The latest Insolvency Index from Experian has shown the rate of business failures in January falling to its lowest point since June 2007.
The rate of insolvencies fell to 0.07% in January 2010, with seven in every 10,000 businesses going under. This compares to an insolvency rate of 0.09% in January 2009 and 0.11% in December 2009.
Yorkshire, with 0.13%, witnessed the highest rate of failures in January, while Scotland, the only region to see a year-on-year increase in insolvencies, was beaten by Wales to having the lowest rate of business failures in January (0.06%).
Businesses in Greater London saw the highest year-on-year improvement in their financial health (from 77.85 to 80.02). However, they also had the lowest overall financial strength score of any region.
The highest insolvency rates during January 2010 were among businesses with 11 to 100 employees (0.19%). One to two employee firms had the lowest rate of insolvencies (0.04%).
Rolf Hickmann, managing director of pH, an Experian company, said: “It’s encouraging to discover that not since the current financial crunch started have so few firms become insolvent in a single month. Whilst it is too early to predict whether we are fully out of the woods
