Fewer business failures in the West Midlands
Fewer businesses went bust in the West Midlands in 2010 than during the previous year, according to figures from information business Equifax. There were year-on-year falls in each quarter for the region though there was a sharp quarter-on-quarter rise for the last three months of the year.
Nationally, there was a 12.1 per cent fall in business failures. In the West Midlands, a year-on-year fall of 22.2 per cent was reached during the third quarter of 2010.
Wales was the only region that had an increase in failures year-on-year – at 3.5 per cent.
But most experienced a rise in failures compared to the previous quarter during the final three months of the year - the West Midlands had a 20.3 per cent increase. This has been attributed to businesses being wound up at the end of their business year.
"What we have seen throughout 2010 is a steady drop in the number of organisations failing," said Neil Munroe, external affairs director at Equifax.
"Pay freezes and tight control on invoice payments were reported consistently throughout the year. So it appears that there has been a clear focus on cost control and cashflow management which has aided survival.
"But of course the big question is what is in store for businesses in 2011. When we look at the pattern of failures over the last seven years, we can see that we are not yet back to the numbers before the recession. There were just under 23,000 failures in 2010 compared to 19,000 in 2007.
"However, the quite significant year on year drop of 12.1 per cent, from 26,000 in 2009 - should give business and industry a certain amount of confidence that, as long as they continue to do the things they have been doing in 2010, they should be able to survive."
