Short answer: yes. Twice, in under two years.
This fact in itself is an eloquent statement about the current situation. The whole process happened very quickly, almost quietly apart from within the field of accountancy, and many firms continue to run on figures which are either 18 or six months old.
So here is what actually happened, and what the numbers look like right now.
Eight Years of Nothing, Then Two Jumps Back to Back
Between 2016 and May 2024, Companies House fees barely moved. Digital incorporation sat at £12. Filing a confirmation statement cost £13. Voluntary strike-off was £8. These were the prices that had been in place since David Cameron was Prime Minister, and most companies just absorbed them as a minor admin cost without a second thought.
That stopped in May 2024. The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act gave Companies House a new cost-recovery mandate under section 87. For the first time, the registrar had to set fees that covered not just the cost of processing a filing, but the investigative infrastructure, identity systems, and enforcement work the Act also required. Incorporation online jumped from £12 to £50. Confirmation statements went from £13 to £34.
Nine months later, Companies House announced another round. From 1 February 2026, digital incorporation doubled again to £100. Confirmation statements went up to £50.
From £12 to £100 in eighteen months. That is the trajectory businesses are now working within.
What Every Fee Costs Right Now
These figures are taken directly from the Companies House official schedule, effective 1 February 2026.
Digital incorporation: £100. Same-day digital incorporation: £156. Paper incorporation: £124.
Digital confirmation statement: £50. Paper confirmation statement: £110. The gap between those two is not an accident. More on that below.
Voluntary strike-off filed digitally: £13. On paper: £18. This one actually fell. Before February 2026 it cost £33 to close a company digitally.
Registering a charge: £14 digitally. Same-day name change: £85. Community interest company incorporation: £115 digitally, £139 on paper. Registering as an Authorised Corporate Service Provider: £63.
Certified documents: £22 for standard dispatch. £65 for same-day. Additional certificates for the same company: £16.
The register itself, company profiles, filing histories, accounts, stays free to access publicly. Certified copies are where the charges sit.
Paper Filing Now Costs More Than Double Digital
A digital confirmation statement costs £50. The exact same statement on paper costs £110.
That £60 difference is not administrative overhead. It is deliberate. Companies House has been pushing paper out of the system for years, and the 2026 fee structure accelerates that. The gap between paper and digital has never been wider.
For any company still submitting paper forms as a matter of habit, the maths has shifted sharply. There is no legal reason most filings cannot go through the digital service, and paying £110 for something that costs £50 online is a decision worth revisiting.
Dormant Companies Have a New Annual Bill
A lot of business owners assume a dormant company costs nothing to maintain. It does not, and that assumption is more expensive than it used to be.
All limited companies, regardless of whether they are active or not, have to submit their confirmation statement at least once a year. Beginning from 1 February 2026, the cost of submitting the digital confirmation statement is £50. It means that all the companies, incorporated five years ago and never traded, are owing Companies House £50 a year for registration alone.
On the other side of that equation, dissolving a dormant company got cheaper. Voluntary strike-off now costs £13 digitally, down from £33. If you have entities sitting on the register that have no current purpose, closing them now costs less than it did a year ago and considerably less than keeping them open across several years of confirmation statements.
Why the Fees Keep Moving
Companies House does not turn a profit. It operates as a Trading Fund under a statutory duty to break even over time, recovering its operational costs through the fees it charges.
The ECCTA 2023 materially expanded what those operational costs include. Identity verification infrastructure, active monitoring of the register for false information, data-sharing with law enforcement, funding for the Insolvency Service’s director disqualification and fraud prosecution work. None of that existed at the same scale in 2016. All of it costs money.
Identity verification itself became mandatory for new directors and Persons with Significant Control from 18 November 2025. The system that runs those checks requires ongoing investment, and that investment feeds into the fee calculation.
Companies House reviews fees annually. No announcements have been made about 2027 yet, but the cost-recovery model means the ceiling is not fixed. If operational costs rise, fees follow.
Against Other Countries, the UK Is Still Cheap
Bulgaria charges between €28 and €56 to incorporate a company. Estonia charges €265. Ireland runs around €150. Portugal about €360. Across the EU, typical incorporation costs range from €700 to €2,500. Italy and Luxembourg have historically sat above €1,000.
New Zealand remains the cheapest common-law jurisdiction at roughly £5.50 for incorporation and £11.20 for the annual return.
The UK at £100 is not cheap by the standards of eight years ago. Against the rest of the world, it is still near the bottom of the table.
What to Do with This Now
If you are incorporating a new company, £100 is the current digital fee. That figure should be in your startup cost projection alongside registered office requirements and mandatory director identity verification through GOV.UK One Login.
If your confirmation statement is coming up, the fee is £50 for digital submission. Make sure your accountant or filing agent is quoting you the post-February 2026 rate, not the old one.
If you have dormant companies on the register, weigh the £50 annual confirmation statement cost against the £13 dissolution fee. The maths on keeping unused entities registered has changed.
And if you need certified copies of documents, standard dispatch is £22 and same day is £65.
Lanop’s limited company team manages Companies House filings and compliance for businesses across the UK. If you are setting up a new company or want a review of what your current obligations cost under the 2026 fee structure, get in touch today.
