The UK Liquidity Ledger: October 2026
Private wealth in motion in October 2026, counted from The Gazette and Companies House: the solvent liquidations, the sums sworn, and the firms appointed.
October was a busy month in the quieter end of the public record. Nobody announced anything, and a great deal of money changed hands all the same. Here is the count by the month, which I keep because I can find nobody else publishing it.
In short
In October 2026 The Gazette carried 970 notices of members' voluntary liquidation, the solvent winding-up of a company and a common route by which the owner of a company that has finished its work takes the remaining value out as capital. That is 44.1 a working day, against 23.9 in September 2026, and 309 fell in the week of the 28 October Budget. Of 390 declarations of solvency read from October 2026 filings, 81 swore surpluses of £1m or more.
Key takeaways
- Solvent liquidation notices nearly doubled from 526 in September 2026 to 970 in October 2026, and stood at 648 in October 2025, though the count is seasonal and March 2026 carried 1,570, read from The Gazette's feed on 8 November 2026.
- The week of 26 to 30 October 2026, which contained the Budget, carried 309 notices, about three times the weekly rate of late August and September 2026.
- Of the 390 declarations of solvency read from October 2026 filings, the median sworn surplus was £276,922, up from £246,904 in September 2026.
- In October 2026, 81 declarations swore surpluses of £1m or more, 18 swore £5m or more and 9 swore £10m or more.
- In October 2026, 77.4 per cent of the companies behind the notices had a current entry for an individual person with significant control, and 204 practitioner firms shared the work.
How many solvent liquidations were there in October 2026?
The Gazette published 970 notices of a resolution for a members' voluntary winding-up (notice code 2431) in October 2026, covering 968 distinct companies. Over the 22 working days of October 2026 that is 44.1 a working day. The Gazette's own data feed for the month agreed with it on 2 November 2026: 97 pages of ten notices, so the count reflects the notices published rather than any change in how the house reads them.
The month stands well above the two before it, and about half as high again as a year earlier, though not above March or April 2026. The table shows each month against the same month of 2025, read from The Gazette's own feed on 8 November 2026.
| Month | Solvent liquidation notices (code 2431) | Per working day | Same month of 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| August 2026 | 405 | 20.3 | 395 |
| September 2026 | 526 | 23.9 | 464 |
| October 2026 | 970 | 44.1 | 648 |
The notices are seasonal: March was the busiest month in six of the nine years from 2018 to 2026 (2026 to October), and March 2026 carried 1,570. October 2024, the month of the Budget of 30 October 2024, carried 2,694, the highest month in The Gazette's feed from January 2018, so the October 2026 rise is real and much smaller than that one. The Insolvency Service's official statistics count insolvencies and exclude solvent members' voluntary liquidations, so no official monthly series exists to set this against.
Did the Budget week drive the October 2026 rise?
The timing is clear and the cause is not proven. Weekly notices ran at about 90 to 110 from late August to mid September 2026, rose to 195 and 211 in the weeks beginning 28 September and 5 October 2026, and reached 309 in the week of 26 to 30 October 2026, the week the Budget was delivered on 28 October 2026. A notice records a resolution already passed, so many of the October 2026 notices reflect decisions taken in the weeks before.
Research commissioned by the Insolvency Service, published on 18 June 2026, says the number of liquidations commenced annually between 2015 and 2024 "has fluctuated, influenced by changes in tax policy", and it names economic conditions and the pandemic as well. The notices themselves state no reason. Budget 2026 announced a lower lifetime limit for business asset disposal relief from 6 April 2027; the detail and its consequences are set out in the house's note on the £500,000 business asset disposal relief limit.
| Week (2026) | Notices |
|---|---|
| 17 to 21 August | 111 |
| 24 to 28 August | 89 |
| 31 August to 4 September | 93 |
| 7 to 11 September | 92 |
| 14 to 18 September | 105 |
| 21 to 25 September | 141 |
| 28 September to 2 October | 195 |
| 5 to 9 October | 211 |
| 12 to 16 October | 144 |
| 19 to 23 October | 210 |
| 26 to 30 October (Budget week) | 309 |
Three hundred and nine notices in five working days is a very good week for a liquidator, though not, I am told by the feed, the best they have had around a Budget.
How much money did the October 2026 liquidations swear to?
A declaration of solvency states, on oath, the surplus the directors expect to distribute after every debt is paid. The house read 390 declarations filed at Companies House in October 2026; the house does not read every declaration filed, and the 390 it read are not a random sample, so the figures describe those declarations, not all solvent liquidations. The median sworn surplus in October 2026 was £276,922 and one in ten exceeded £2,142,411.
| Measure of declarations read, by month filed | September 2026 | October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Declarations read | 299 | 390 |
| Median sworn surplus | £246,904 | £276,922 |
| 90th percentile sworn surplus | £1,714,056 | £2,142,411 |
| Sworn surplus of £1m or more | 52 | 81 |
| Sworn surplus of £5m or more | 14 | 18 |
| Sworn surplus of £10m or more | 5 | 9 |
The median is a mass-affluent sum. The tail is where a private bank's interest lies: 81 declarations of £1m or more in October 2026 is close to four a working day, each a named company, most with an individual controller on the register, and a sum sworn on a known date. No figure in this Ledger is summed across companies, because a sworn surplus is an estimate made on the day of the declaration and the amount finally distributed can differ.
Who controls the companies being liquidated?
In October 2026, 749 of the 968 companies behind the notices, 77.4 per cent, had at least one current entry for an individual person with significant control. The rest are controlled through other companies or trusts, or hold no current entry. In September 2026 the share was 66.2 per cent.
An individual controller matters to an adviser because the distribution reaches a person rather than a group. Where the controller is another company, the money moves within a structure and the person behind it is one step further away on the register.
Which practitioner firms handled the most solvent liquidations in October 2026?
Every members' voluntary liquidation names a licensed insolvency practitioner and, almost always, their firm. In October 2026, 204 firms were named on the notices; 21 notices named no firm. The ten busiest firms handled 30.0 per cent of the notices, down from 36.9 per cent in September 2026, as the work spread across more firms in a heavy month.
The table lists the firms by the number of distinct notices naming them in October 2026, as each firm's name appears on the notices. Firms in the same group that file under separate entities appear separately.
| Rank, October 2026 | Firm as named on the notices | Notices |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | BTG Begbies Traynor (Central) LLP | 74 |
| 2 | FRP Advisory Trading Limited | 42 |
| 3 | Leonard Curtis | 41 |
| 4 | BRI Business Recovery and Insolvency | 22 |
| 5 | Cullen & Co UK Limited | 20 |
| 6 | Exigen Group Limited T/A Liquidation Centre | 20 |
| 7 | Quantuma Advisory Limited | 20 |
| 8 | Frost Group Limited | 18 |
| 9 | Johnston Carmichael LLP | 18 |
| 10 | Valentine & Co | 16 |
The practitioner appointed to a solvent liquidation is the professional certain to be in conversation with the owner while the money is being distributed, which is why the table is worth reading by patch as well as nationally. In the house's experience the introduction runs both ways: liquidators and private bankers act for the same kind of owner, so an introduction is more often exchanged than asked for.
Frequently asked questions
How many members' voluntary liquidations were there in October 2026?
The Gazette published 970 notices of a resolution for a members' voluntary winding-up in October 2026, covering 968 companies, or 44.1 a working day. In September 2026 there were 526, and in October 2025 there were 648.
Why did solvent liquidations rise in October 2026?
The rise came in the weeks before and during the 28 October 2026 Budget, and the busiest week was the Budget week itself with 309 notices. The notices do not record reasons, so the link is one of timing.
Is October 2026 a record month for solvent liquidations?
No. The Gazette's feed, read on 8 November 2026, shows 2,694 notices in October 2024 and 1,570 in March 2026, against 970 in October 2026. March was the busiest month in six of the nine years from 2018 to 2026 (2026 to October).
What is the median MVL surplus in the UK in 2026?
Of the 390 declarations of solvency the house read from October 2026 filings, the median sworn surplus was £276,922. In September 2026 it was £246,904.
How many MVLs swear a surplus of more than £1m?
In October 2026, 81 of the 390 declarations of solvency read swore £1m or more, 18 swore £5m or more and 9 swore £10m or more.
Which insolvency firms handle the most members' voluntary liquidations?
In October 2026 the firms named on the most notices were BTG Begbies Traynor (Central) LLP with 74, FRP Advisory Trading Limited with 42 and Leonard Curtis with 41. In all, 204 firms were named on the notices of October 2026.
Is there an official count of members' voluntary liquidations?
No monthly official series covers them; Companies House publishes a count by financial year in its table A10. The Insolvency Service's company insolvency statistics count compulsory liquidations, creditors' voluntary liquidations, administrations and voluntary arrangements; a members' voluntary liquidation is a solvent process and sits outside them. The Gazette's notices are the public record from which a count can be made.
How often is the UK Liquidity Ledger published?
Monthly, in the first week of the following month, on a new page for each month, with the counting pages it draws on refreshed in place. Corrections are welcome at hello@joinwindfall.com.
What changed on 8 November 2026
Corrected: on 2 November 2026 this page described October 2026 as standing well above the rest of the record, and said no year-earlier figure existed. The Gazette's own feed, read on 8 November 2026, gives every month from January 2018, which shows a seasonal pattern, a higher March 2026 and a far higher October 2024, so the comparison is now against the same month of 2025, and the takeaway calling October 2026 the highest month since the house began counting daily is gone. The sentence saying why owners bring liquidations forward, which had no source, is replaced by the Insolvency Service's research, and the answer on an official count now names Companies House's table A10. August 2026's rate per working day was corrected from 20.2 to 20.3. The declaration figures stand as measured on 2 November 2026; because the house reads declarations as they arrive, by 8 November 2026 its count for October 2026 had risen to 415 read, with a median of £288,858, 89 at £1m or more, 21 at £5m or more and still 9 at £10m or more.
Method
Counts are of notices published in The Gazette under code 2431 (resolution for a members' voluntary winding-up) by publication date, measured on 2 November 2026 with measure-ledger.ts against the house's record, which begins on 7 May 2026; the longer series is read from The Gazette's data feed with gazette-mvl-counts.mjs on 8 November 2026. Working days exclude weekends and English bank holidays. Declarations are those of solvency (form LIQ01) filed at Companies House in the month and read by the house, by filing date, so they overlap but do not coincide with the month's notices. The person-with-significant-control share uses the register's current entries on 2 November 2026. Practitioner firms are counted by distinct notices; names are normalised for spelling and punctuation only. No figure is summed across companies; no individual is named; no region is given in this edition, because a company in liquidation usually moves its registered office to the liquidator's address, which would count the practitioners' towns rather than the owners'.
Sources
- The Gazette, notices under code 2431, 1 August to 30 October 2026, and The Gazette's data feed for the month, read 2 November 2026, and the feed from January 2018 to October 2026, read 8 November 2026.
- Companies House, declarations of solvency (LIQ01) filed in September and October 2026, and the register of people with significant control, read 2 November 2026.
- The Insolvency Service, Company Insolvency Statistics, scope as described in its monthly release, read 2 November 2026.
- The Insolvency Service, Members' Voluntary Liquidations: A Statistical Review, published 18 June 2026, read 8 November 2026: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/members-voluntary-liquidations-a-statistical-review-of-mvl-practice-and-outcomes/members-voluntary-liquidations-a-statistical-review-of-mvl-practice-and-outcomes-research-report-march-2026
- Companies House, Companies register activities, April 2025 to March 2026, table A10, published 25 June 2026, read 8 November 2026: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/companies-register-activities-statistical-release-april-2025-to-march-2026
- HM Treasury, Budget 2026, delivered 28 October 2026.
Winny is the house’s pen name. This page is written by Windfall Intelligence Ltd from the UK public record, every figure re-measured on the date it carries, and checked by a person before publication. How these pages are made. Corrections to hello@joinwindfall.com.
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