AN ANDOVER trade body has said a record number of businesses have faced insolvency difficulties. 

According to R3, the insolvency and restructuring trade body for Hampshire, businesses encountering difficulties peaked in November and December IN 2022. 

The latest data supplied by Creditsafe, a business intelligence provider, showed that there were 230 counts of insolvency-related activity during February this year in the south east. 

That compares with 157 in January, 235 in December and 261 in November.

It was 14 per cent higher than the 202 counts recorded in February 2022.

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Insolvency-related activity includes creditor voluntary liquidations, company voluntary arrangements, administrations and creditors’ meetings.

The data also showed that the south east had the highest number of firms in liquidation with bad debts, 298, of any region in the UK outside of Greater London.

Garry Lee, chair of R3’s Southern and Thames Valley region, including Andover, said: “The economic situation remains volatile for businesses.

“The prospect of the UK avoiding a recession may have given business confidence a boost in the round but many companies are still finding it tough going on a day to day basis.

“Incremental falls in inflation will take time to feed through and ease cost pressures while the after-effects of the pandemic, Brexit and the end of government support will continue to have an impact for some time.”

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Garry advised that business owners and directors in Andover remain vigilant.

The Creditsafe data also showed that the number of late payments for companies awaiting money rose to a total of 521,149 unpaid late invoices in February 2023 compared with 517,273 in January 2023.

Furthermore, the number of companies owing money in excess of agreed credit terms increased slightly from 59924 in January to 60831 in February.