Standing view · business · Hillingdon
deteriorating, held with established confidence, formed on 31 August 2026 from movements in 2026-06.
Business births in Hillingdon fell to 490 in the second quarter of 2025 and 495 in the second quarter of 2026, both readings recorded as unfavourable against the usual pattern for their quarters despite the marginally higher level in the later one. No figure for closures is published. The borough held 16,720 business sites in 2025, including 1,350 businesses employing between five and nine people, 660 employing 10 to 19, 175 employing 50 to 99, and 30 each employing 250 to 499 and 1,000 or more.
A view is formed only where the evidence names a figure you can check. Each movement listed as a reason had to be large enough to matter and distinctive in at least one way — unusual against this area's own history, unusual against comparable areas, or sustained over several periods. A movement shared with peers counts for less, because it says something about the country rather than about Hillingdon. Where no figure supports a direction we hold no view rather than a hedged one.
| Measure | Period | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Business births | 2025-06 | deteriorating |
| Business births | 2026-06 | deteriorating |
These figures carry no defensible direction of their own: a rising house price is good news to an owner and bad news to someone trying to buy, so we do not score one as an improvement. They are shown because they are part of the picture, and they did not decide the view above.
| Measure | Period | Series |
|---|---|---|
| Businesses employing 10 to 19 people | 2025 | — |
| Businesses employing 1000+ or more people | 2025 | — |
| Businesses employing 250 to 499 people | 2025 | — |
| Businesses employing 5 to 9 people | 2025 | — |
| Businesses employing 50 to 99 people | 2025 | — |
| Business sites | 2025 | — |