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The number of women leading UK mid-market businesses has fallen to its lowest level in eight years, according to Grant Thornton’s Women in Business Report 2026. This slowdown comes at a time when external expectations around gender balance are rising sharply, particularly from investors and regulators.

For 22 years, Grant Thornton’s global Women in Business research has tracked progress on female representation in senior leadership across the mid‑market. This year’s findings reveal a world moving forward, and a UK in danger of losing ground. As last year’s report warned, without decisive action, the mid‑market risks creating a missed generation of female leaders. The 2026 data suggests that moment may already be here.

Grant Thornton UK today announces a new partnership with Fenergo, a leading provider of AI-powered client lifecycle management (CLM), know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) solutions, to make it faster and easier for clients to get started working with the firm, without compromising on risk or compliance.

Local Authorities enter 2026 still facing sustained financial strain. Despite uplifts in core spending power across the sector as a whole, pressures from social care demand, contract inflation and higher borrowing costs continue to erode resilience across the sector. Recent parliamentary evidence confirms that, whilst rare, the number of Section 114 notices issued since 2018 is at an all-time high, underlining the systemic nature of the challenge and the scrutiny on historic corporate investments and subsidiary performance.