The UK economy continues to struggle, with the latest insolvency figures showing a big increase in the number of businesses going into administration between January and March.
An increase of 22% on the number of Q4 insolvencies was, “not a surprise,” according to David Hudson, partner at Baker Tilly Restructuring and Recovery. He said that many credit arrangements for 2010 ran out and that Q1 is historically a difficult quarter.
Manufacturing, which was leading the UK out of recovery, suffered the biggest increase, with 44% more firms calling in the administrators this quarter than in the last three months of 2010.
Hudson hinted that HMRC’s decision to “decline reapplications from companies that previously have entered into Time To Pay (TTP) arrangements” was compounding the situation.
By region, it is the South East, excluding London, and East Anglia that have seen the biggest increases, up 32% and 41% respectively.
Elsewhere, research group Markit’s latest study shows that private sector growth slowed down in April, with services, manufacturing and construction sectors suffering the most.
Meanwhile, the CBI reported that retail sales volumes in April were ahead of last year but that growth in the sector is slowing. More than one-third of retailers said that April trade was poor compared with only 12% who said they had a good month.