What 22,021 ASB5 notifications say about who wins licensed asbestos work.
Every licensed asbestos job in Great Britain starts with an ASB5 notification to HSE. ARCA has analysed a full year of them, from July 2025 to June 2026, and the pattern is stark: a minority of firms do most of the work, association membership tracks closely with winning it, and demand has a seasonal shape you can plan your marketing around.
- 325 licensed contractors notified 22,021 jobs to HSE between July 2025 and June 2026.
- 81% of those contractors belonged to a licensed removal trade association, and their members accounted for 93% of the jobs.
- ARCA members averaged 85 jobs each, other association members 77 and contractors outside any association just 27.
- Average job length was 7.4 days for ARCA members against 6.6 days for non-members.
- Work peaks at around 2,500 jobs in progress in summer and at the March financial year end, and dips to around 1,800 in midwinter. Your visibility should peak before the work does.
The numbers
ARCA examined the ASB5 notifications submitted to HSE by licensed asbestos removal contractors over the year from July 2025 to June 2026 and published the results in the autumn issue of ARCA News. An ASB5 notification is required for licensed work, so the data is as close to a complete picture of the licensed market as exists. The HSE licensing pages explain the notification requirement, and HSE publishes wider asbestos and health statistics for context.
| Measure | ARCA members | Other association members | No association |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average jobs per contractor | 85 | 77 | 27 |
| Average job length | 7.4 days | 6.9 days | 6.6 days |
The firms winning most of the work can prove it online. The rest are invisible.
The ASB5 data shows a market where a minority of contractors win most of the licensed work. Increasingly, the first filter is not a phone call but a search: on Google, on the map, and more and more in ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI answers that name three or four firms and stop.
If your website does not show your licence, memberships, audit record and sector experience in a form those tools can read, you are not in the shortlist they produce, however good your work is. With demand peaking in summer and at the March year end, the time to fix that is before the next peak. A new website and ongoing AI visibility work are how you move from the long tail into the firms that get named. See how AI search chooses asbestos companies.
Source: ARCA analysis of HSE ASB5 notifications, July 2025 to June 2026, published in ARCA News Issue 133.
Across the year, 325 contractors notified 22,021 jobs. Of those contractors, 262, or 81%, belonged to at least one licensed removal trade association, and 60% of those were ARCA members. Association members accounted for 93% of all notified jobs. ARCA members' average rose from 83 jobs the previous year to 85.
What the pattern means
The gap between 85 jobs and 27 is not explained by membership alone. Larger, established firms are more likely to join an association, and association membership brings independent site audits that clients value. But the practical lesson is the same either way: the firms that win most of the work are the ones that can show buyers independent evidence of how they operate. Clients, framework evaluators and principal contractors look for that evidence before they shortlist, which is why what buyers check before shortlisting matters as much as price.
Longer average jobs point the same way. Larger contracts, such as framework call-offs, public sector refurbishments and multi-phase strip-outs, go to contractors who can evidence capability, which we cover in how to win housing association and council frameworks.
93% of licensed jobs went to association members last year.
Your memberships, audit record and licence belong on your website in text that buyers and AI tools can verify. That is the Trusted stage of our free Four Stage Clearance.
The seasonal shape of demand
The same analysis shows an average of 2,228 jobs in progress each month, with highs of around 2,500 in summer and around the March financial year end, and a low of around 1,800 in midwinter, when most jobs pause over Christmas and New Year. The December dip was shallower than the year before, when it fell below 1,600, so work was spread more evenly.
Two practical points follow for anyone marketing a licensed firm:
- Buyers plan before they notify. School summer holiday programmes are scoped and procured in spring; financial year end work is committed in January and February. Your visibility needs to peak before the work does, not during it.
- The midwinter dip is the time to build, not to stop. Publishing case studies, sector pages and updated credentials over December and January means they are indexed and ranking when spring procurement starts. Our monthly SEO and AI visibility plan is built around that rhythm, and Google Ads can fill short gaps without a long commitment.
Using the data on your own website
Market data like this is useful content in its own right. A short page or post that explains, for clients, how many licensed contractors operate, what association membership involves and why it matters, with your own membership and audit record alongside, is both persuasive and highly citable by AI assistants answering "how do I choose an asbestos removal contractor". We explain why in how AI search chooses asbestos companies, and the live HSE licence holder list for each region is on our area pages.
Source: ARCA News, Issue 133, Autumn 2026, analysis of HSE ASB5 notifications July 2025 to June 2026. Figures are ARCA's; check the original for methodology.
Questions this raises
How many licensed asbestos removal jobs are notified each year?
ARCA counted 22,021 ASB5 notifications to HSE from 325 licensed contractors between July 2025 and June 2026.
Do trade association members win more asbestos work?
In ARCA's analysis, association members accounted for 93% of notified jobs. ARCA members averaged 85 jobs each, other association members 77 and contractors outside any association 27.
When is licensed asbestos work busiest?
Around 2,500 jobs were in progress at the summer and March peaks, against around 1,800 in midwinter, with an average of 2,228 a month.
Get ready before the next peak, not during it.
Run the free check now and you have time to fix what it finds before spring procurement starts. Our team will then personally review your site within one working day.
