shops (17.3); estate agents (3.0) have the fewest. Auto repair shops are also a sector where one business can have more than one record, so read that rate with care. The 14 sectors are about one in six of Greater London’s new records; the rest are in other categories, each searchable under its own name.

How does London compare with other UK counties?

The 10 UK counties with the most new business records, September 27 – October 27, 2026
County	New records	All records	New per 1,000 records	Rank by new records (of 150)
Greater London	7,463	648,764	11.5	1
Greater Manchester	2,249	163,814	13.7	2
West Midlands	1,408	150,876	9.3	3
West Yorkshire	1,130	131,356	8.6	4
Essex	926	93,404	9.9	5
Kent	877	104,357	8.4	6
Surrey	860	76,006	11.3	7
Hertfordshire	774	75,290	10.3	8
Hampshire	696	84,746	8.2	9
Merseyside	631	71,864	8.8	10

New records September 27 – October 27, 2026. Each county links to its page.

Greater London received more new records than the next six counties combined (7,450). Relative to size it is second among the 20 counties with the most new records, at 11.5 per 1,000, behind Greater Manchester (13.7). Two of its neighbours are covered in this series as well: Essex and Kent.

What it means if you sell to new businesses in London

Split it before you start. About 249 new records a day is more than one team can work. One sector in one town is a list: restaurants alone averaged about 55 a week across Greater London.
Outer London as its own territory. The four outer towns with the most new records — Ilford, Edgware, Harrow and Romford — received between 98 and 130 each. Searched by town, each is a list of its own.
Garages, car dealers, parts and tyres. 174 new auto repair records and 44 new car dealers in 30 days. Group records by phone number before you count businesses. The sector across the UK and beyond: new auto repair shops.
Web design. Of the six counties in this series, Greater London has the highest share of records with website information (66.6% of all records). The gaps are in particular sectors: auto repair shops (47.1%) and hair and beauty salons (44.3%) have the highest shares of records with a phone number but no website information. The approach: how to get web design clients.

How to pull a list for Greater London

Location: United Kingdom, the county Greater London, then a town such as Ilford or Edgware — the same address locality as in the table.
Section and filters: newly opened businesses (the last 30 days, updated daily), then a sector or a narrower category. Categories are each record’s own, so “barber shop” or “tyre shop” can be a list of its own. Phone — has, for a call list; Website — none, for web design prospects.
Count, then open: searching and counting are free on every plan; a credit is spent only when you first open a record, and a CSV or XLSX export counts as an open (pricing). Save the search and new matches arrive by email every day.

How this was measured

A record is one business location in our database, not a company: a chain with 40 branches is 40 records, and one business can have more than one record — more often in sectors that serve customers across an area, such as construction and auto repair. All figures are record counts. A new record entered our newly opened businesses section between September 27 and October 27, 2026 (up to our database build of October 27, 2026); the date is the day it reached us, not the business’s opening date.

Greater London means records whose address is in that county. In our data Greater London is a single county with no borough figures; towns such as Ilford or Croydon are counted under their own names, not under London. A town is the locality on the address, not a borough or district. Some new records do not carry a county or a town yet — new records lack one more often than older ones, and how often varies by sector. The county figure is therefore a floor and is compared only with other counties, not with a UK total; the towns do not add up to it, because some records name no town and smaller places are not listed.

Sectors are fixed groups of categories — “auto repair shops”, for example, covers auto repair shops, car service centres, body shops, tyre shops and auto electricians. Fewer than five new records are shown as “<5”. Phone, website information and “phone but no website information” are shares of all records, not only the new ones; website information means an own website or a booking, appointment or other platform page, and a social media profile on its own does not count. “The six counties in this series” are Greater London, Greater Manchester, the West Midlands, West Yorkshire, Essex and Kent. County pages are refreshed daily, so their figures can differ slightly from these, measured on October 27, 2026.

The largest cities on their own — London, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow — with the phone and website shares of their new records: new businesses in UK cities. Companies House counts company incorporations, which is a different measure from businesses opening premises: UK company incorporations vs. businesses that open.

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