'Worst of recession behind us' as liquidations drop

THE WORST of the recession is behind us, with company liquidations starting to fall.

This is according to UHY Hacker Young, which reported that corporate liquidations dropped 16% to 20,700 for the last fiscal year, compared to 24,700 for 2009-10 according to data from Companies House compiled by UHY.

"These figures show that we have now put the worst effects of the recession behind us," said Nick Hancock, (pictured) corporate recovery partner at UHY Hacker Young.

He continued: "Some commentators and practitioners have been eagerly anticipating a flood of SME insolvencies and liquidations many times worse than the current situation, though we are certainly not expecting this to happen now.

"We might continue to see persistently high levels of insolvency due to public sector cuts but the problem is unlikely to reach catastrophic proportions."

In the last recession, company collapses peaked at more than 27,000 in 1991 compared to 24,700 for the current recession.

Hancock highlighted: "Considering there are now more than twice as many active companies on the register than there were in 1991, UK businesses have in some ways fared far better in this recession than the last."