‘Everyone cites Covid and Brexit’: number of UK businesses going bust rises 52% in two years

Interest rate rises, inflation, and skills and labour shortages all contributed to sharp increase in company insolvencies in 2023

Company insolvencies soared last year as businesses struggled with the inflation crisis and the long-term impact of the Covid pandemic, new figures show.

A total of 30,199 UK businesses were involved in some kind of insolvency action in 2023 – 52% higher than in 2021, according to Creditsafe, a credit checking agency which tracks 430m businesses around the world.