Economists were tutting and scrambling to make up excuses yesterday, as inflation refused to dip below 10 per cent for March, despite them predicting that it would. Consumer price inflation dipped to 10.1 per cent, down from 10.4 per cent in February. It is the second consecutive month where inflation has proven stronger than expected. Typical.
Central London house prices, too, once the cornerstone of all that was strong and predictable dropped almost 5 per cent in the 12 months to March, the largest annual fall in three and a half years.
Thank heavens, then, for the predictability of the monthly insolvency statistics for March 2023, published by the Insolvency Service on Tuesday 18 March. The data shows that there were 2,457 company insolvencies registered, 16 per cent higher than March 2022 (2,120) and higher than the number registered pre-pandemic levels. For individuals, 672 bankruptcies were registered, which was 2 per cent higher than in March 2022, but less than half of pre-2020 levels.
In March 2023 there were 2,011 Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidations, 9 per cent higher than in March 2022. Numbers of Administrations and Company Voluntary Arrangements were also higher than in March 2022.
"That would explain why I haven't seen the inside of my flat duirng daylight for three months," said Jo of Stockport.
"Have you seen the state of my desk? I had seven missed calls duirng the time you spent telling me those stats. Go away," snorted Iqbal from Kensington. Not that one; the one outside Swansea.
"The rise in corporate insolvencies - to the highest levels for more than three years - has been driven by increasing numbers of Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidations, which are also at a three-year high," said Christina, President of R3.
Breaking down the statistics further, to make more sense of the rise in activity all of us in this glorious profession know already to be the case; there were 288 compulsory liquidations in March 2023, which is more than double the number in March 2022. On the personal debt front, there were 3,383 Debt Relief Orders in March 2023, 35 per cent higher than March 2022 and less than half of pre-2020 levels. Staying with personal debt, on average Individual Voluntary Arrangements registered per month in the three-month period ending March 2023 were 14 per cent lower than the three-month period ending March 2022.
There were 8,282 Breathing Space registrations in March 2023, which is 32 per cent higher than the number registered in March 2022. 8,110 were Standard breathing space registrations, which is 32 per cent higher than in March 2022, and 172 were Mental Health breathing space registrations, which is 41 per cent higher than the number in March 2022.
