UK Care Provider Formation Trends: What the Companies House Data Shows

Companies House incorporation and dissolution data gives a direct read on how many new care-sector companies are forming and how many are closing, by sub-segment, each quarter. It is a different lens from CQC registration counts (which track regulated locations in England only) or bed-capacity data (which tracks physical stock). Formation data tracks corporate entry and exit, and across the three care sub-segments it currently tells three different stories.

The headline: 67,261 active care-sector companies

As at 12 July 2026, 67,261 UK-incorporated companies carried an active care SIC code across the five codes covered by this index: 87100 (residential nursing care), 87200, 87300 and 87900 (other residential care, covering learning disabilities, mental health, and elderly and disabled provision), and 88100 (domiciliary and non-residential care).¹ That figure is a live register count, not a trading or CQC-regulated count: it includes companies that have not yet reached CQC registration and, on the other side, will not include the run-off period between a company ceasing to trade and its formal strike-off.²

Three sub-segments, three different formation trends

The Companies House data is tracked quarterly from Q1 2021 to Q2 2026 across three sub-segments, and the latest quarter shows a clear split in net openings (incorporations minus dissolutions):¹

Both residential segments are running net negative on the smoothed, rolling 4-quarter measure, meaning more companies in those segments have dissolved than incorporated across the last full year of data. Domiciliary is the only segment running net positive, and its Q2 2026 net-opening figure of +250 is the highest single-quarter net-opening figure in the domiciliary series since Q4 2021 (+277).¹

Residential nursing: formation has fallen from a 2023 peak

Residential nursing care (SIC 87100) incorporations peaked at 586 in Q1 2023, part of a run of quarters above 500 stretching from Q2 2022 through Q3 2023. Incorporations have fallen in nearly every quarter since, reaching 216 in Q2 2026, less than half the 2023 peak and the second-lowest quarterly figure in the entire series (the lowest being 189 in Q4 2025).¹

Dissolutions in this segment have moved the other way: from a low of 156 in Q4 2022 to 285-409 per quarter across 2025 and into 2026. The combination (falling incorporations, rising dissolutions) is why the rolling 4-quarter net-opening average has been negative continuously since Q4 2024 (-39.0) and has deepened to -133.75 by Q2 2026, the most negative point in the series.¹

Other residential care: the largest segment, now also net negative

The other-residential bucket (SIC 87200, 87300, 87900, covering learning disability, mental health and general elderly and disabled residential provision) is the largest of the three by volume: 1,651 incorporations in Q2 2026 against 216 for nursing and 602 for domiciliary. Its incorporation count peaked at 3,370 in Q1 2023 and has fallen in most subsequent quarters to 1,651 by Q2 2026, roughly half the peak.¹

This segment's rolling 4-quarter net-opening average turned negative for the first time in Q3 2025 (-127 for that single quarter, -83.25 on the rolling average) and has continued to deepen, reaching -178.0 by Q2 2026, the most negative figure in its series to date.¹

Domiciliary and non-residential care: the outlier, and rising

Domiciliary and non-residential care (SIC 88100) shows a different pattern. Incorporations troughed at 333 in Q4 2024, then recovered through 2025 and into 2026: 451, 486, 490, 487, 549 and 602 across the six quarters to Q2 2026. That final figure, 602, is the highest quarterly incorporation count anywhere in the domiciliary series, which runs back to 395 in Q1 2021.¹

Dissolutions in this segment have also risen (492 in Q3 2025 was the series peak) but incorporations have risen faster, so the rolling 4-quarter net-opening average has climbed from a low of 53.5 (Q4 2025) to 83.5, 98.5 and 140.0 across the three most recent quarters, its strongest run since the 276-282 range recorded across 2022.¹

One caveat applies specifically to this segment: SIC codes are self-reported at incorporation, and domiciliary care agencies frequently mis-file under a residential SIC code rather than the correct 88100 code. That means the true domiciliary formation count is likely understated, and the residential counts correspondingly slightly overstated, by an unknown margin.¹

Formation trend against the regulated stock: CQC context

Companies House formation data measures a different thing from CQC's register. CQC covers England-regulated locations only, while Companies House covers UK-wide incorporated entities; a company can incorporate well ahead of any CQC registration, and one company can hold several CQC locations, so the two series should not be read as the same measure at different stages of one funnel.³

As at the most recent CQC data pull, the England register carried 57,725 active locations, of which 14,896 were flagged as care homes. By primary inspection category, "Residential social care" accounted for 15,951 locations and "Community based adult social care services" (the category most closely aligned to domiciliary provision) accounted for 14,509.³ Set against a residential incorporation count that has been net negative for well over a year, and a domiciliary incorporation count that is accelerating, the corporate formation trend and the regulated-location count are worth tracking as two separate series rather than assumed to move together.

What the diverging trend means for new entrants

The data shows corporate entry and exit counts; it does not explain motive, and any read on entry economics from these figures alone should be treated as inference rather than measured fact. Two patterns are nonetheless visible in the raw numbers themselves.

First, the residential segments (both nursing and other residential) have been shedding companies on a net basis for well over a year, against a backdrop where the CQC register still shows very large numbers of registered residential locations (15,951 in the "Residential social care" category alone). A negative net-formation trend in a segment with a large existing regulated base is consistent with either consolidation among existing operators, closures outpacing new entry, or both; the formation data alone cannot separate these.

Second, domiciliary formation is running at the highest level in the five-year series and accelerating on the smoothed measure. A domiciliary or non-residential care company is typically lower capital-intensity to incorporate and begin trading than a new residential building, since it does not require securing, fitting out and staffing a physical care home before revenue can start; the CQC registration and financial viability process still applies in full to both routes, and registration lead time and cash burn before first income are a separate planning question from the formation trend covered here.

For the CQC registration process itself, including typical lead times and pre-trading cash burn, see the CQC registration timeline and cash burn guide. For the broader financial viability requirements new registrants must evidence, see the CQC registration and financial viability guide.

Explore the underlying data

The full quarterly series behind this analysis, including incorporation, dissolution and rolling net-opening figures for all three sub-segments back to Q1 2021, is published on the care provider business index. For location-level density and CQC rating data by region, see the UK care density and quality index. For company survival and dissolution-rate analysis specifically, see the UK care business survival index.

For a finance review that covers company formation, CQC financial viability evidence and structuring a new care provider entity, see the care homes hub.

1. Care Home Tax: UK Care Provider Business Index, quarterly formation and dissolution data by SIC code, pulled 12 July 2026.
2. Companies House Advanced Search API, incorporation and dissolution records by SIC code, Open Government Licence v3.0.
3. CQC HSCA Active Locations directory, 1 July 2026 publication.