News

Recent figures suggest that starting, running and growing a small business for the long term has become an unappealing prospect. This is obviously worrying, since historically these acorns have developed into the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that form the...

Supply chain issues and other adverse factors affecting the UK logistics industry are well documented: driver shortages, fuel prices and the costs of environmental compliance are perhaps the most obvious. They came into sharp focus during the summer when major...

Has it really been 35 years? In some ways it seems like only yesterday that my fellow Arthur Andersen insolvency partner Peter Phillips and I set up shop in Mayfair. To set the scene in 1988: the Piper Alpha oil rig explosion had killed 167 and would rock the Lloyd’s...

The Government’s decision not to establish a single regulator for the insolvency profession is positive for practitioners, clients and the professional bodies that already provide oversight. In December 2021 consultation began over proposed changes to the insolvency...

Debt problems and poor mental health – or the strong risk of it, at least - are inextricably linked. The Money and Mental Health Policy Institute has found that 18% of people with mental health problems may also suffer with debt issues and that 46% of people in...

Large investors with strong stomachs for choppy waters may well prosper from UK  commercial real estate in the medium to long term, but the market remains fragile and administrations have spooked even those with the deepest pockets. New research from BNP Paribas Real...

There are 5.5 million Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the UK, representing three-fifths of the employment and around half of turnover in the UK private sector. That’s a big chunk of the nation’s total business activity, but with an average turnover of less than...

The Bank of Mum and Dad, one of the fastest growing financial institutions of recent years, has expanded into interim accommodation services – AKA live rent-free at home indefinitely. The dramatic rise in young people returning to their pre-university bedrooms, even...

Office life in city centres is likely to be quieter in August,  even in those firms where staff don’t come in every day. But while many left town for good after Covid, surprised by how easy it had been to operate remotely, those based on daily relationships and...

The day of reckoning looms for The Walking Dead. In December 2021 our newsletter highlighted the huge rise in ‘zombie companies’, businesses that had been artificially propped up by Covid loans and relatively low interest rates on their core borrowings. Many of these...

There is life after insolvency for some businesses – as distinct from the companies containing them – but directors continuing to trade in effectively the same way yet in a different guise must tread very carefully. ‘Phoenixing’, after the mythical bird rising from...

Recent days have seen the fall into administration of a Cornwall theme park, a Hampshire golf club and an independent cinema chain. They are the tip of the iceberg of UK leisure businesses, none particularly well known, facing an existential squeeze in revenue from...