Is summer really over? Are we reconciled to being half way through September and analysing the insolvency statistics reported by the Insolvency Service today (Friday 15 September)?
What a shocker - the number of registered company insolvencies in August 2023 was 2,308, 19% higher than in the same month in the previous year (it was 1,941 in August 2022). For those of you who were grateful for the rubbish weather in July, as you were way too busy fighting fires in the office to light one in the grate of your freezing and damp holiday cottage in Cornwall, you will not be surprised to hear that we are all a fifth busier than we were at this time last year ...
... which, in turn, was manic compared to the year before. One of the numbers we in the NTI newsroom picked out of the many reported was that there were 221 Compulsory Liquidations in August, 45% higher than in August 2022. There were 1,880 Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidations, 13% higher than in August 2022. The number of Administrations was also higher than in August 2022.
It can no longer to be said that personal insolvencies are 'bucking the trend', as the trend is for them to - still astonishingly to many of us who read that everything for consumers emerges from the basement of Bleak House - go down. The numbers from August state that, for individuals, the total number of insolvencies in August 2023 was 8,536, 11% lower than in the same month in the previous year (it was 9,584 in August 2022). For those who like detail, the individual insolvencies consisted of 648 Bankruptcies, 2,714 Debt Relief Orders and 5,174 IVAs. The Insolvency Service say that the lower number of individual insolvencies compared to August 2022 was driven by a decline in the number of IVAs. DRO and Bankruptcy numbers were higher than last year, although the number of Bankruptcies remained less than half of pre-2020 levels.
The Insolvency Service also states that this statistical release presents the numbers of CVLs, Administrations, Company Voluntary Arrangements and Receivership appointments based on their registration date at Companies House, and therefore reflect company insolvency registrations rather than insolvency procedure start dates. Compulsory Liquidation data are sourced from the Insolvency Service and provide an accurate measure of the number of new cases in each month. Data for the latest month were extracted from a live system five working days after month end and therefore figures are provisional.
