The refinancing wall in Bradford
121 companies in the BD postcode area sit inside an estimated 2026 to 2028 refinancing window, counted from the Companies House register of charges as at 2026-07-07. A further 41 have a window that has not yet opened, and 49 are already past their estimated window end.
121 companies in BD postcodes are inside a refinancing window now.
Of 211 companies in the area carrying a dated facility signal on the charge register, 121 were inside their estimated refinancing window at 2026-07-07. The register records when a charge was created but never when the facility matures, so the window is an estimate built from the creation date and a customary tenor for that charge type and holder. The register does not record maturities, so these are windows rather than dates.
121
Companies in the BD postcode area inside an estimated 2026-2028 refinancing window, as at 2026-07-07.
Source · Companies House register of charges, 2026-07-07 (RUN-REPORT.md); CH bulk snapshot 2026-07-01. Solon Corporate Finance.
Bradford’s wall peaks in Q4 2026, with 141 windows open.
| Quarter | Windows open |
|---|---|
| Q1 2026 | 126 |
| Q2 2026 | 126 |
| Q3 2026 | 140 |
| Q4 2026 | 141 |
| Q1 2027 | 140 |
| Q2 2027 | 130 |
| Q3 2027 | 124 |
| Q4 2027 | 113 |
| Q1 2028 | 103 |
| Q2 2028 | 93 |
| Q3 2028 | 86 |
| Q4 2028 | 66 |
Bradford’s peak quarter
Estimated windows open in each quarter, counted where a window overlaps the quarter. Windows are derived from charge creation dates and customary tenors, never from reported maturities, so every column is an estimate and is drawn hatched.
Source · Companies House register of charges. Solon Corporate Finance, as at 2026-07-07.
Counts are FLOORS from a prioritised sample (83,957 scored companies drawn from a ~1.8m-company ICP universe; hydration was rate-limited and prioritised), one primary facility window per company, three ICP sector groups only. Sector/region SHARES reflect pipeline composition, not the UK market distribution.
Bradford is the most clearing-bank-dependent industrial area in the sample, and it peaks in Q4 2026.
Bradford combines the two conditions that most often leave a borrower underpriced. Manufacturing runs at 42.1% against 26.1% nationally, so the asset backing is there. But clearing banks hold 64.5% of in-window facilities against 54.9%, and challenger and specialist lenders reach only 7.4% against 10.7%. Asset-rich companies are being financed by the lender type least likely to lend against those assets, because a clearing bank sizes on cash flow and treats security as protection rather than as capacity.
It is also one of only two areas where NatWest Group leads on volume, and it peaks in Q4 2026 with 141 windows open, two quarters ahead of the national wall. For a Bradford manufacturer, the gap between what a cash-flow bank will advance and what an asset-based structure will release against the same balance sheet is frequently the whole reason to run a process rather than accept a renewal.
Who holds Bradford’s in-window facilities, against the national mix.
The incumbent on an in-window facility is the lender a borrower will refinance with or away from, so the mix says who the area is currently banked by, and how much of the market it has not met. In Bradford, clearing banks hold 64.5% of in-window facilities against 54.9% nationally, and challenger and specialist banks 7.4% against 10.7%.
Clearing banks hold 64.5% of Bradford’s in-window facilities, against 54.9% nationally.
Bradford (BD)All areas, nationally
| Lender category | Bradford | National |
|---|---|---|
| Clearing banks | 64.5% | 54.9% |
| Unclassified holders | 24% | 27.7% |
| Challenger & specialist banks | 7.4% | 10.7% |
| Trustee-held (lender not named) | 4.1% | 6.3% |
| Debt funds | 0% | 0.4% |
Share of the area's in-window facilities by the category of the charge holder, against the same split nationally. Where a charge is registered to a security trustee or agent vehicle the lender is not named on the register at all, so named-lender categories are floors.
Source · Companies House register of charges. Solon Corporate Finance, as at 2026-07-07.
- NatWest Group32
- HSBC Group18
- Barclays12
- glas trust corporation12
- Lloyds Banking Group10
Named holders are floors. Where a charge is registered to a security trustee, nominee or agent vehicle, the lender is not named on the register at all, so those facilities are counted in the total but appear against no institution. In Bradford that applies to 4.1% of in-window facilities.
Manufacturing accounts for 42.1% of Bradford’s in-window companies, against 26.1% nationally.
Sector decides what a facility can be secured on. A manufacturer with plant, stock and a debtor book has asset-based options that a services business does not, and a services business is judged almost entirely on how durable its earnings look through a cycle. The in-window companies in BD postcodes break down as follows.
- Manufacturing51
- Business services46
- Wholesale and distribution24
The sample covers three business-to-business sector groups, so these are shares within that scope rather than the sector composition of the area’s economy.
The 121 companies already inside a window in Bradford have the least room to negotiate.
A full refinancing taken properly to market runs about three to four months from first lender conversation to completion, and the preparation before it takes longer than most boards expect. Twelve months of runway buys a competitive process. Six months buys a negotiation with the incumbent. Three months buys whatever the incumbent offers. That is the whole reason the timing of this count matters rather than its size.
On that measure Bradford splits three ways. The 121 companies inside a window now are the ones with the least room, because a lender reading a facility as near-term prices it accordingly. The 49 already past their estimated window end have usually extended or rolled with the incumbent, which is a decision rather than a failure, but it is rarely a priced one. The 41 whose window has not opened yet are the ones with real choice, and they are the ones for whom starting early is worth the most. The area peaks in Q4 2026, ahead of the national Q2 2027, so a borrower here reaches credit committees while capacity for the year is still uncommitted.
Three things are worth doing before approaching anyone. Pull your own charge register at Companies House and check what is recorded against the company, including charges you repaid years ago that were never satisfied, because a lender will look before you do and an unexpected entry changes the read. Establish the EBITDA that survives diligence rather than the one you report, since that is the number a multiple gets applied to. And decide what you are optimising for, because the cheapest facility, the most flexible one and the one with the most covenant headroom are rarely the same offer.
- What proximity to maturity costs · the week-by-week shape of a refinancing, and what each month of lost runway is worth.
- Reading your own charge register · what the entries on your Companies House file say, and why repaid charges linger on it.
- What lenders look for in your accounts · how the EBITDA scrub works and what it does to the facility you can raise.
- The lender map · who is lending at £3m to £15m, by type, beyond the clearers holding 64.5% of the paper here.
How the Bradford figure is counted, and what it cannot support.
Every company on the register that grants security files a charge, and that filing carries a creation date but no maturity and no amount. The estimated window is the creation date plus a customary tenor for the charge type and holder, with a half-width of one to one and a half years, and one primary window per company. The national method, the tenor priors and the full tables sit on the UK refinancing wall reference page, and the dated reading of what the count means is in the refi wall, counted.
Nationally, 83,957 companies were scored, 26,383 carry a dated facility signal, and 14,675 sit inside a window at 2026-07-07. The Bradford figures are the BD postcode slice of that count on the same basis, so they are directly comparable with the national ones and with the other areas.
Journalists and analysts are welcome to use these figures with attribution. The press page carries the citation string, and the underlying tables are downloadable from example work.
The same count, elsewhere.
- Sheffield276 in window · peaks Q2 2027
- Leeds272 in window · peaks Q2 2027
- Birmingham529 in window · peaks Q2 2027
- Manchester380 in window · peaks Q2 2027