The number of British businesses in financial distress has rocketed to levels not seen since the financial crisis in 2009.
Official figures showed the number of company insolvencies in England and Wales jumped 10% year-on-year to 6,208 in the third quarter.
That was only slightly lower than in the three months through June, the Insolvency Service said, with the two quarters together the worst for corporate failures since 2009 during the depths of the financial crisis.
Last quarter there were 4,965 creditors’ voluntary liquidations (CVL), where a company’s directors choose to wind up their firm.
The last two quarters have seen the highest quarterly insolvency numbers since the second quarter of 2009, and “the highest numbers of CVLs since the start of the series in 1960”, the Insolvency Service said.
“The numbers of compulsory liquidations and administrations increased to levels last seen before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic,” it added.
A separate report by Begbies Traynor Group found that there were 5,919 construction firms in “critical” financial distress in the three months through September, up 46% from the second quarter.