Companies House identity verification in London
1,109,035 live companies are registered to a London address, and every one of their directors and people with significant control must now verify their identity with Companies House. We are a registered Authorised Corporate Service Provider and we do that for you, remotely or by appointment, for a flat £125.
How big the London verification market actually is
London is not simply the largest verification market in the United Kingdom; it is larger than every other market on this site combined. There are 1,109,035 live companies registered to a London post town, against an active register of 5,190,464 companies across the whole of the UK (Companies House Free Company Data Product, snapshot 2026-08-01). Roughly one in five UK companies is therefore a London company. Because the verification duty attaches to people rather than to companies, and because one person can hold many appointments, the number of London directors, people with significant control and LLP members who need a personal code is not the same as the company count. It is nonetheless the right way to size the problem: every one of those companies has at least one director, and every one of those directors must verify.
The distribution inside London matters more than the headline. Two postcode districts carry volumes that no ordinary commercial district could generate on its own: WC2H around Covent Garden and Charing Cross Road holds 91,274 live companies and EC1V around Old Street and Angel holds 76,610 (Companies House bulk data). Those figures are inflated by registered-office and formation-agent addresses, which means a large share of the directors behind them do not sit in Covent Garden or Old Street at all, and a meaningful share do not sit in the UK. If your company uses a service address in one of those districts, your own verification is still governed by where you are and what documents you hold, not by the address on the register.
Postcode areas covering London
- EC — City of London: 198,175 live companies
- W — West London: 195,936 live companies
- N — North London: 167,274 live companies
- E — East London: 155,161 live companies
- WC — Holborn and Covent Garden: 143,909 live companies
- SW — south-west London: 110,167 live companies
- SE — south-east London: 95,355 live companies
- NW — north-west London: 83,702 live companies
Neighbouring post towns we also serve: Harrow (31,366), Ilford (30,085), Croydon (21,324), Romford (17,424), Wembley (12,005). All figures from the Companies House Free Company Data Product, snapshot 1 August 2026.
Typical London companies, and what that means for verification
Beyond the service-address clusters, the London picture is a set of genuinely distinct director populations. Islington (N1, 49,165 live companies), Fitzrovia (W1W, 48,036) and Shoreditch (EC2A, 46,325) are dominated by small owner-managed businesses and consultancies where the director and the sole person with significant control are the same individual. Canary Wharf and Poplar (E14, 21,726) and Southwark (SE1, 19,057) carry more corporate-group structures, where a company secretarial team is coordinating several appointments at once. Whitechapel and Aldgate (E1, 22,767) and Stratford (E15, 6,604) sit closest to our London office. All figures from the Companies House bulk data snapshot.
Do London directors need an appointment?
London is the one city on this site where an in-person appointment is genuinely convenient for most people. Our London office is in Stratford, in the east of the city, and we also hold appointments in Bedford. If you would rather be seen than photograph a document on your phone, that is a real option here rather than a theoretical one. Equally, most London directors never need it: if you hold a biometric passport, the fully remote route is faster and the outcome is identical. We do not charge more for the in-person route, and we do not charge more for choosing the remote one. The fee is £125 for a UK-resident applicant either way.
Digital identity check
One accepted document, photographed on your own phone, plus a live selfie. Around ten minutes, no travel, no appointment. This is what most London applicants use.
Two-document check
Two original documents examined by us, either at our Bedford or London–Stratford office or on a scheduled video appointment. Used where the digital route does not suit your documents.
Both routes meet the same Companies House identity verification standard and produce the same personal code. There is also a free Post Office route for UK residents, available after you receive the confirmation email, which takes about 15 days. If your confirmation statement is close, that timing is the thing to weigh up.
Who must verify, and by when
Everyone in scope is in scope in London on exactly the same terms as anywhere else in the UK. There is no local variation, no local extension and no local exemption.
GOV.UK lists the people who must verify as a director, the equivalent of a director, which includes members, general partners and managing officers, a director of an overseas company registered in the UK, a person with significant control, and anyone registering as an Authorised Corporate Service Provider. People who file on behalf of a company, limited partnerships, corporate directors, corporate LLP members and officers of corporate PSCs will be required to verify at a later date.
Identity verification became a legal requirement on 18 November 2025. Companies House is explicit that this date is not a deadline in itself; it marks the start of a 12-month transition period that ends in November 2026, by the end of which Companies House expects to have verified 6 to 7 million individuals (Annual Report and Accounts 2025–26). Your own deadline sits inside that window and depends on your role:
- Existing directors: by the company's next confirmation statement date.
- New directors: before appointment, and at incorporation for a new company.
- Directors of overseas companies registered in the UK: by the anniversary of the UK establishment's registration.
- A PSC who is also a director: within the 14-day period starting the day after the confirmation statement date.
- A PSC who is not a director: within the first 14 days of their birth month.
Once you have verified, Companies House issues an 11 character personal code. It is personal to you and not to your company, and if you are a director of multiple companies you only need to verify once and then use the same code for every appointment.
What happens if the deadline passes
The consequences of not verifying are national and they are not administrative niceties. They apply to a London director in the same way as to any other.
Companies House states that it is unlawful for a director to act as a director without completing identity verification, and that the offence arises under section 167M of the Companies Act. Three enforcement routes are available: criminal prosecution, referral to the Insolvency Service, and financial penalties. Prosecution may lead to criminal conviction, director disqualification and fines, and non-compliance can be annotated on the public register for anyone to see.
There is also an immediate, practical consequence that arrives long before any enforcement action. All directors need to verify before the company's next confirmation statement is filed, otherwise the filing will be rejected. The campaign guidance puts it more bluntly still: without verification you will not be able to make any filings for your company or start a new company. For most people that rejected filing, not the prospect of prosecution, is what makes this urgent.
How we verify you, and what it costs
Tax and Accounting Hub Ltd is a Companies House Authorised Corporate Service Provider, company number 08408126, supervised by the Association of Accounting Technicians for anti-money-laundering purposes and registered with the ICO. GOV.UK describes an ACSP as an agent, such as an accountant or solicitor, who files on behalf of others, and requires every ACSP to be supervised by a UK anti-money-laundering supervisory body. The official public list of ACSPs is published by Companies House and was last updated on 20 August 2026.
- You complete a short application, sign the engagement letter on screen and pay by card.
- You verify your identity: either a digital check on your own phone, which takes around ten minutes, or a scheduled appointment where two original documents are examined.
- We review the result against our compliance checklist and file it with Companies House as your authorised agent.
- Companies House emails you your own 11-character personal code, which you then give to every company where you hold an appointment.
Our fee for a UK-resident director, PSC or LLP member is £125, all inclusive. There is no VAT, no per-document charge and nothing added later. You can read the full process on our step-by-step guide, or start now on the application page.
London verification questions
The questions we are asked most often by directors and PSCs of London companies.
Do I need to travel to your London office to verify my identity?
No. Almost every London applicant completes the check remotely in about ten minutes. The Stratford office exists for people whose documents suit the two-document route, or who simply prefer to be seen. Both routes meet the same identity verification standard.
My company is registered at a Covent Garden or Old Street service address. Does that change anything?
No. Those two districts hold 91,274 and 76,610 live companies respectively, largely because formation agents use addresses there. Your verification depends on your own documents and your own residency, not on the registered office on the public register.
I am a director of several London companies. Do I verify once or several times?
Once. Companies House states that if you are a director of multiple companies you only need to verify your identity once and then use the same personal code, because the code is personal to you and not to your company.
I live in London but I am not a British citizen. Can you still verify me?
Yes. A biometric passport from any country is accepted, and the documents an ACSP may rely on also include EU, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein biometric identity cards, an eVisa and an Irish passport card. The fee for a UK-resident applicant is £125 regardless of nationality.
Which London postcodes do you cover?
All of them, plus the outer post towns that Companies House records separately from London, including Harrow (31,366 live companies), Ilford (30,085), Croydon (21,324), Romford (17,424) and Wembley (12,005).
Related pages
Ready to verify a London director?
Most applications take about ten minutes to complete online. Bedford and London–Stratford appointments are available if you would rather be seen.
Start your application