True scale of UK insolvencies laid bare

Thursday 26th January 2012

Nearly 10,000 construction and manufacturing businesses went into insolvency since the start of 2010, PricewaterhouseCoopers figures have revealed.

Corporate insolvencies for the two sectors also show London alone suffered 927 insolvencies since the start of 2010.

Under the ongoing cloud of economic and unemployment uncertainty, PwC experts say that 2012 could see the sectors faced with the same woes.

Jonathan Hook, head of engineering & construction at PwC said: "2011 was another tough year for the construction sector and there were 6% more insolvencies in the sector in 2011 than 2010. Over the last two years we have lost more than 5000 companies and the trend shows no sign of abating."

There were 656 construction insolvencies in Q4 of 2011 and 424 for manufacturing. Across the year however from Q1 2010 to Q4 2011 manufacturing fared slightly better than construction which saw a rise of 6.4% in 2011. Q4 2011 was however slightly more positive for both sectors in comparison to Q3 of the same year where construction had 0.2% fewer insolvencies.

The UK regions that were most affected included London, West Midlands, Yorkshire region and the North West for both sectors.

Hook said: "The cuts to the Government's capital programme and uncertainty around the economy and financing generally means there is little chance that 2012 will see this trend reverse.

"London reported a 5% decline in the number of insolvencies in the sector last year, highlighting that it is increasingly tough elsewhere in the regions, where we saw a 9% increase."

Have your say on this story using the comment section below

Mike Jones