Member Article

Business failures up 18.2%

Some 28,000 companies went bust in 2008, an increase of 18.2% in the previous year, according to business information provider Equifax.

For the fourth quarter of 2008 the rise was sharper, with business failures up 32.1% to 8,400 compared to the same period of 2007.

Neil Munroe, a director at Equifax, said: “These figures reinforce what every economic commentator is saying: we are not yet at the turning point of the recession, with the numbers of businesses going to the wall highly likely to continue to increase in 2009.”

The construction industry was hardest hit last year with 3,641 businesses going into administration, 32.4% more than in 2007. Retail suffered an increase in failures of 23.9% to 2,137, while businesses folding in the transport and communications sector, which depends heavily on construction and retail, increased 17% to 1,065.

The UK’s northern regions suffered the most from business failures last year, with particularly sharp rises in the North East (41.2%) and the North West (29.1%).

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .