Business failures continue to decline
Business failures in East Anglia have fallen for the fifth successive quarter.
According to data compiled by regional insolvency specialists McTear Williams & Wood, the number of company failures in the region during the second quarter of 2010 was down by 16% compared with the first quarter, against a fall nationally of just 3%.
Compared with the second quarter of last year, East Anglia recorded a 41% fall while the national total was down 18%.
The McTear Williams & Wood business index for East Anglia now stands at just 114, only slightly ahead of the baseline of 100 for the third quarter of 2007, before the credit crunch began to hit. The national figure is 152.
Although there are wide variations at local level, with Suffolk and North Essex performing less strongly that Cambridgeshire and Norwich, the statistics suggest that East Anglia has recovered more strongly from the recession than the rest of the country.
McTear Williams & Wood said that while the evidence of previous recessions was that company failures could be expected to rise at thist stage in the cycle, it believed the number would remain low provided the economic recovery continued.
"However, if this were to falter creditors' attitude towards risk could turn on a sixpence, lending standards would tighten and businesses could fall in large numbers," it warned
East Anglian Daily Times
11 August 2010
