Area code 0116 is the code that East Midlands callers read as Leicester. It covers the city and a ring of suburbs and villages around it, from Oadby and Wigston in the south-east to Birstall and Syston in the north, and it stretches south into the Harborough district as far as Kibworth and Fleckney. At the same time Loughborough, Hinckley and Market Harborough, which many people think of as part of greater Leicester, sit on codes of their own. For a business that wants Leicester customers to call, it helps to know exactly where the code applies, because a 0116 number on a website or a quote tells callers that the line belongs to their local area.

This article maps the 0116 coverage in detail, lists the neighbouring towns that use other codes, and shows how any business, inside or outside Leicestershire, can add a 0116 number for Leicester customers and receive their calls wherever the team works. A CallFactory 0116 number is registered on your own business address, which can be anywhere in the UK or abroad.

Which towns does the 0116 area code cover?

The 0116 area is built around the Leicester exchanges and reaches well beyond the city boundary into Blaby, Oadby and Wigston, Charnwood and Harborough. The main places on the code:

  • Leicester city centre — the commercial core around the Clock Tower, Highcross, the Cultural Quarter and the railway station, with the highest concentration of business lines on the code
  • Belgrave and Evington — the north-eastern and eastern districts, home to the wholesale, retail and food businesses along Belgrave Road and the routes out of the city
  • Aylestone, Stoneygate and Braunstone — the southern and western districts, including the business parks and trade counters close to the ring road and the M1 junction
  • Oadby, East Wigston and West Wigston — the borough to the south-east of the city, with its own retail and office base on the same code as the centre
  • Thurnby and Great Glen — the villages along the A6 and A47 east of the city, which stay on 0116
  • Birstall, Rothley and Syston — the northern edge of the area along the Soar and Wreake valleys, including the commercial estates around Syston
  • Glenfield, Kirby Muxloe and Narborough — the western suburbs and villages, with Glenfield home to the county council’s headquarters
  • Kibworth and Fleckney — the southern villages in Harborough district, which use Leicester’s code rather than Market Harborough’s
  • Billesdon, Tilton, Tugby and Hungarton — the rural east of the area towards Rutland, served by small village exchanges inside the 0116 area

A business based anywhere in this footprint will naturally use 0116, but the code is not reserved for local firms. Because a CallFactory number registers on your own business address, a company headquartered elsewhere can publish a 0116 line for its Leicester customers in exactly the same way.

Why the 0116 code still matters to callers

UK area codes were designed so that the opening digits of a number tell the caller roughly where the line sits. Ofcom’s National Telephone Numbering Plan still allocates each geographic code to a named numbering area, which is why 0116 reads as Leicester in the same way that 0115 reads as Nottingham and 01509 as Loughborough. In a county where several market towns sit within a short drive of the city, callers notice that difference and often prefer a number they recognise as their own.

That recognition is the commercial value of the code. A 0116 number on a regional landing page, a local Google Business Profile, a quote or an email signature tells Leicester prospects that you serve their area, and they can call you at standard geographic rates without dialling a distant code. Calls then ring through to your team wherever it sits, whether that is an office near the Clock Tower, a warehouse outside the city or staff working across the Midlands.

The code reflects how customers see you, not where your company is registered. CallFactory registers the number on your own business address, so you can choose 0116 because your customers are in Leicester rather than because your office is.

Boundary cases around Leicester

Leicestershire is split between several codes, and a few of the boundaries run only a mile or two from the edge of the 0116 area. The main cases:

  • Loughborough — north, area code 01509. Loughborough, Quorn, Shepshed and Sileby share this code, while neighbouring Rothley and Syston stay on 0116
  • Hinckley and Lutterworth — south-west, area code 01455, which also covers Desford, Earl Shilton and Market Bosworth, even though Narborough on the same side of the city is on 0116
  • Market Harborough — south, area code 01858. Kibworth and Fleckney are on 0116, while the market town further down the A6 has its own code
  • Melton Mowbray — north-east, area code 01664, the market town that anchors that code
  • Coalville — north-west, area code 01530, which covers the former coalfield towns of north-west Leicestershire
  • Nottingham — further north, area code 0115, the nearest of the other large East Midlands cities

These boundaries matter when you choose which number to publish. A company whose customers are mainly in Loughborough or Hinckley may be better served by that town’s own code, while one targeting Leicester, Oadby, Wigston and Birstall together is covered by a single 0116 line. Several local numbers can run on one CallFactory account, so a Leicester line and a Loughborough line can reach the same team without callers noticing any difference.

How the 0116 area grew historically

Leicester’s code before 1995 was 0533. On PhONEday, 16 April 1995, Leicester was one of five large cities that received a new code with a longer local number rather than simply gaining a “1” after the leading zero. The other four were Leeds, Sheffield, Nottingham and Bristol, which explains why 0113 to 0117 run in sequence. Existing six-digit Leicester numbers were lengthened to seven digits by adding a “2” at the front, so (0533) 234567 became (0116) 223 4567.

The extra digit gave the city room to grow. Local numbers beginning with 3 were introduced in 2004, numbers beginning with 4 followed in 2009, and numbers beginning with 5 were opened in 2020. Every one of those ranges is part of the same Leicester area, so a business number starting 0116 3 or 0116 5 is just as local to callers as one starting 0116 2.

The shape of the area follows the telephone exchange map rather than local government. That is why the code reaches into four council districts around the city, while towns such as Loughborough and Market Harborough, which have their own exchanges and history as market centres, kept separate codes. For businesses the practical rule is simple: always print the number in full as 0116 xxx xxxx, which is the format callers recognise and the one Google reads most reliably.

How to set up a 0116 number for your business

Getting a 0116 line running takes a few minutes of decisions and no local paperwork:

  1. Choose the number. Pick a 0116 number from CallFactory’s stock, including memorable digit patterns, or port an existing 0116 line from your current provider free of charge so that customers keep dialling the number they already know.
  2. Decide where calls go. Set the destination for incoming calls, such as a mobile, a desk phone, the CallFactory app or a hunt group, so that Leicester callers reach the right person wherever your team works. Opening hours, a welcome message and a queue can be added at the same stage.
  3. Go live. CallFactory registers the number on your own business address, which can be anywhere in the UK or abroad, and activates it within one working day. Publish it everywhere in the same format, because Google treats a consistent local number on your website and business listings as a location signal.

A few situations come up often. A firm moving from Oadby to an office in Birstall keeps its 0116 number, because both places are on the code. A Nottingham company that wins customers across the county line can publish a 0116 line for them without opening a Leicester office. A multi-site business can give each town its own local number and route them all through one call flow, so a single team handles every enquiry.

Other numbers worth considering alongside 0116

A 0116 number is the strongest choice when your customers are in and around Leicester, but other ranges fit other goals:

  • A neighbouring local code — 01509 for Loughborough, 01455 for Hinckley and Lutterworth, 01858 for Market Harborough, 01664 for Melton Mowbray, 01530 for Coalville and 0115 for Nottingham. Useful where your customers are concentrated in one of those towns
  • A national 0333 number — a 0333 number charged at standard geographic rates wherever the caller dials from, which suits businesses with a UK-wide customer base and one published line
  • A freephone 0800 line — an 0800 freephone number where the caller pays nothing, which is the classic fit for sales hotlines and customer-service campaigns
  • A national overview — the UK phone-numbers overview sets out every range Ofcom administers, with guidance on which one suits each commercial profile
  • A combination — a 0116 line for Leicester customers next to a 0333 for the rest of the country, both on one account, so regional and national enquiries land with the same team

The right mix depends on where your callers are. A local code reads as part of the community, a 0333 reads as nationally established, and an 0800 puts the caller’s cost first. Monthly prices and included features for each option are on the pricing page.

Get started

If you want Leicester customers to call a number they recognise as local, apply through the Leicester 0116 number page. CallFactory activates the line within one working day, complete with call forwarding to a mobile or landline, a text-to-speech welcome message in any language and call recording for training and quality checks.

Your business does not need a Leicester office for this, because the number is registered on your own business address wherever that is. If your customers are spread across the country as well, a 0333 number can run next to the 0116 line on the same account.