Business succession in North East

Name: Business succession in North East
Creator: ExitRadar
License: https://www.exitradar.co.uk/terms

26,817 companies in North East — 32.7% — have a director aged 60 or over.

0.2 points above the UK average of 32.5%.

Companies measured82,024

Director aged 60+26,817

Exposure rate32.7%

Companies House register·Measured base 3,475,770·Data as at 13 August 2026·Full methodology

82,024

Companies measured

26,817

With a director 60+

32.7%

Exposure rate

9,453

With a director 70+

Of the 26,817 with a director over 60, 1,797 score 50 or higher on business quality — an output of our own scoring model, not a Companies House figure. How we score it.

By trade in North East

Trade	Companies	60+	Rate
Lettings	5,012	1,725	34.4%
Consultancy Services	4,128	1,553	37.6%
Retail	4,768	1,165	24.4%
Engineering Services	3,045	920	30.2%
Other Leisure	3,010	917	30.5%
Investment	3,352	915	27.3%
Investment / Fund Management	1,842	662	35.9%
Property Development	1,442	616	42.7%
Management	1,415	547	38.7%
Agriculture	946	507	53.6%
Restaurant / Cafe	2,521	504	20%
Specialist Clinics / Allied Health	1,909	492	25.8%
Other Specialist Trades	1,835	490	26.7%
General Construction	1,261	446	35.4%
IT Services / Consultancy	1,911	410	21.5%
Hotel / Accommodation	924	398	43.1%
Accounting / Audit	912	351	38.5%
Pub / Bar	971	344	35.4%
Vehicle Repair & MOT	1,049	321	30.6%
Media	1,034	289	27.9%
Electrical Installation	1,330	268	20.2%
Energy	856	258	30.1%
Vocational & Professional Training	721	250	34.7%
Care Home / Nursing	514	230	44.7%
Architecture / Design	831	226	27.2%
Education / Training (General)	622	225	36.2%
Financial Advisory / Wealth	550	217	39.5%
Road Freight	617	206	33.4%
Motor Vehicle Dealers	668	204	30.5%
Civil Engineering	875	192	21.9%
Plumbing, Heating & HVAC	982	182	18.5%
Commercial Cleaning	712	179	25.1%
Software / SaaS	820	177	21.6%
Beauty / Salon / Spa	1,204	166	13.8%
Wholesale Agent	410	153	37.3%
Medical Practice / GP Surgery	701	152	21.7%
Joinery & Carpentry	651	151	23.2%
Marketing	733	148	20.2%
Equipment & Plant Hire	320	147	45.9%
Fitness / Sports	595	145	24.4%
Recruitment / Staffing	758	143	18.9%
Legal Services	380	142	37.4%
Precision Engineering / Machining	284	135	47.5%
Catering / Events	545	133	24.4%
Passenger Transport	381	132	34.6%
Estate Agent	517	130	25.1%
Landscaping & Grounds Maintenance	399	117	29.3%
Metal Fabrication / Structures	262	108	41.2%
Arts / Entertainment	364	102	28%
Telecommunications	334	92	27.5%
Household Goods Wholesale	287	92	32.1%
Tutoring & Educational Support	326	90	27.6%
Security Services	312	90	28.8%
Roofing	409	89	21.8%
Data / Cloud / Hosting	376	89	23.7%
Food, Beverage & Tobacco Wholesale	250	83	33.2%
Painting & Decorating	254	75	29.5%
Flooring & Tiling	255	64	25.1%
Dental Practice	409	55	13.4%

Combinations with fewer than 250 measured companies are not listed separately. They are still counted in every total on this page.

Compare with the national index or another region.

Cite this page

These figures are free to quote and reproduce, including in commercial work, with attribution to ExitRadar and a link to this page.

ExitRadar, "Business succession in North East", UK Business Succession Index, 13 August 2026. https://www.exitradar.co.uk/succession/north-east/

Need a cut that is not published here — a different trade grouping, a finer geography, or the underlying distribution? Get in touch and we will usually provide it. Methodology.

Method. Figures cover the 3,475,770 active UK companies where Companies House records an age bracket for at least one serving director — 93.8% of the 3,706,712 companies on the active register. A company counts as succession-exposed when its oldest serving director is 60 or over — not the board average, which would hide a 70-year-old founder sitting alongside younger co-directors. The business-quality figure covers only the subset our model assesses — see the methodology for why that is far smaller than the number with filed accounts. Data as at 13 August 2026; updated quarterly, next update October 2026. Full methodology.