Companies House Fee Rises: How SMEs Stay Efficient

The Companies House digital incorporation fee has doubled to £100 from 1 February 2026. Same-day incorporation is now £156 (up from £78), and the digital confirmation statement fee is £50 (up from £34). Meanwhile, the digital voluntary strike-off fee has dropped to £13 (down from £33).

On paper, these are “small” numbers compared to payroll or rent. In practice, they’re a signal of something bigger: the UK is funding a tougher compliance regime under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, and the direction of travel is clear—more checks, more administration, and a stronger push toward digital processes.

This post is part of our Governance, Regulation & Public Trust series, where the theme is simple: when regulation changes, the businesses that cope best are the ones that run tighter operations. If you’re a UK SME trying to keep momentum while costs creep up, here’s how to think about these fee increases—and how smart automation (especially marketing automation) can help you offset the drag.

What changed on 1 February 2026 (and what it really means)

Answer first: Companies House has raised most key filing fees, and paper filings are being priced to discourage non-digital processes.

Here are the headline changes effective 1 February 2026:

• Digital incorporation fee: £100 (up from £50)
• Same-day incorporation: £156 (up from £78)
• Digital confirmation statement: £50 (up from £34)
• Digital voluntary strike-off: £13 (down from £33)

Paper fees are rising faster:

• Paper incorporation: £124 (up from £71)
• Paper confirmation statement: £110 (up from £62)
• Paper strike-off: £18 (down from £44)

Two important operational details that get missed:

1. The fee that applies is based on the submission date. If you submitted before 1 February, the previous fee should apply.
2. The pricing gap between paper and digital isn’t an accident. It’s a nudge—borderline a shove—towards digital-by-default compliance.

From a governance and public trust perspective, these increases are framed as funding the work to improve register integrity, transparency, and economic crime prevention. Whether you love the change or hate it, the reality is you’ll be interacting with a more assertive Companies House going forward.

Why fees are rising: transparency, identity checks, and enforcement

Answer first: The fee increases are designed to pay for a more robust system—better data, stronger checks, and more enforcement power.

Companies House isn’t just “a place you file forms” anymore. With the UK’s push to combat economic crime and improve corporate transparency, Companies House has been tasked with doing more than processing.

The RSS source points to the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 and notes that mandatory identity verification was introduced in November 2025. That’s a huge shift in how the register is managed, because identity verification and data quality initiatives don’t come free:

• More verification steps and fraud detection
• More exceptions to handle
• Better systems and staff capacity
• More capability to challenge and correct filings

Here’s my take: a cleaner register is good for honest SMEs. It improves confidence when suppliers, lenders, insurers, and customers check who they’re dealing with. But there’s a trade-off—admin friction increases, and SMEs feel friction more than large corporates.

The hidden cost isn’t the £100—it's the workflow around it

Answer first: The biggest cost for SMEs is the time and distraction created by compliance admin, not the fee line item.

Let’s do a quick back-of-the-envelope example.

Say your business has:

• A director who spends 2 hours coordinating the confirmation statement process (chasing info, checking details, forwarding to an accountant).
• An ops manager who spends 1 hour updating internal records and dealing with filing confirmations.

Even at a modest blended internal cost of £35/hour, that’s £105 of time cost. Add the £50 digital confirmation statement fee and you’re at £155—before you’ve counted the context switching, email back-and-forth, or the fact that this work often happens in peak periods.

That’s why this belongs in a “Governance, Regulation & Public Trust” series: good governance isn’t only about filing on time—it’s about having reliable internal processes. When your internal data is scattered across inboxes, spreadsheets, and half-updated CRMs, compliance becomes a scramble.

Digital-by-default isn’t only a Companies House thing

Companies House is pushing digital. HMRC has been pushing digital. Banks and lenders have been pushing digital KYC/AML. Procurement teams want better supplier data.

So even if you view the fee increase as annoying, it’s also a prompt to ask:

“Where else are we running paper-ish processes that should be automated?”

Because once you start asking that question, you find cost savings everywhere.

Where marketing automation fits (without forcing it)

Answer first: Marketing automation offsets regulatory cost pressure by reducing wasted effort in lead handling, follow-up, and reporting—freeing time and budget for compliance and growth.

Most SMEs react to cost increases by trying to “spend less.” The better move is to spend the same with less waste. And for many growing SMEs, the waste is sitting right in front of them:

• Leads that get a slow response (or no response)
• Manual follow-ups that don’t happen
• Proposals sent with no systematic chasing
• CRM records that aren’t updated, so reporting is guesswork
• Marketing activity that can’t be tied to revenue

When compliance costs rise—even slightly—the businesses that keep investing are the ones that remove operational drag elsewhere.

Practical examples of automation that pay for themselves

Here are a few straightforward automations that typically create immediate savings in a UK SME context:

1. Instant lead acknowledgement + routing

   • Form submission triggers an email/SMS confirmation and assigns the lead based on service line or region.
   • Result: fewer “cold” leads and less admin.

2. Sales follow-up sequences that don’t rely on memory

   • If a proposal is sent and no response arrives in 48 hours, a sequence triggers.
   • Result: more revenue from the same lead volume.

3. Lifecycle reminders and renewal nudges

   • For retainer services, annual contracts, or subscriptions, automate reminders at 60/30/7 days.
   • Result: improved retention and smoother cash flow.

4. Clean CRM data as a governance benefit

   • Automated enrichment, mandatory fields, deduplication rules, and pipeline stage definitions.
   • Result: faster management decisions and fewer compliance headaches when you need accurate company info fast.

If you want the bridge to governance and public trust in one sentence, it’s this:

A well-run CRM is a governance tool, not just a sales tool.

Because it creates auditable, consistent processes: who contacted whom, when, what was promised, and what happened next.

A February 2026 action plan for UK SMEs

Answer first: Treat the fee increase as a prompt to tighten your compliance calendar and automate the repeatable parts of customer acquisition.

February is a great time to reset processes—new budgets, new targets, and (this year) new Companies House fees. Here’s a practical checklist you can hand to an ops lead.

Step 1: Switch every possible Companies House submission to digital

Yes, it’s obvious. But it’s worth stating because paper habits die hard.

• Ensure your internal process defaults to digital filing
• Confirm who owns the Companies House WebFiling credentials
• Document a simple “filing playbook” so it’s not trapped in someone’s head

Step 2: Build a compliance calendar that doesn’t live in one person’s inbox

Put recurring obligations into a shared system (not personal reminders):

• Confirmation statement due date
• Accounts filing deadlines
• Any sector-specific reporting dates

If you’re already using a CRM or operations platform, use it. If not, even a shared calendar with clear ownership is better than guesswork.

Step 3: Quantify your admin drag (one hour of honesty)

Pick one week and track time spent on:

• Manual lead chasing
• Copy/paste reporting
• Re-entering customer data
• Finding “the latest version” of something

You don’t need perfect numbers. You need direction. Most SMEs find at least 5–10 hours/week of avoidable admin across the team once they look.

Step 4: Automate the parts that repeat, not the parts that require judgement

Automation works best when the rule is clear:

• “If X happens, do Y.”

Start with:

• Lead capture → acknowledgement → assignment
• No-response follow-ups
• Quote sent → reminders
• New customer onboarding steps

Leave complex edge cases for humans.

Step 5: Reinvest the recovered time into compliance and quality

This is where the “Governance, Regulation & Public Trust” theme lands.

When you reduce admin waste, you can:

• Keep filings accurate and timely
• Maintain cleaner records
• Respond faster to due diligence requests
• Reduce errors that create reputational risk

That’s not abstract. It’s operational trust.

Common questions SMEs are asking right now

Are Companies House fees likely to rise again?

No one can promise future pricing, but the pattern is clear: 2024 saw large increases, and 2026 has brought another jump. The regulatory direction—stronger checks and higher integrity—suggests Companies House will continue investing in capability.

Is it worth paying more for same-day incorporation?

Only if speed directly affects revenue (e.g., a contract can’t be signed until the entity exists). Otherwise, same-day is often a panic purchase. Better planning is cheaper.

Why did strike-off fees go down?

Because cleaning up dormant or unused companies improves the quality of the register. Lower strike-off fees make that housekeeping more likely.

What to do next

Companies House fee increases are a direct cost, but the bigger message is that running a UK business is becoming more compliance-heavy and more digitally policed. Complaining doesn’t change that. Tight processes do.

If you’re feeling the squeeze, I’d take a hard look at the operational systems that still rely on individuals remembering to do things—especially in marketing and sales. That’s where SMEs often have the most recoverable time, and it’s time you can redirect into proper governance, cleaner data, and steadier growth.

The question worth asking your team this week: what would we stop doing manually if we had to absorb another round of regulatory costs next year?

Source context: Companies House fee changes effective 1 February 2026, as reported at https://realbusiness.co.uk/february-companies-house-fees-increase-roundup.