Management: business succession in the UK

Name: Management business succession in the UK
Creator: ExitRadar
License: https://www.exitradar.co.uk/terms

22,525 UK management companies — 37.7% — have a director aged 60 or over.

5.2 points above the all-trades average of 32.5%.

Companies measured59,672

Director aged 60+22,525

Exposure rate37.7%

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

59,672

Companies measured

22,525

With a director 60+

10,101

With a director 70+

37.7%

Exposure rate

Of the 22,525 with a director over 60, 1,269 score 50 or higher on business quality — an output of our own scoring model, not a Companies House figure. How we score it.

Management by region

Region	Companies	60+	Rate
South West	4,319	2,247	52%
South East	7,491	3,391	45.3%
Northern Ireland	839	373	44.5%
Wales	1,585	664	41.9%
East of England	4,627	1,876	40.5%
North East	1,415	547	38.7%
Scotland	1,916	685	35.8%
Yorkshire & The Humber	3,355	1,197	35.7%
North West	5,634	1,979	35.1%
London	21,809	7,436	34.1%
East Midlands	2,618	840	32.1%
West Midlands	4,028	1,271	31.6%

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

Part of the UK Business Succession Index.

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, "Management: business succession in the UK", UK Business Succession Index, 13 August 2026. https://www.exitradar.co.uk/succession/prop-management/

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.