North East sees hike in business failures
1 min read
Business failures in the North East of England more than doubled in the space of two months even though the UK-wide picture shows an overall improvement in insolvency rates since early 2009. According to the latest Insolvency Index from the information services company Experian, September saw a slight annual decrease (from 0.09 per cent to 0.08 per cent), but was up from the 0.07 per cent reported in August 2010.
Yorkshire was the only region to see an improvement between August and September. The insolvency rate for the East Midlands, West Midlands and Eastern England remained static, but the remaining regions all saw an increase. However it was the North East that saw the greatest increase - from 0.06 per cent in August up to 0.15 per cent in September.
Max Firth, managing principle of the Experian company pH said: "The North East of England's business population is one of the smallest so every insolvency can dramatically affect the rate, which explains why we have seen a big variation between August and September. This underlines why businesses must be vigilant and closely monitor the financial health of every organisation they do business with."
The overall financial strength score for businesses echoed the insolvency rate with a positive annual change and a negative monthly variance.
Other key highlights from the index include:
• Yorkshire was the only region to see a drop in the insolvency rate from August to September
• Eastern England was the region with the lowest rate of insolvencies
• The largest companies, those with 500 or more employees, saw the greatest rise year-on-year in the insolvency rate
• Businesses with 6-10 employees saw the biggest annual drop in the rate of insolvencies.
