Quarter 3 Insolvency Statistics for England & Wales were released on 29th October 2015.
The number of company insolvencies continued to decrease, driven largely by a marked drop in compulsory liquidations to the lowest level (612) since Quarter 3 1989. The liquidation rate in the 12 months ending Quarter 3 2015 (0.46{06aeb1921e0b802d2bd9c766bc98fb11cc6a46c2b0593ed9c88a0e29cf417a34} of active companies) was the lowest since comparable records began in Quarter 4 1984, although it must be borne in mind that the number of Registered Companies has increased markedly in that time.
The decline in Creditors Voluntary Liquidations to 2,451 was 0.7{06aeb1921e0b802d2bd9c766bc98fb11cc6a46c2b0593ed9c88a0e29cf417a34} on Quarter 2 2015 and 4.3 {06aeb1921e0b802d2bd9c766bc98fb11cc6a46c2b0593ed9c88a0e29cf417a34} compared to the same period last year.
Although there is a decline in numbers of companies entering Creditors Voluntary Liquidation, around 200 companies per week are entering a formal insolvency process, this not taking into account the businesses still struggling to deal with cash flow problems and creditor pressure. Indeed, a well known business close to our offices and established over 100 years ago recently closed its doors.
In addition, the closure of any business has a huge impact on directors, employees, creditors and the wider business community, be that the well publicised job losses recently experienced in the steel industry or those caused by the loss of small local employers.
It is therefore important that directors whose companies are experiencing financial difficulties seek early professional advice in order to fully understand the option open to them in order to avoid the pitfalls associated with the insolvency process.