30 September, 2013 | By Chloe Stothart, Construction News
The number of construction firms becoming insolvent has fallen for the 10th month in a row, new figures have shown.
The data from credit rating agency Experian found the number of building and construction firms going into insolvency fell from 293 in August 2012 to 210 in August 2013.
The proportion of the industry that became insolvent fell from 0.17 per cent to 0.12 per cent in that time.
The building materials industry saw a very slight increase in insolvencies from three businesses in August 2012 to four in August 2013.
In total 91 fewer companies went out of business in the year to August 2013. Experian found 1,632 became insolvent in August 2013, which was 0.08 per cent of all UK businesses.
The largest falls in insolvency rates over the year to August were among business with 51 to 100 employees, but failures grew among firms with more than 501 staff.
Experian Business Information Services, UK & Ireland managing director Max Firth said: “We haven’t seen such a prolonged period of stability and improvement in insolvencies for a while and the figures signal an increasingly robust business population, which bodes well for growth.
“What is particularly significant is the biggest fall coming from 51 to 100 employee companies. It follows on from a strong year-on-year drop in July and will give more confidence to these mid-sized businesses which suffered the most during the recession.”
