West Northamptonshire has second-highest number of new companies in the East Midlands this year

West Northamptonshire has had more new companies set up this year than anywhere else in the East Midlands except Leicester.

A total of 3,182 companies registered in the area between January and September 2026 were still live on the Companies House register at the end of September, according to new analysis by The News Front Data Desk. Only Leicester, with 3,742, had more in the region.

Adjusted for population, that is 91.1 new companies for every 10,000 adults in West Northamptonshire, above the UK rate of 84.1 and fifth among the 34 East Midlands councils ranked in the study.

Among the area's newcomers are 331 shops and online retailers and 196 food and drink businesses, from cafés and takeaways to restaurants and pubs.

Most local firms are already small: of West Northamptonshire's 19,450 VAT- or PAYE-registered businesses, 79.6% employ fewer than five people, slightly above the UK figure of 78.2%.

Across the UK, 466,727 new companies were registered in the first nine months of the year and were still live at 30 September. Nearly one in five is a shop or a food and drink business. The analysis left out formation-agent and virtual-office addresses, which can host thousands of companies at one postcode.

For many of the area's new shops, cafés and takeaways, the coming weeks bring their first Black Friday, on 27 November, and their first Small Business Saturday, on 5 December.

Maj Hussain, founder of Magic PR, which owns The News Front, said: "Companies House's own figures show more companies were struck off than formed between July and September, so the people starting out this year are doing it the hard way."

He added: "The places with the most new businesses are not always the ones you'd expect, and that matters for anyone trying to support them."

Registering a company is not the same as trading, and sole traders and partnerships are not included in the figures.

The full study, with figures for every council, is at https://thenewsfront.com/research/start-up-class-of-2026/