Fall in business failures

Jan 4 2008 by Henryk Zientek, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

BUSINESS failures in Yorkshire fell last year – despite a tougher stance on lending.

Figures from business information group Experian showed the number of companies going under in the region fell by 5.4% in 2007 and by 1.2% during the final quarter of the year.

Across the region, there were 1,691 failures in 2007 against 1,787 during 2006.

Nationally, the number of business failures fell by 8.9% last year. Some 18,263 firms went bust in 2007 compared with 20,057 the previous year.

Experian said business failures rose in just two regions of the UK.

Northern Ireland experienced the biggest increase with a 25.4% rise while Wales saw a 3% increase.

London reported the biggest fall in the number of failures with a 30.4% drop.

The worst-hit sectors for business failures were building and construction, post and telecoms, farming, banking and financial services.

Sectors reporting a fall in failures included chemicals, information technology, textiles and clothing, wholesaling, non-food retailing and business services.