Revenues at the top 50 firms have finally exceeded their post-Enron peak, ironically in part as a result of the regulatory changes brought in following the scandal that did so much to damage the profession.

Click here to download a PDF of the Top 50 tables, or

Click here to read the full special report

The firms also posted double digit growth of 13.1%.No one could have predicted such impressive rises for accountancy four years ago in the wake of the Enron collapse. But now confidence is booming.

Rodger Hughes, managing partner of clients and markets at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said: ‘I’ve been in this business for 35 years and that kind of growth is virtually unheard of.’

Just two years ago, the industry was almost in recession with the Big Four witnessing a drop of 1%. But in the past 12 months, the Big Four have raked in a combined fee income of £5.5bn, a jump of £700m on last year’s revenues.

Advisory work from Sarbanes-Oxley, introduced to tighten corporate reporting post-Enron, and global accounting rules have driven the boom across all fee streams.

Nick Land, chairman of Ernst & Young, said: ‘It’s one of the periods where most parts of the business are doing well. This growth is a demonstration of how quickly things can change in the global market place.’

John Griffith-Jones, CEO of KPMG, which is growing at 20%, also put the growth at his firm down to the two ‘fairy godmothers’ of Sarbanes-Oxley and IFRS.

Partners agree, however, that the pace of growth will slow to follow the global economy. Also much of the work from IFRS and Sarbanes-Oxley has been transitional and that is expected to peter out as companies get used to the changes and turn less often to their advisers.

AN OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE

MGI Wenham Major is this year’s fastest growing firm. It enters the Top 50 for the first time with a growth rate of 248%. A limited company, Wenham Major is the product of an MBO in November 2005 when chairman John Joyce, pictured above, bought out the then partners. Revenues now stand at £9.9m.