22OCT

Company failures ease to one in 199

2 min read

16:23UTC

The Insolvency Service put the company insolvency rate at 50.3 per 10,000 companies over the year to 31 July, less than half the 113.1 reached in the 2008-09 recession.

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Key takeaway

Company insolvencies fell to 50.3 per 10,000 over the year to July, well clear of the 60.0 trigger.

The Insolvency Service released its company figures on 18 August 2026 alongside the personal ones, recording a company insolvency rate of 50.3 per 10,000 companies over the year to 31 July, against 52.5 a year earlier⁠¹. The measure counts registered companies in England and Wales entering a formal insolvency procedure, expressed against the whole active company population rather than as a raw count. Using the rate matters because the number of registered companies keeps growing, which lifts the count even when the risk of any one company failing falls.

That equates to about one company in 199, against one in 198 on the June vintage of 50.5. The 113.1 peak of the 2008-09 recession sits more than twice as high, and this desk's declared trigger on the corporate ledger is 60.0, almost ten points above where the register now reads⁠².

Insolvency Service rates measure the share of the company stock entering a procedure over a year, so the rate can ease while particular sectors deteriorate underneath it. What the number establishes is narrower and still useful: the corporate ledger moved further from its trigger for a second consecutive release, in the same window and from the same publisher as the register covering individual people moved closer to its own.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

This is the company equivalent of the individual insolvency rate published in the same release: out of every 10,000 registered companies in England and Wales, how many entered a formal insolvency process, such as liquidation or administration, over the past year. 50.3 per 10,000 works out at roughly one company in 199. That is down from one in 190 a year earlier, and well below the one-in-88 rate reached during the 2008-09 recession.

Source Landscape

This story draws on neutral-leaning sources

Primary parallel: The company insolvency rate reached 113.1 per 10,000 companies in the twelve months to mid-2009, the peak of the 2008-09 recession. At 50.3, the current rate is under half that peak.

Counter-parallel: The rate held below half the 2008-09 peak across the two releases tracked this year, running at 50.5 for the twelve months to June before this release's 50.3 for July, so no 2026 reading has approached the 113.1 figure.

The rate fell even though the underlying company population keeps changing, because the rate divides the rolling insolvency total by the number of active companies rather than reporting the raw count.

That distinction matters for reading this release against the individual insolvency figure published in the same collection: a rising company population can push the company rate down even in a period when the absolute number of company failures is flat or rising, so the rate and the count can tell different stories from the same underlying data.

Sources:Insolvency Service

Mentions:Insolvency Service →Wales →England →

First Reported In

Update #2 · Three household registers, three answers

Insolvency Service· 20 Aug 2026

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Causes and effects

This Event

Company failures ease to one in 199

Corporate Britain sits well clear of the 60.0 trigger declared on this ledger, and the corporate register is moving in the opposite direction to the household one.

Led to

Bankruptcies up 14% in England and Wales

The company insolvency rate slipped to 50.1 from 50.3 even as administrations rose 60%.

Occurred 18 Sept 2026

Read story →

Company insolvency rate falls below 50

The company rate fell below 50 after the 50.3 reported for July.

Occurred 20 Oct 2026

Read story →

Different Perspectives

Pension Protection Fund

Acting chief actuary Aaron Pang put the rise to 135.0% funded down to liabilities falling 2.1% against a 1.0% fall in assets, reflecting higher gilt yields. On Lowdown's reading, the yields that lift the Treasury's interest bill leave 4,838 company schemes with a £280.7bn surplus that does not reduce state borrowing.

Torsten Bell

The Labour figure wrote on 14 October that the IMF's October figures show the fastest fiscal consolidation in the G7. The IMF forecasts the UK deficit falling from 3.8% of GDP in 2026 to 1.4% in 2031, a squeeze still to be delivered through taxes and spending.

Tax Justice UK

The left-leaning campaign group says ten tax reforms would raise over £60bn a year for public services, and on 22 October asked why higher taxes on extreme wealth remain politically difficult. It offers the tax-led exit to the IEA's cuts; the £60bn is its own claim, not an official costing.

Institute of Economic Affairs

The free-market think tank's Alternative Budget of 19 October would suspend the state pension triple lock for three years, freeze welfare in cash terms and move tax onto a wider VAT. It claims the day-to-day budget returns to surplus in 2027-28, its own projection rather than an official costing.

Resolution Foundation

The living-standards think tank said welfare spending ran about £2.5bn above expectations in September, City AM reported on 21 October, and its economist Greg Thwaites urged targeted energy support. Its figure lands as a Chancellor who calls welfare cuts a moral duty finalises the 28 October Budget.

Institute for Fiscal Studies

Director Helen Miller said a steady-as-she-goes Budget is not an option, with the IFS putting 2029-30 headroom at about £20bn, The Independent reported on 12 October. The IFS puts the cost of avoiding cuts and funding higher defence at around £35bn of tax rises or benefit cuts, more than any headroom estimate in circulation.

Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.