Succession Gap
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On the register

Business owners over 60 in the UK: where the register shows them

Updated

No public list names the owners near retirement, but the register holds what is needed to find them. These are the files and fields, read on 28 October 2026.

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The fields that find an owner over 60

Companies House records each officer's month and year of birth; the officer resource in its public data API carries it as a field, so a company whose directors were all born before a given year can be found.

Source: Companies House Public Data API: officer summary

The persons with significant control snapshot gives each controller's month and year of birth too, so the owners, not only the directors, can be read.

Source: Companies House PSC snapshot download

The free company data product carries each live company's SIC code and registered office postcode, which is how a search narrows to a sector and an area.

Source: Companies House free company data product

The SIC code list Companies House records against each company.

Source: Companies House: SIC codes

For one company at a time, the advanced company search and each company's officer page show the same records.

Source: Companies House advanced company search

How many are there

The ONS reported that 10.4% of people aged 65 and over, 1.19 million, were in employment in May to July 2016, up from 6.6% in 2006 and 5.5% in 1992. That is people in work, not owners; the government's Small Business Survey records owner age for employers in its tables.

Source: ONS: five facts about older people at work (2016)

The Small Business Survey 2025 report for businesses with employees.

Source: Small Business Survey 2025: businesses with employees

Nomis publishes UK Business Counts by industry, size band and local authority, the denominator for any area.

Source: Nomis: UK Business Counts

Every source here is a public record. Contacting an owner found this way is subject to data protection law; this page is information, not advice.

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Sources

This site's own dataset, every figure quoted from its source and dated:

  • The UK Owner Exit Tax Rules carries 7 published figures read from 3 sources' own pages, from 5 to 100 percent, read 28 October 2026.
  1. GOV.UK: Business Asset Disposal Relief, eligibility
  2. GOV.UK: Capital Gains Tax rates
  3. GOV.UK: Business Relief for Inheritance Tax
  4. Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992, Part V Chapter 3
  5. HMRC Capital Gains Manual CG67800: employee-ownership trusts
  6. GOV.UK: agricultural and business property relief reforms
  7. Companies House data products
  8. Companies House Public Data API: officer summary
  9. Companies House PSC snapshot download
  10. Companies House free company data product
  11. Companies House: SIC codes
  12. Companies House advanced company search
  13. ONS: five facts about older people at work (2016)
  14. Small Business Survey 2025: businesses with employees
  15. Nomis: UK Business Counts

Tell us what you want to buy.

The kind of business, the area, the price range and timing. Joseph Ellul reads it himself and replies directly. Free, no obligation.

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Send my brief