UK Business Support Services Cashflow Statistics (2026)
Published 24 September 2026 · Data: Companies House register of charges, September 2026
Outsourced services - call centres, back office, document handling, facilities support - run on payroll. Staff are paid monthly whatever the client does, and contracts are won on price against competitors doing the same sums.
1,687 UK business support services businesses hold a live invoice finance facility. New facilities are up 12% on 2019 against 28% across the market, and 10.9% of these borrowers are now in liquidation, administration or receivership.
- 1,687
- business support services businesses on a live facility
- +12%
- new facilities since 2019 (market: +28%)
- 3.9 yrs
- median facility length
- 10.9%
- of funded borrowers in insolvency
How many business support services businesses use invoice finance
Of the 34,750 UK companies on a live invoice finance or asset-based facility, 1,687 are in this sector.
| Year new facilities registered | Business support services | All UK |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 242 | 4,498 |
| 2020 | 147 | 3,039 |
| 2021 | 214 | 4,003 |
| 2022 | 178 | 4,034 |
| 2023 | 205 | 4,493 |
| 2024 | 250 | 5,172 |
| 2025 | 272 | 5,764 |
Business support has grown below the market rate, and its facilities run longer than most at four years.
How long a facility lasts in this sector
The median facility in this sector runs 3.9 years between registration and satisfaction. Across the twelve largest funded sectors that ranges from 2.8 years in healthcare to 5.4 years in printing.
A short median is not a bad sign. It can mean smaller arrangements, or clients who outgrow the facility. A long one suggests a deeper, stickier asset-based relationship. Either way, if you are being sold a facility the useful question is what the exit looks like: termination notice periods and minimum terms are where the cost of leaving sits, and they are rarely the part of the proposal anyone reads closely.
How many businesses change provider
18% of funded businesses in this sector have used more than one invoice finance provider. Across sectors that runs from 11% in management consultancy to 23% in recruitment.
Switching is more common than most business owners assume, and the register only counts moves that left a trace - a facility that ended and was replaced. It does not capture businesses that renegotiated and stayed, so the real figure is higher.
Bank or independent?
| Type of lender | Share of facilities in this sector |
|---|---|
| Bank-owned invoice finance arms | 56% |
| Independent specialists | 38% |
The two halves of this market behave differently. Bank-owned facilities tend to be larger and cheaper, with tighter limits on how much of your ledger can sit with a single customer. Independents are generally more flexible on concentration, on construction-style debt and on export invoices, and quicker to decide. Neither is better in the abstract; which one fits depends on your ledger.
Where it is used
| Region | Businesses on a live facility |
|---|---|
| London | 442 |
| North West | 242 |
| South East | 238 |
| West Midlands | 211 |
| East | 208 |
Failure rate
10.9% of business support services businesses holding a facility are in liquidation, administration or receivership. Across the twelve largest funded sectors the range runs from 8.5% in wholesale to 17.1% in printing.
What the sector gets paid
Administrative and support businesses pay their own suppliers in a median of 27 days, five days faster than the UK average - the pattern of a payroll business, where staff and subcontractors get paid on time because they walk otherwise.
Method
Companies House register of charges, full extract, September 2026. Charges recorded as outstanding and held by an identified invoice finance or asset-based lender, matched at entity level: where a lender registers invoice finance through a named subsidiary, only that subsidiary counts, because the parent's charges cover lending that cannot be separated from it. Charge type is not filtered - only 78% of these lenders' live charges carry a floating charge over all assets and 15% carry no type flag at all.
Barclays and AIB are excluded entirely. Both register all lending under the parent bank with no separate invoice finance entity, so their books cannot be isolated. Both are real providers, so the true totals are larger than those shown.
