Insolvency news roundup from the festive period - Dorchester here we come!!

The newsmen and women have not been idle over the festive season particularly in relation to our subject. Insolvency featured in the news on a fairly regular basis. Most of the news stories have unsurprisingly focused on the idea that the number of insolvents is set to rise. Here are a few highlights:

The Manchester Evening News predicted that a number of law firms may go insolvent, indeed they have opined that figures could rocket. The BBC also reported that some 24,000 people might go into an insolvency procedure in Scotland during 2010. There were more rocket related figures deployed over at the Mirror, which predicted that some 410 people a day would go insolvent during 2010. SkyNews chose instead to look back over 2009 and blamed the Labour Party for the 27,000 firms that went 'bust' during the year. The Daily Mail thought the same number might be seen in 2010. The Sun opined that 51 firms went 'bust' per day, which the Independent thought must be a record.

In a remarkably late (28/12/09) intervention the Scottish National Party (SNP) published a press release calling for the reform of the insolvency industry. Have they completely missed the OFT's recent activity in this regard? Did any SNP MSPs vote through the Bankruptcy (Diligence) Act? The SNP web press release does include some interesting links to Parliamentary sources on our subject.

Excessive use of credit during the festive period, as reported by The Times, may account for what may transpire in 2010 in terms of the bankruptcy predictions highlighted in the second paragraph of this blog. Watch this space!

Things are not all bad though, especially if you operate a business in Dorchester (pictured). The Dorset Echo has stated that town is most likely to weather the coming insolvency storm. It will be interesting to see if Dorchester mirrors Delaware in terms of its attractiveness to business.

Picture Credit: http://www.visit-dorset.org.uk/images/dorchester_town.jpg


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