Member Article

Yorkshire & Humber businesses showing ‘worryingly high’ debt

Yorkshire & the Humber businesses and individuals have seen ‘worryingly high’ debt problems compared to the rest of the country, says turnaround firm Wilson Field.

Debt charity StepChange saw a 27% rise in the number of people from Yorkshire and the Humber contacting them with serious debt problems in 2014 compared to 3013.

Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) had increased by 6.8% compared to 2013.

This comes despite new national statistics showing a continued decline in corporate and personal insolvencies across the country for the last quarter of 2014, showing a positive improvement for industry and commerce.

These statistics show the lowest decrease in recorded individual insolvencies in nine years.

However Wilson Field says research by an established debt charity confirms Yorkshire and the Humber is still showing worryingly high personal and household debt problems.

Wilson Field says regional variances within Yorkshire should not be ignored with many individuals still feeling the strain of high levels of debt and low wages.

Phil Meekin from Wilson Field said: “The national insolvency statistics show a constantly improving scenario for many businesses and reductions in the overall number of individual insolvencies, but statistics published by national debt charity, StepChange, have revealed a different picture with a substantial increase in reported personal debt problems in Yorkshire and the Humber.

“For example Hull, has always had a level of high personal debt levels, high unemployment and low wages, so although we are seeing individual insolvency reductions in some parts of the country, this can paint an unrepresentative picture.

“It is clear that parts of Yorkshire - and undoubtedly other regions, are very much struggling to reach any improvement.”

The Insolvency Service statistics show a general level of reduction in corporate insolvencies with the number of Company Voluntary Liquidations (CVLs) the lowest since 2008, administrations the lowest since 2004, and the lowest receiverships and Company Voluntary Arrangements (CVAs) since 2007.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .