We’re coming off a phenomenal year for stocks. The FTSE 100 has reached record highs along with other international indices like the S&P 500.
Company earnings are smashing records and delivering double-digit returns. And it’s a powerful reminder that even in the UK, there are businesses with rock-solid fundamentals and resilience to deliver long-term growth even in a weaker economic environment.
But with so much growth already under the belts of Britain’s leading businesses, many investors have begun asking the question of which UK stocks should they consider buying now?
Our methodology for picking these shares
Our Motley Fool UK investing expert, Ian Pierce, has selected a few stocks he’s excited about in 2025. But remember, the best British stocks for you will be specific to your personal financial situation, risk appetite, and investing strategy.
Also, keep in mind that we chose these stocks as long-term investments. So, while there will likely be volatility in the short term, we believe these could be good investments to hold for a minimum of five years.
Best British stocks to buy and hold
- Experian (LSE:EXPN)
- Hargreaves Lansdown (LSE:HL.)
- Rightmove (LSE:RMV)
- Compass Group (LSE:CPG)
- Porvair (LSE:PRV)
- Croda (LSE:CRDA)
- Airtel Africa (LSE:AAF)
- British American Tobacco (LSE:BATS)
Here’s more detail on why we like each of these stocks:
1. Experian
Experian has long been a Foolish favourite. The main reason for that is the company’s dominant market position as the world’s largest credit bureau, including data on some 1.3bn people worldwide that lenders use to assess creditworthiness.
This market has incredibly high barriers to entry, and the data provided is hugely valuable to customers such as banks – two forms of leverage that Experian’s management team reliably turn into high pricing power. Operating margins over the five years have remained impressive, reaching 23.8% in its 2025 fiscal year (ending in March), while return on capital employed now stands at a very healthy 16.6%. That last figure in particular points to what a high-quality company Experian is.
2. Hargreaves Lansdown
The end of the pandemic-era retail investing mania and 2022’s bear market were a double whammy for the UK’s largest online share dealing service. But while financial year 2022 was a dud for the company, what followed has been an impressive and significant recovery. And in its latest results, the firm delivered jaw-dropping double-digit earnings growth.
Having built the market leader in online share dealing, management isn’t resting on its laurels but is instead aiming at the next frontier: reinventing wealth management in the UK.
They see an opportunity to take a share in this even larger market by winning over customers with less jargon, lower fees, and better advice. And this strategy has seemingly been quite successful, with a customer base now at just over 1.8 million and £155bn of assets under management, both trending upward over the last five years.
It’s clear the business has continued to maintain its highly cash-generative market-leading status. Not a bad position to be in.
3. Rightmove
Few Britons will be unfamiliar with Rightmove, the UK’s number one property portal by a country mile. As of 2025, third-party estimates said the company’s market share continues to exceed 90% – an astounding figure.
Management has turned that market share into an incredibly profitable and cash-generative business. Across the first half of 2025, the firm’s operating margins continue to impress at 68.4%. That’s not a misprint. Operating margins for this business are where gross margins for many admired software businesses are. And this was far from a one-off, as outside of pandemic-impacted 2020, 65%+ margins have been the norm for going on a decade.
While the housing market is facing very real headwinds, which will affect Rightmove in the long term, we think owning such a valuable piece of property as the country’s leading property portal could be a good option. And thus far, Rightmove’s managers have proved more than capable of turning that asset into sustained shareholder returns.
4. Compass Group
Compass Group is not a household name. But most people will have eaten the company’s food. That’s because Compass is the world’s largest caterer, providing on-site food for businesses, schools, hospitals, stadiums, senior living facilities, and even offshore oil rigs and military bases.
The pandemic was tough for the company as stadiums, schools and many offices were shut for months on end. But since then, the company has rebounded with aplomb.
Revenue is now vastly ahead of pre-pandemic levels by 65% reaching $42bn. And management believes the company’s growth prospects are even more promising over the long run.
And with the business back on firm footing, management is not only ploughing cash into these long-term growth opportunities but has also restarted dividends and the company’s long-standing share buyback programme.
5. Porvair
Against the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 giants mentioned above, Porvair is a relatively small fish with a market cap of roughly £354m as of October 2025. But being small is no impediment to being a successful business.
Porvair has a 10-year record of growing revenue by a compound annual growth rate of 8% and adjusted earnings per share by 13%. The company has achieved that success by making filters for a range of critical processes, such as keeping out contaminants in aeroplane fuel tanks, ensuring water quality by filtering out contaminants, or containing radioactive material at nuclear power plants.
Porvair’s products end up in an even wider range of applications than mentioned above, but every market the company targets has two key characteristics in common: the filter’s quality being so critical to the process that operators aren’t going to opt for cheaper but untested providers, and high regulatory scrutiny that means operators will regularly replace filters on a scheduled basis.
That reliable recurring revenue, plus the company’s opportunities to continue expanding organically and through periodic bolt-on acquisitions, make it an attractive stock.
6. Croda
Croda is a specialty chemical maker whose main markets are consumer care products like makeup and fragrances, and life sciences like pharmaceutical and crop science applications. While all chemical companies are exposed to general economic conditions to some degree or another, Croda is in a good position, as these two markets are fairly defensive.
Not only are Croda’s end markets less cyclical than many, but the company’s focus on high-value add specialty products means higher profitability. Over the trailing twelve months to H1 2025, operating margins were a robust 17.2% and cash flow was also strong enough to re-invest substantial sums in future growth drivers as R&D and further increase the company’s steadily growing dividend.
7. Airtel Africa
Airtel Africa is one of Africa’s largest telecoms providers, with operations across 14 countries, including huge markets such as Nigeria, Kenya, and the DRC. The company offers consumers traditional telecoms services such as phone calls, texting, and data packages, as well as its Mobile Money service.
The latter is a very interesting, high-growth business that gives customers the ability to hold money digitally, make domestic or international transfers, pay bills, buy things online, and more. This side of the business still generates much less revenue than Airtel Africa’s traditional telco services, but it’s growing extraordinarily quickly, is already highly profitable, and has the potential to continue growing by leaps and bounds as the company’s markets experience population growth and demand for these financial services grows.
The company’s exposure to sometimes volatile political environments is a very real risk, but with high present-day income in the form of a high dividend yield and long-term growth potential, Airtel Africa is an interesting combination of growth and income.
8. British American Tobacco
British American Tobacco pays a high dividend yield, and management has been actively buying back its own shares, with £1.6bn returned to shareholders in recent years. Both of these methods of shareholder returns are comfortably funded by the company’s incredible cash flow that also covers deleveraging and investments in new categories such as its Vuse vape brand.
The investments made in growing non-traditional nicotine products are, of course, necessary for the business and all its competitors as rates of traditional smoking decrease across the most profitable markets.
These investments are currently loss-making. But BAT is targeting break-even for this unit in the near future, and if they can continue growing at a rapid clip while also generating profits, Big Tobacco may not be the industry in terminal decline that it has appeared to be for decades.
Bottom line on the best British stocks of 2025
When choosing stocks from the list above, make the choice for yourself, not just because we suggested it. Picking stocks wisely involves analysing a company’s fundamentals and deciding if the stock fits your investing goals.
That’s exactly what we do in Share Advisor, our flagship share-tipping service. You’ll get monthly buy and sell recommendations alongside detailed company analysis from our very own team of investing experts. You can join at any time with a 30-day subscription refund guarantee!
And if 2025 is your first year of investing, we recommend getting caught up on the fundamentals of investing. Use our investing guides to kickstart your year in investing, then browse the top online brokerage accounts in the UK to get started.