New company leads for accountants and bookkeepers
Where can an accountant get a list of newly incorporated companies that will actually need an accountant? Every week about 14,543 companies are incorporated in the UK and roughly two-thirds never trade. Salenovo lists the new companies in your council each week, ranks them by how likely they are to become real businesses, and gives you a verified website and business email for the ones that are already up and running — before they have chosen a firm.
What you get
The ones that will need you
Year-end accounts, VAT registration, payroll, self-assessment for the director: a trading company needs all of it within months. A dormant shell or a property vehicle needs none of it. The ranking separates the two.
A route that works
A letter to a formation agent's address goes in the bin. A verified website with a generic mailbox, or a registered premises, reaches the person who is actually starting the business.
The stamp costs more than the record
Writing to all 178 of Chelmsford's new companies in a month is roughly £187 in postage at second-class rates, and about 67 of them will ever trade — so about £116 of that reaches a company that never opens its doors. Raw lists sell for around 15p a record; the postage is six or seven times the record, which is why knowing which letters to send is worth more than the list is.
Not already spoken for
We flag companies whose registered office is an accountancy firm's address — they already have an accountant — so you spend your time on the ones that do not.
Nothing that gets you in trouble
No director names, no home addresses, no scraped personal mailboxes. Public register data plus each company's own public website, with the source and date on every row.
What one client is worth
A new limited company typically pays £1,200–£2,500 a year for accounts, corporation tax, payroll and the director's self-assessment, and stays with its first accountant for years. One client won from the list pays for four years of it.
A worked example: Chelmsford
In Chelmsford last week: 41 companies incorporated, about 16 expected to trade. Over the last 8 weeks, 7 of the council's new companies already have a website verified as theirs and 1 have registered food premises. You get all 41, ranked, so the 16 are at the top and the rest are still there if you want them. See the Chelmsford page, see a real week's list, or compare any area.
Against what you do today
| Raw register dump | Companies House by hand | Salenovo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What arrives | ~14,543 companies a week nationally, unranked, often with director names | Whatever you can find by searching by date and postcode | All 41 in Chelmsford, ranked so the 16 likely to trade are at the top, with signals |
| Contact route | Registered office (often an agent) or 'email where available' | Registered office only | Verified website and generic mailbox where the company has one; registered premises for food businesses |
| Already has an accountant? | Not shown | Look up the address yourself | Flagged on every row |
| When you hear | Daily or monthly dump | When you get round to it | Weekly digest, every Monday |
| Time per week | An hour or two sifting | Two to three hours searching | Ten minutes reading a list |
Business-to-business email to a limited company or LLP is permitted under PECR without prior consent, provided you say who you are and offer an opt-out. Every row says where the address came from. No director names, no home addresses.
Your first week
- Monday: the digest arrives — every new company in your council, ranked A to E, with the ones already registered at an accountancy firm flagged.
- Read the A and B rows that are operating businesses with no accountant on record — usually five to fifteen a week for one council.
- Open the website where there is one (a minute each) and note what they do; the row already gives you the line.
- Send the short email to the generic mailbox, or the letter with a first-year deadlines checklist — templates on the templates page.
- Log who replied. Companies with nothing yet are re-checked at 30, 90 and 180 days and come back to you when a website or premises appears.
Two short messages that work — an email and a letter, with the one line that matters for your trade — are on the templates page.
Questions
How many new companies are formed in the UK each week?
In the week of 7 September–13 September 2026, 14,543 companies were incorporated in the UK — about 2,909 per working day. The number varies by season and is shown for every council on this site.
What proportion of new UK companies actually trade?
About a third. In our outcome cohorts of 447,000 companies formed in 2022 and 2024, 34% went on to file accounts as a trading business; the rest were dissolved, struck off or stayed dormant. The share varies a great deal by formation channel and sector, which is what the ranking uses.
Is it legal to email a newly formed limited company?
Business-to-business marketing email to a limited company or LLP is permitted under PECR without prior consent, provided you identify yourself and offer an easy opt-out. Sole traders and partnerships are treated as individuals and need consent. Salenovo only supplies generic business mailboxes shown on the company's own website, never personal addresses.
How is this different from NewCo Data or a Companies House download?
Those give you the register — every incorporation, with no view on which will trade and no verified contact route. Salenovo gives you the judgement on top: which ones are likely to become businesses, which already have a real website or premises, and which already have an accountant.
Isn't it cheaper to buy a raw list and write to everyone?
The list is the cheap part. Raw new-company lists sell for around 15p a record, and a second-class letter is 91p — closer to £1.05 once it is printed and enveloped. On a postal campaign the data is about a tenth of what it costs to use it and the postage is the rest, so a filter that removes a letter is worth several times what the record cost. Salenovo ranks the list and classifies every registered office — own premises, home, accountant, formation agent, virtual office — at £29 a month for a council.
Method and accuracy — how the numbers are made: incorporations from the Companies House public register, mapped to councils with the ONS Postcode Directory; "expected to trade" from the historical outcomes of 447,000 companies formed in 2022 and 2024, by formation address and sector; websites verified by fetching the company's name-matching domain and checking it against the company; food premises from the Food Standards Agency's register. All Open Government Licence. Every row in the paid list carries its source and date.
Other uses: Insurance brokers · Web, design & marketing agencies · Hospitality & food-service suppliers · Lenders, brokers & fintech · Commercial property & serviced offices · B2B suppliers: telecoms, payroll, EPOS, merchant services · Councils, LEPs & business improvement districts · Business owners