Accounting / Audit succession in South East

Name: Accounting / Audit business succession in South East
Creator: ExitRadar
License: https://www.exitradar.co.uk/terms

2,732 of 6,796 accounting / audit companies in South East — 40.2% — have a director aged 60 or over.

That is the 2nd highest of 8 UK regions for this trade.

Companies measured6,796

Director aged 60+2,732

Exposure rate40.2%

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

6,796

Companies measured

2,732

Director 60+

909

Director 70+

40.2%

Exposure rate

The UK average across all trades is 32.5%; accounting / audit nationally runs at 34.9%.

Measure	Companies
Accounting / Audit companies in South East measured	6,796
Oldest director aged 60 or over	2,732
Oldest director aged 70 or over	909

Of the 2,732 with a director over 60, 135 score 50 or higher on business quality — an output of our own scoring model, not a Companies House figure. How we score it.

Accounting / Audit in other regions

Region	60+	Rate
South West	1,484	42.8%
Wales	582	40.4%
North East	351	38.5%
Scotland	726	37.2%
East Midlands	843	36.9%
Northern Ireland	242	36.6%
East of England	1,385	36.2%
North West	1,561	34.8%

Other trades in South East

Trade	60+	Rate
Consultancy Services	14,455	41.6%
Lettings	9,873	42.9%
Retail	6,015	26.7%
IT Services / Consultancy	5,392	25.7%
Investment	5,385	33.7%
Other Leisure	5,364	33.2%
Investment / Fund Management	4,380	40.3%
Property Development	4,170	46.3%

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

Next step

This page counts director ages across the whole register. If you are looking to buy rather than to research, our Professional Services pages go further: we score each company on business quality and exit timing, and shortlist the ones worth approaching.

See UK Professional Services →

See all Accounting / Audit succession data or everything in South East.

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, "Accounting / Audit succession in South East", UK Business Succession Index, 13 August 2026. https://www.exitradar.co.uk/succession/prof-accounting/south-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.