Data · Companies House
What percentage of UK companies have negative net cash?
Draft, not published
37.2% of UK companies in our sample have negative net cash: their cash plus the money owed to them is less than the creditors falling due within one year. That is from 1,615 companies with all three figures tagged, out of 6,863 Companies House filings read in June and July 2026. It is the same measure we report as almost 4 in 10 on the learn side of the site.
The UK-wide figures
Negative net cash leads because it is the question asked. Net current liabilities sits under it as a broader, corroborating measure on a different and much larger denominator, not as the same figure said twice.
| Measure | UK-wide | Companies in this figure |
|---|---|---|
| With negative net cash (cash plus debtors, less creditors due within one year, below zero) | 37.2% | 1,615 |
| In net current liabilities (net current assets below zero) | 37.3% | 6,424 |
| Holding less cash than the creditors due within one year | 63.8% | 2,311 |
| Median cash as a share of creditors due within one year | 48% | 2,249 |
| With £1,000 or less in the bank at the balance sheet date | 20.6% | 3,347 |
| Median cash at the balance sheet date | £12,327 | 3,347 |
Negative net cash, by sector
Only sectors where enough companies tagged cash, debtors and creditors appear here. The rest of the sector pages publish net current liabilities instead, and their tables say so.
| Sector | With negative net cash | Companies in this figure |
|---|---|---|
| Real estate | 56.5% | 184 |
| Retail, wholesale and motor trade | 40.8% | 211 |
| Construction | 36.4% | 217 |
| Administrative and support services | 29.0% | 131 |
| Information and communication | 28.1% | 128 |
| Professional, scientific and technical services | 19.1% | 225 |
Net current liabilities, by sector
The broader measure, which every published sector reports. Ordered by the share of companies below zero on it.
| Sector | In net current liabilities | Companies in this figure |
|---|---|---|
| Real estate | 57.9% | 839 |
| Accommodation and food service (hospitality) | 51.9% | 295 |
| Transport and logistics | 45.2% | 166 |
| Other service activities | 39.6% | 280 |
| Manufacturing | 37.9% | 256 |
| Retail, wholesale and motor trade | 37.1% | 766 |
| Arts, entertainment and recreation | 36.8% | 163 |
| Financial services | 36.4% | 247 |
| Administrative and support services | 34.5% | 475 |
| Information and communication | 32.8% | 522 |
| Health and social care | 32.2% | 304 |
| Construction | 30.8% | 791 |
| Professional, scientific and technical services | 25.3% | 887 |
Reading these numbers
Negative net cash is the measure behind the headline: cash at bank, plus the money customers owe, less the creditors falling due within a year, below zero. On this sample 37.2% of companies are in that position, from the 1,615 that tagged all three figures. It says the money on hand and on its way does not currently match what is due within the year. It does not say a company is insolvent, and it is not a verdict on any single business. Some healthy businesses run negative working capital by model, for example where customers pay up front, and they appear in this figure too.
Net current liabilities is the broader measure and it lands close by: 37.3% of the 6,424 companies that tagged net current assets are below zero on it. That test counts every current asset rather than cash and debtors alone, and far more companies tag it, so the two figures are computed on different groups and neither is a restatement of the other. Read together they say the same thing from two directions rather than twice from one.
Two further rows fill the picture out. 63.8% of companies held less cash than the creditors they must pay within one year, and the median company's cash covered 48% of that figure, from the 2,249 companies with both tagged and creditors above zero. Every figure here is cash against what is owed. None of it describes cover over time, because the accounts behind it carry no profit and loss.
Where these numbers come from. The Companies House monthly accounts bulk product, which is free and public, for accounts filed in June and July 2026. Dataset 2026-08: 10,000 filings randomly sampled (seed-reproducible), 6,863 with usable iXBRL facts; SIC joined from BasicCompanyDataAsOneFile-2026-08-01. Balance sheet facts were read from the filings themselves; each figure carries its own count of companies, because companies do not all tag the same fields.
Small companies file balance-sheet-only accounts with no profit and loss, so nothing on this page describes cover over time. Every claim here is cash against what is owed. Full method, definitions and caveats.
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