If you run a company in Kent, you probably know an owner or two who shut theirs down rather than sold it. The Companies House register shows how often it happens. We looked at every Kent and Medway company dissolved in the three years to 30 September 2026, 46,230 of them, and at the filings, directors and last accounts of 3,000 chosen at random.
Most were young companies that never got going, or that Companies House struck off for not filing. But a steady number were trading, had more in the company than they owed at their last accounts, and were closed by their own directors.
Of about 295 Kent companies dissolved each week, about 46 were solvent and closed by their own directors
- All dissolved295 a week
- Closed by their own directors166 a week
- And trading and solvent at the last accounts46 a week
- And with net assets of £10,000 or more14 a week
- And with net assets of £50,000 or more5 a week
How Kent companies close
A company can end in one of three main ways. Its directors can apply to strike it off, if it's stopped trading and can pay its debts. It can go through a liquidation, solvent or insolvent. Or Companies House can strike it off, which it does when a company stops filing its accounts and returns.
Over the three years, 56% of Kent's dissolved companies were closed by their own directors, almost all by a strike-off, and 41% were struck off by Companies House. Most of the companies dissolved were young: 16,874 were less than two years old, and only 6,998 had been going for 10 years or more.
| Year to 30 September | Dissolved | A week | Solvent, closed by their directors, a week |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 to 2024 | 14,164 | 271 | About 41 (35 to 47) |
| 2024 to 2025 | 15,955 | 306 | About 46 (40 to 52) |
| 2025 to 2026 | 16,111 | 309 | About 51 (44 to 58) |
The number of dissolutions rose from 14,164 to 16,111 a year. The solvent closures rose with them, though the ranges overlap, so we can't say for certain that they've gone up.
Who closed them
Of the companies that were trading and solvent at their last accounts when their directors closed them, 32% had a director aged 60 or over, and 27% had a director who'd been in post for 10 years or more. 41% had one or the other. 72% had only one director, and 57% had been going for five years or more.
Most were small. The typical one had net assets of about £2,900 at its last accounts, and a third had under £1,000. But about 14 a week had £10,000 or more, about five a week had £50,000 or more, and about seven a week had both £10,000 or more and a director who was 60 or over or had run it for a decade. Over three years, that's about 1,100 established Kent companies with £10,000 or more left in them, closed by the people who ran them.
Where in Kent
Companies close at different rates across the county. Folkestone and Hythe lost the most for its size, about 137 a year for every 1,000 live companies, and Tonbridge and Malling and Sevenoaks the fewest, about 80 and 88. Tunbridge Wells has the highest share of closures that were solvent and by choice, about 35% against 15% across Kent, though part of that is companies in a solvent liquidation that moved their registered office to a Tunbridge Wells liquidator. Leaving those out, it's about 25% against 14%.
| District | Dissolved in three years | A year per 1,000 live companies | Solvent, closed by their directors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ashford | 3,337 | 103 | 16% (12% to 21%) |
| Canterbury | 3,316 | 107 | 17% (13% to 23%) |
| Dartford | 4,467 | 120 | 14% (11% to 19%) |
| Dover | 2,128 | 123 | 20% (14% to 27%) |
| Folkestone and Hythe | 2,685 | 137 | 11% (7% to 16%) |
| Gravesham | 3,250 | 122 | 9% (6% to 14%) |
| Maidstone | 4,783 | 117 | 18% (15% to 23%) |
| Medway | 7,143 | 119 | 11% (9% to 14%) |
| Sevenoaks | 3,359 | 88 | 16% (12% to 21%) |
| Swale | 2,509 | 101 | 11% (7% to 17%) |
| Thanet | 3,121 | 118 | 12% (9% to 17%) |
| Tonbridge and Malling | 3,054 | 80 | 18% (14% to 24%) |
| Tunbridge Wells | 3,078 | 98 | 35% (28% to 42%) |
The last column is estimated from the 3,000 companies we sampled, between 138 and 491 in each district, so the ranges are wide.
Which trades
By the company's main activity, professional and technical services had the most solvent closures by choice, about nine a week, followed by construction (seven) and information and communication (six). Many of those will be one-person consultancies and contractors.
| Trade | Dissolved in three years | Solvent, closed by their directors | A week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Professional and technical services | 5,099 | 26% (22% to 31%) | About nine |
| Construction | 6,154 | 17% (14% to 21%) | About seven |
| Information and communication | 3,843 | 23% (18% to 28%) | About six |
| Shops, wholesale and motor trade | 7,301 | 10% (7% to 12%) | About four |
| Admin and support services | 3,914 | 14% (11% to 19%) | About four |
| Hotels, pubs and restaurants | 3,107 | 12% (9% to 17%) | About two |
| Property | 2,580 | 15% (10% to 21%) | About two |
| Health and care | 1,917 | 15% (10% to 23%) | About two |
Closing or selling
Applying to strike a solvent company off is usually the cheapest way to close it, and for a one-person business with nothing much to sell it's often the right answer. You pay the bills, take out what's left and apply to strike it off. HMRC treats what you take out before a strike-off as capital only if the total is £25,000 or less. Above that, normal distribution rules apply, so owners with more in the company often close it through a members' voluntary liquidation instead.
What closing doesn't get you is anything for the business itself: the customers, the name over the door, the team and the profit it makes. A buyer pays for those. If your company makes a steady profit, it's worth finding out what someone else would pay for it before you close it. Our guide to valuing a business explains how buyers work it out, and the adjusted profit calculator gives you the profit figure they'll start from.
How we worked out the figures
We took every UK company dissolved from 1 October 2023 to 30 September 2026 from the Companies House register and kept those whose registered office was in one of Kent's 12 districts or Medway, matched by postcode. That gave 46,230. For a random 3,000 of them we read the filing history, to see how the company was dissolved, the directors in post when it closed, and the last accounts it filed.
"Closed by their own directors" means the directors applied to strike the company off, or it went through a members' voluntary liquidation. "Solvent" means its last accounts showed more assets than liabilities, or it went through a members' voluntary liquidation, which is only open to solvent companies. "Trading" means its last accounts weren't dormant accounts. Ages come from the month and year of birth on the register. Figures from the sample are rounded and have a margin of error, about four a week either way for the headline figure, and more for districts and trades. We publish totals only.
Three limits. A company in liquidation usually moves its registered office to the liquidator's address, so Kent companies that ended in a liquidation are undercounted, while companies from elsewhere that used a Kent liquidator are counted in, so the effect runs both ways and is small. Net assets aren't what a business is worth, and the last accounts can be a year or more old by the time a company closes; 86 companies in the sample had filed accounts we couldn't read, and we counted them as not solvent. And a company closed by its directors may still have been offered for sale first.