How crowded is plumbing where you are? UK plumbing businesses by region

Data last verified: 5 November 2026. Figures re-checked against their primary sources under the Whito rolling re-verification programme.

Short answer: the East of England is the most crowded part of the UK for plumbing businesses, with 96.5 per 100,000 residents. The North East is the least crowded, with 51.2, so the East has about 1.9 times as many plumbing businesses per head. London has more than doubled its number of plumbing businesses since 2010 (up 108%), the fastest growth of any region, yet still sits below the UK average per head. Northern Ireland grew slowest, by 17%.

These figures are Whito’s calculations from official counts of registered businesses and population. Nobody else publishes them, so you will not find them on price-guide or lead-generation sites.

Why “how competitive is plumbing?” usually gets a vague answer

Search for how competitive plumbing is and you get opinions: “very competitive in cities”, “plenty of work for good plumbers”. Both are probably true and neither helps you decide where to work, where to open a second van, or where a supplier should put a rep. A better starting point is a simple count: how many plumbing businesses are there for every 100,000 people in each part of the UK, and how fast is that changing?

It is not the whole picture. It says nothing about how much work each business does, how many plumbers work in each business, or how many sole traders are too small to be counted. But it is official, repeatable and checkable, which most claims about competition are not.

Plumbing businesses per head, by region (2026)

“Plumbing businesses” means enterprises in official industry code 43220, plumbing, heat and air-conditioning installation, registered for VAT or PAYE, in March 2026. Sources and method are at the end.

What stands out

• The South and East are the most crowded. The three regions above the UK average per head are the East, South East and South West. Every region in the North, the Midlands, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland sits at or below it.
• London is less crowded than you might think. It has the third-largest number of plumbing businesses but sits eighth per head. One likely reason is that many plumbers who work in London are based, and registered, in the surrounding counties, which would push up the figures for the East and South East. The data cannot prove that, because businesses are counted where they are registered, not where they work.
• The gap between top and bottom is large. In the North East there are 1,952 residents for every plumbing business. In the East there are 1,036.

How fast each region has grown

Every region has more registered plumbing businesses than in 2021. Some of that growth may be businesses crossing the VAT threshold or taking on staff for the first time, which makes them visible in the count, rather than brand-new firms. The count cannot separate the two.

The North East is worth a second look. It is the least crowded region per head and one of the fastest growing since 2010. If that continues, the gap will narrow.

Is plumbing getting more crowded overall?

Yes, on this measure. Across the UK there were 69.0 registered plumbing businesses per 100,000 people in 2026. Population has grown far more slowly than the 58.5% rise in plumbing businesses since 2010, so the number of businesses per head has gone up.

That is not the same as “too many plumbers”. More homes are switching to heat pumps, more landlords need annual gas checks, and the construction trades as a whole need more workers. CITB’s Construction Workforce Outlook 2026 to 2030 says construction will need around 41,200 extra workers a year. We cover those demand signals in the UK plumbing industry in 2026.

Does a crowded area mean lower prices or better service?

We checked. In October 2026 Whito read 179 emergency plumber websites in eight towns, recording whether each published a call-out price (full study). Here are those towns next to their region’s crowding:

There is no clear pattern. Norwich, in the most crowded region, had one of the lowest shares of firms publishing a price. Bristol, also in a crowded region, had the highest. With around 20 websites per town, these samples are far too small to show a link either way. We say that plainly rather than draw a conclusion the data cannot carry.

What this means if you run a plumbing business

• In the South and East, you are competing with more businesses per head. Standing out on the basics customers can check (a published price, a visible Gas Safe number, a real company record) matters more. In our call-out study, 117 of 179 firms published no price at all.
• In the North East, North West and Scotland, there are fewer registered businesses per head. That may mean less competition for the same work, though it may also reflect lower demand or more unregistered sole traders.
• If you plan to grow, compare your own area with its neighbours. A business registered in Essex but working in East London is counted in the East, not London.
• If you are a supplier, use the per-head figure for territory planning and the raw count for sales targets.

Method and limits

• Business counts: ONS UK Business Counts, enterprises by industry and employment size band, SIC 2007 code 43220, all legal statuses, all size bands, via the Nomis API (dataset NM_142_1, updated 24 September 2026). Years: 2010 (earliest available), 2021 and 2026 (snapshot March 2026). Counts are rounded by ONS to the nearest 5, so regions add to 47,915 against a published UK total of 47,910.
• Population: ONS mid-2025 population estimates, all ages, via Nomis (NM_2002_1, updated 29 July 2026).
• Calculations: per 100,000 = businesses ÷ population × 100,000; residents per business = population ÷ businesses; percentage change between years. All by Whito.
• Limits: Code 43220 includes heating and air-conditioning installers, not just plumbers. Only VAT or PAYE registered businesses are counted. Sole traders under the VAT threshold with no employees are missing. The Gas Safe Register listed around 80,014 gas businesses in February 2024, far more than this count. A business is counted once, in the region where it is registered, even if it works across several. Business counts (March 2026) and population (mid-2025) are from different dates. A count of businesses is not a count of plumbers. A firm with 40 engineers counts the same as a sole trader.
• Rerun it yourself: regional counts query: https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/api/v01/dataset/NM_142_1.data.csv?geography=TYPE480&industry=134260948&employment_sizeband=0&legal_status=0&measures=20100&date=latest,first&select=date_name,geography_name,obs_value. Population query: https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/api/v01/dataset/NM_2002_1.data.csv?geography=TYPE480,2092957697&gender=0&c_age=200&measures=20100&date=latest&select=date_name,geography_name,c_age_name,gender_name,obs_value
• Download: the full table as a CSV (free to use with credit to Whito).
• Next update: after ONS publishes the 2027 edition (usually September).

How to cite this page

Whito (2026), “How crowded is plumbing where you are? UK plumbing businesses by region”, whito.co.uk, calculated from ONS UK Business Counts 2026 and ONS mid-2025 population estimates. Data last verified 5 November 2026.

Common questions

Which part of the UK has the most plumbers?

By number of registered plumbing, heating and air-con businesses, the South East (8,670 in 2026). Per head, the East of England, with 96.5 per 100,000 residents.

Where is plumbing least competitive in the UK?

On this measure, the North East, with 51.2 registered plumbing businesses per 100,000 residents, or one for every 1,952 people.

How many plumbing businesses are there in London?

5,420 registered in 2026, up from 2,605 in 2010. That is 59.4 per 100,000 residents, below the UK average of 69.0.

Is the number of plumbing businesses growing?

Yes. Across the UK it rose from 40,665 in 2021 to 47,910 in 2026, up 17.8%. Every region grew.

Does this count every plumber?

No. It counts businesses registered for VAT or PAYE, including heating and air-con firms. Small sole traders and employees are not counted separately.

Sources (opened 5 November 2026)

• ONS UK Business Counts via Nomis NM_142_1: https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/api/v01/dataset/NM_142_1
• ONS mid-2025 population estimates via Nomis NM_2002_1
• HSE contract notice, Gas Safe Register (1 Feb 2024): https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/003347-2024
• CITB Construction Workforce Outlook 2026-2030 (17 Jun 2026): https://www.citb.co.uk/cwo
• Whito emergency plumber call-out study (2 Oct 2026): /plumbers/research/emergency-plumber-callout-prices/

Jacob Whitmore

Whito is an independent UK research publisher. We publish research on how UK businesses are found, trusted and priced: what they cost to market, how their sectors work, and who actually gets recommended. Studies are free to read, every figure carries the date it was checked, and nobody pays to appear.

See Full Bio