Event and site hire in the South East: the businesses taking on premises this week
A festival is announced months ahead and its licence application sits on the council's register for weeks, and a works contract is published with the winner named before the compound goes up. We tell you which events, contracts and venues are at that point, and which company to ring.
Last week in the South East
In the daily files from 5 to 11 November 2026, businesses in the South East that took on premises, changed hands or were about to, graded A or B for an event hire desk: 0. 0 of them were opening or about to, 0 had just moved in or were under a new owner, and 0 came with a landline to ring. Across Great Britain the same week: 0. 0.0% of the region's rows could not have been flagged by a service working from Companies House alone.
Counted from the daily files dated 5 to 11 November 2026, as read on 11 November 2026. Each event is counted once, on the first file it reached. The same count for every region, in the same words.
Why timing matters
An organiser books marquees, toilets, power and staging in the weeks before an event, and a contractor sets up welfare cabins, fencing and generators before the works start. Both show early if you know where to look. An application for a premises licence has to be advertised at the site for 28 days from the day after it's made (the Licensing Act 2003 premises licence regulations of 2005), the local papers name a festival, a show or a market weeks or months ahead, and every public contract award is published on Contracts Finder or Find a Tender with the winner named. We read all three every day, match the organiser, the venue or the winner to the company register, grade each row for a hire desk and tag it with what it points to: marquees, toilets, power, staging, fencing or welfare.
What we tell you
The moments that matter for you:
| Coming | A business is about to open: a licence applied for, a unit being fitted out, a new company set up to trade from the address. |
| Changed hands | A new operator at premises that were already trading: a pub, shop or care home under new ownership, often keeping the old name on the door. |
How to use it
Ring the events and the contract winners first, in date order, then the venues opening or under a new owner. The job column says what you'd offer before you ring, and the reason column says why now. An event's expected size is in the row where the source gave it.
The councils in the South East
The file is cut to the region, or to any of these councils if you'd rather: Adur, Arun, Ashford, Basingstoke and Deane, Bracknell Forest, Brighton and Hove, Buckinghamshire, Canterbury, Cherwell, Chichester, Crawley, Dartford, Dover, East Hampshire, Eastbourne, Eastleigh, Elmbridge, Epsom and Ewell, Fareham, Folkestone and Hythe, Gosport, Gravesham, Guildford, Hart, Hastings, Havant, Horsham, Isle of Wight, Lewes, Maidstone, Medway, Mid Sussex, Milton Keynes, Mole Valley, New Forest, Oxford, Portsmouth, Reading, Reigate and Banstead, Rother, Runnymede, Rushmoor, Sevenoaks, Slough, South Oxfordshire, Southampton, Spelthorne, Surrey Heath, Swale, Tandridge, Test Valley, Thanet, Tonbridge and Malling, Tunbridge Wells, Vale of White Horse, Waverley, Wealden, West Berkshire, West Oxfordshire, Winchester, Windsor and Maidenhead, Woking, Wokingham, Worthing. Each link is the council's own page of new companies, free, every Monday.
A free fortnight of the file for the South East
The first file comes within one working day, cut to the South East, then every weekday for two weeks. No card, nothing to cancel. After that it's £250 a month for the region, monthly, and you can stop at any month's end.
One row a week, free
Not ready for a fortnight of files? Have one of the week's rows for your region each Friday, the one we'd ring first, free, for as long as you like. The full file has every row, every weekday.
Built for selling within the rules: businesses not people, every row with its source and date, and nothing your team can't explain to someone who asks. How it's done.
Questions
Do you know what they've already booked?
No. That isn't public. We tell you the event or the site, the company behind it, the date where the source gave one, and what it points to. Whether it's booked is the first question on the call.
How is this different from buying a list?
A list is a snapshot of businesses that exist. This is what changed yesterday: who moved in, who took over, who left. A bought list can't tell you any of that, and it's out of date the day it arrives.
How do you find them?
From public registers, read every day and kept, so we can see when something changes at an address. The sources are on the sources page. How we put them together is ours, and we don't publish it.
Is there personal data in it?
Almost none. The file is about businesses and premises: no director names, no home addresses. Where a business publishes only a named address on its own website, the daily file carries it in a marked column, as the privacy notice says; a sample never does. Where a phone number or a mailbox is public, we say where it came from.
Can we email or ring them?
Limited companies and LLPs can be emailed without prior consent under PECR, if you say who you are and give a way to opt out. Phone numbers are yours to screen against the TPS and CTPS before you ring.
Do we have to ring them?
No. Each daily file can come with the emails already written, one for each business with a mailbox of its own, in your words, for you to send from your own mailbox. We draft the wording from your website, you change anything you like, and it's part of the price.
What does it cost?
£250 a month for a region, or £1,000 a month for the whole of Great Britain, monthly, and you can stop at any month's end. The first two weeks are free, so your team can try it on real rows before paying anything.
Is the file exclusive?
Not the whole file, but you can have a head start. First look sends your trade's new rows for your region to you each morning, a working day before anyone else in your trade gets them, for one firm per trade and region: £375 a month for a region, or £1,500 a month for Great Britain, on the same terms.
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