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Insolvencies hit two-year low

Feb 19 2010

Business insolvencies were the lowest in January for more than two years.

Some 1,418 businesses went bust last month, 24 per cent down on January last year, according to credit referencing firm Experian.

Rolf Hickmann, manager at Experian, says: ‘It’s encouraging to see so few firms become insolvent in a single month. While it is too early to predict whether we are fully out of the woods, this does hint at an improvement in the health of UK businesses.’

According to the Insolvency Service, there was a 1.7 per cent decrease in companies going bust in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to the previous three months.

However, some insolvency practitioners have warned that the fall in company liquidations could be ‘the calm before the storm’, with significantly more businesses expected to go bust later in the year.

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