On the face of things, the list of Companies House fees being introduced in February 2026 might seem extortionate: Incorporation jumps up 100% to £100, Confirmation Statements up 47% to £50, which means, on a very quick calculation, that the just over 5 million companies incorporated in England and Wales will bring in a whopping additional £85 million from Incorporation Statements alone.
So what will they be doing with all this extra income?
The relatively recent introduction of the Corporate Transparency Act gave Companies House huge new powers that most of us thought they already had but, having found that they did not, almost all of us now welcome their new powers - all except the criminals that is.
It's all about good and trusted data. For years, Companies House has been a fantastic repository of company data that bookkeepers and others use on an almost daily basis for due diligence and ongoing monitoring of clients and suppliers. But much of that data was unchallenged, which meant that some of it was incorrect, out of date, or deliberately misleading. In some cases, companies were set up for no good reason other than to use the legitimacy afforded by incorporation to shield fraud and hide beneficial owners behind complicated structures.
The Corporate Transparency Act gives Companies House new powers to challenge information, seek out fraud and criminality and ensure that the register of companies is robust, accurate and properly reflects the majority of UK businesses that are legal, decent, honest and truthful.
Five Year Strategy: Building trust in data, cracking down on economic crime and supporting growth
Having only joined Companies House recently, Companies House Chief Executive and Registrar of Companies, Andy King, has wasted no time in publishing their Five Year Strategy.
In the opening remarks from his latest blog, King states that he has “been impressed at the commitment of our people to our mission, our service users and our ongoing transformation. I’m delighted to be able to share the next chapter in our journey”.
He reminds readers that “Companies House has been offering free access to its data for 10 years now. We were pioneers in truly open business registers, and that openness has created enormous value for the UK economy.
“But we're not stopping there. We want to lead global standards for corporate registries. When other countries look at how to balance transparency with business needs, we want them to look to the UK as the gold standard.
The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 changed everything for us at Companies House. It was the biggest shake-up in our 180-year history, giving us new powers and new responsibilities. Fast forward to today and we’re not just registering information - we’re actively checking it, challenging it, and using it to prevent misuse of our registers and associated harms”.
The Companies House mission is to ensure that publicly available registers deliver greater value for legitimate businesses, which King believes will stop the criminals who try to abuse them. “We're determined to help create an environment where honest businesses can thrive, letting legitimate businesses know that their competitors aren't getting an unfair advantage by cutting corners or breaking the law. We want them to know that when they're doing business with another company, the information we hold about them is accurate and trustworthy. That's what we're building”.
King’s lofty plan is that by 2030, Companies House will be the trusted guardian of corporate transparency and that, as he puts it, “when someone looks up a UK company anywhere in the world, they can be confident the information they're seeing is accurate, up-to-date, and reliable. This isn't just about Companies House”, he goes on to say, “it's about supporting the government's broader mission for economic growth. When businesses can trust the corporate information ecosystem, when criminal misuse of the register is actively investigated and deterred, and when legitimate companies can operate efficiently, everyone wins”.
A brighter future ahead
If the plans come to fruition, Companies House says it will be transformed from a traditional registry into a dynamic, intelligent guardian of corporate transparency. That will evolve into an organisation that will better protect businesses, support economic growth, and help disrupt crime – not just in the UK, but internationally.
