Senior Leadership · UK Salary 2026
CFO Salary in Leeds — 2026 ranges
Calibrated 2026 salary bands for cfo roles in Leeds, plus the recruiter-side context: which sectors hire here, how the market compares to London, and what's worth negotiating. Built from public salary surveys cross-referenced against actual UK placements.
Leeds Headline · 2026
£220,000
average · mid-level base salary
Leeds's cfo market in 2026
CFO salaries in Leeds run at UK average, with the typical mid-level pay landing around £220,000 and a full range of £100,000 to £1,000,000. Leeds's Legal and professional services and Tech and digital concentrations make it a credible CFO market.
CFO demand here is steady year-round with multiple credible employers. Salaries track at UK average, and the biggest single move you can make on pay is changing employer rather than asking for a rise — internal raises tend to lag market by 12-18 months.
Top sectors hiring cfos in Leeds
Legal and professional services
DLA Piper, Eversheds Sutherland, Squire Patton Boggs, Pinsent Masons, and all Big Four firms run major Leeds offices serving the wider North.
Tech and digital
Channel 4's HQ, Sky Bet (Flutter), Infinity Works, and a Wellington Place fintech cluster drive steady engineering demand.
Healthcare and life sciences
NHS Digital HQ, NHS England's Northern presence, Leeds Teaching Hospitals, and a growing health-tech scene around the universities.
Notable Leeds employers for cfos
Filtered from Leeds's top employer list to those most relevant to cfo hiring. See the Leeds employer list for the full employer list.
How Leeds compares to other UK cities for cfos
Leeds full-time median pay sits around £32,000 in 2026, against a UK median nearer £37,000 — a regional discount that flattens at senior level. Office-based roles I recruit for tend to land 10-18% below comparable London offers and within 5-8% of Manchester. A mid-level software engineer in Leeds typically earns £50,000-£68,000 against £65,000-£90,000 in London. Finance roles at First Direct, Lloyds, or the Bank of England hub pay close to 85-90% of London equivalents. Legal salaries at DLA Piper or Pinsent Masons trail London by 15-25% but with much shorter hours expected. Where Leeds genuinely competes: data and analytics roles at NHS Digital and the regulated finance employers, where 2024-2025 salary increases closed most of the London gap. Negotiate hard with reference to specific Leeds market data — local hiring managers often default to UK averages and miss the regional finance premium.
Leeds is one of the cheapest major UK cities to live in. A one-bedroom flat in central Leeds rents for £900-£1,200 per month in 2026, around half the equivalent inner London rate. Buying is similarly accessible: the average Leeds house sits around £230,000-£260,000 against £550,000-plus in London. Headingley, Roundhay, and Chapel Allerton are the popular family postcodes, while the city-centre apartment scene around Wellington Place and Brewery Wharf has expanded sharply since 2020. Council tax is moderate — most flats fall in Bands B-C at around £1,500-£1,800 per year. The Northern rail network connects Leeds to most of West Yorkshire within 30 minutes, and the city is genuinely walkable. A mid-career professional on £55,000 in Leeds usually has more disposable income than the same role on £70,000 in inner London once rent and commute costs are factored in.
CFO salary in other UK cities
Same role, different city, different number. See how cfo pay shifts across the UK.
Other roles in Leeds
Comparing pay across roles in Leeds — useful when sizing up a career shift or benchmarking against peers.
Common questions
- What is a CFO salary in Leeds?
- CFO salaries in Leeds typically range from £100,000 (junior) to £1,000,000 (senior), with mid-level pay landing around £220,000. That's 0% above UK average for the role. Figures are 2026 ranges from public salary surveys (Reed, Indeed, Robert Walters, Hays UK) cross-referenced against actual placements.
- Is Leeds a strong CFO market?
- Leeds has steady cfo demand year-round with several credible employers. Not as deep as London but workable for most career stages.
- Which Leeds employers hire cfos?
- Based on current 2026 hiring patterns, Leeds's notable employers in this space include First Direct (HSBC), Lloyds Banking Group, Yorkshire Building Society, Leeds Building Society, Bank of England (Leeds hub). The full top-employers list for Leeds is on the city overview page.
- How much does London pay vs Leeds for cfos?
- London cfo salaries average £281,600 — 28% more than Leeds. After factoring rent and commute, the Leeds role typically nets out comparable for senior IC level. Hybrid London arrangements are common for candidates wanting both the pay and the lifestyle.