UK Business Finance Monitor
How UK lending security is changing
The floating charge is in steady decline. It appeared in about 55% of new UK company charges in 2015 and about 37.2% in 2025, a fall of 17.8 percentage points. Over the same period the negative pledge stayed near-universal at around 90.8%. Lenders are taking narrower security over specific assets while keeping the covenant that stops a borrower granting security to anyone else.
Floating charge 2025
37.2%
2015: 55%
Negative pledge
90.8%
near-universal throughout
Fixed charge
64.8%
security over named assets
Share of new charges carrying each feature
| Year | Floating | Fixed | Negative pledge | Floating over all assets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 37.2% | 64.8% | 90.8% | 32.7% |
| 2024 | 38% | 66.7% | 91.3% | 33.5% |
| 2023 | 38.2% | 68.1% | 91% | 33.3% |
| 2022 | 33.7% | 63% | 89.3% | 28.9% |
| 2021 | 37.5% | 66% | 89.9% | 32% |
| 2020 | 45.7% | 70.3% | 89.8% | 39.7% |
| 2019 | 44.2% | 69.6% | 89.3% | 36.4% |
| 2018 | 49.3% | 71.8% | 89.8% | 40.4% |
| 2017 | 52.1% | 72.5% | 89.4% | 42.4% |
| 2016 | 54.9% | 78.1% | 91.2% | 44.3% |
| 2015 | 55% | 81.1% | 92% | 43.8% |
A single charge can carry more than one feature, so these shares do not sum to 100%. The flags are recorded by Companies House on each filing, not interpreted by us.
What the shift means in practice
A floating charge sits over a changing pool of assets, stock, debtors, plant, and only crystallises on default. A fixed charge attaches to a named asset from the start. The move away from floating security means more lending is being written against identifiable collateral, which is what you would expect as asset finance and property-backed lending take a larger share of the market relative to general working-capital debentures.
For a company being assessed, the practical consequence is that the type of security already registered against it tells you something about what a further lender can still take. A floating charge over all assets, in particular, constrains what is left to offer.
Source: charges registered at Companies House, compiled by CoreFi. Figures count charge filings, not amounts lent, because a charge document rarely states a reliable sum. Updated monthly.
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